In his speech to the Knesset on Monday, November 18, Netanyahu called out Biden’s advice throughout the war for being “repeatedly off the mark.” By Thursday, three days after the Israeli Prime Minister publicly criticized the U.S. President, the ICC issued arrest warrants for the prime minister and his former defense minister following months of delays from the international court due to U.S. pressure.
U.S. officials had been engaged in direct communications with ICC representatives and coordinated with allied nations to build a coalition opposing the ICC’s potential actions aimed at deterring the court in the months leading up to Thursday’s court decision to issue the arrest warrants.
While there was no official statement directly addressing Netanyahu’s comments, senior U.S. officials emphasized the importance of the longstanding alliance between the two nations following the Israeli Prime Minster’s parliamentary speech on Monday, where he claimed that President Biden and his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken had threatened to abandon Israel ‘alone,’ and withhold munitions over its Rafah offensive earlier this year.
Media outlets reporting on this development, highlighted the growing tensions between the U.S. and Israeli leadership, with sharp criticism from right-leaning outlets such as Fox News, The NY Post and Newsmax.
Fox reported on Netanyahu’s comments as valid criticism of Biden’s administration, arguing that the U.S. had wavered on providing unreserved support for Israel and accusing the Biden administration of prioritizing optics over strategy
CNN framed Netanyahu’s comments as part of an internal blame game within Israel’s leadership while also attributing tensions to the Biden administration’s inconsistent messaging about military support versus humanitarian concerns.
The New York Times pushed back on the Prime Minister’s comments, focusing on Netanyahu’s defiance and criticizing them as heavy handed and damaging to the bilateral relationship. At the same time NYT underlined that U.S. diplomatic leverage over Israel is waning, weakening Biden’s position and standing on Middle Eastern diplomacy.
The Wall Street Journal took a more geostrategic approach criticizing both Biden and Netanyahu for lacking a unified strategy, and warning that the absence of clear objectives could lead to long-term instability in the region.
In sum, U.S. right-aligned commentators accused Biden’s approach of emboldening adversaries like Hamas and Iran while alienating a key ally in Israel. While observers on the left side of the aisle defended Biden’s cautious stance as intended to prevent escalation in Gaza that could provoke Iran-backed militias in the region.
In the Middle East, Qatari-run Al-Jazeera didn’t miss an opportunity to denigrate both sides, using Netanyahu’s comments to critique Biden’s advice as symbolic of Western hypocrisy in supporting military aggression while paying lip service to humanitarian concerns. They used the schism as an opportunity to point out the fragility of the U.S.-Israel alliance, which it argued undermines American credibility in mediating regional conflicts.
Saudi Arabia’s Al-Arabiya took a more pragmatic stance, focusing instead on how Netanyahu’s remarks might influence regional geopolitics, specifically U.S.-Saudi relations. Commentary pointed out that public disagreements between the U.S. and Israel complicate Saudi Arabia’s calculations on normalization talks, as Riyadh does not want to align itself with an embattled Netanyahu administration.
Overall, the U.S. and Israel’s adversaries didn’t hesitate to point to these tensions as opening opportunities for non-Western powers like Russia and China to expand influence in the Middle East. It appears this last observation may be the keenest of them all, as strategic misalignments between Israel and the U.S., amplified by domestic political challenges in both countries leave an opening for actors hostile to both to exploit.
Lawfare against Trump and lawfare against Bibi!
By both deep states.
From a suprisingly good article in the Times of Israel, of all places. The noose is really tightening around Bibi’s neck. It is not just the ICC and the nations that have threatened to hand him over to the ICC (Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, etc.), but also Israel’s treasonous “deep state.’ They are holding a political associate of Netanyahu with a stirling record of national service in the reserve army of ‘treason” because he “leaked” an article to foreign newspapers that was supposedly ‘top secret.” but the ‘top secret” documents actually contains no informationthat should not be shared with the Israeli and international publics. Nothing that could endanger national security. The Israeli ‘deep state” wanted to cover it up because it revealed that Hamas has no intention of making a deal to free the hostages. If that became known, it would thwart the Deep State’s plan to negotiate a cease fire with Hamas that would leave them in control of Gaza.
Feldstein’s lawyer: Prime Minister’s Office worked through him
PM claims suspects in leaks case treated as terrorists; says vital intel is kept from him
Decrying ‘witch hunt’ in lengthy video, Netanyahu lambastes Shin Bet detention of ‘Israeli patriot’ Feldstein; former agency chief rejects accusations, blasts PM’s ‘abhorrent’ behavior
By Lazar Berman, Follow
Jeremy Sharon Follow
and ToI Staff
Today, 12:36 am
19
Eli Feldstein (left,) a former spokesman in the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the main suspect in an investigation launched in late October 2024 of alleged illegal access and leaking of classified intelligence material.
Eli Feldstein (left,) a former spokesman in the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the main suspect in an investigation launched in late October 2024 of alleged illegal access and leaking of classified intelligence material.
In a nearly nine-minute video statement posted to social media on Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the ongoing investigation into the alleged theft and leak of classified documents, including by his aides, was a “witch hunt” targeting him and his advisers. He lambasted the prosecution and investigators for what he argued was selective enforcement aimed at harming him and “an entire political camp.”
“This reality, in which young people are held like the worst terrorists, handcuffed for days, days in which they are prevented from accessing their lawyers, and violating their basic rights as citizens, shakes me,” Netanyahu said in his statement, referring to aide Eli Feldstein and an IDF reservist who were both indicted on Thursday on charges relating to breaches of state security.
It was the prime minister’s most strident criticism to date of the investigation into the leak of a stolen, classified military document by unofficial Netanyahu spokesman Eli Feldstein, allegedly with the involvement of other officials at the Prime Minister’s Office, to German newspaper Bild.
Feldstein was charged on Thursday with transferring classified information with the intent to harm the state, a charge that can carry a sentence of life in prison, as well as illicit possession of classified information and obstruction of justice.
Feldstein is accused of leaking the document, which was stolen from an IDF database by the other defendant, an IDF noncommissioned officer (NCO), in a bid to sway public opinion against a truce-hostage deal in Gaza. He allegedly received the document in June, and leaked it after six hostages were murdered by their Hamas captors at the end of August, when public criticism of Netanyahu’s handling of negotiations on a hostage deal was at a height.
The Bild report on the document highlighted Hamas’s obdurate strategy regarding the hostages, and Netanyahu cited it after its publication as ostensible reinforcement of his refusal to sanction a deal to end the war in return for the release of the hostages.
The second defendant, who has not been identified, was charged with transferring classified information, an offense that is punishable by seven years in prison, as well as theft by an authorized person and obstruction of justice. The two have been held for more than three weeks, part of that time without access to legal counsel.
Turning to the families of the two suspects, Netanyahu said: “It hurts that they are using your sons as a tool to harm me and an entire political camp.”
Netanyahu added that the charges that the pair intended to harm Israeli security are “despicable” and “ridiculous.”
“I know Eli Feldstein,” he said. “We are talking about an Israeli patriot, a passionate Zionist.”
“There is no chance that he would do something to intentionally harm the country’s security,” he claimed.
Prosecutors have noted that the charge of intent to harm state security requires only proof that the accused foresaw a near certainty that their actions would result in harm to national security — which, they argue, Feldstein did.
Spokesperson Eli Feldstein is seen at an event with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the war against Hamas in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre. (IDF)
Netanyahu said the conditions of Feldstein’s detention could break anyone and force them to admit to crimes they didn’t commit. “If masked men come to you in the night, place you under arrest, isolate and handcuff you, and threaten you with life imprisonment if you don’t give them what they want, a man can break and admit to the murder of Arlosoroff,” he said.
“When someone who has done more than 200 days in the reserves is so broken as to say, ‘It’s better that I die than live,’ it shocks me and I’m sure it shocks you,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu also asserted that vital classified documents weren’t reaching him, which was why the suspects passed them from the IDF to the PMO: “I am the prime minister. I need to receive important classified documents, and indeed sometimes important information doesn’t reach me.”
The document from an IDF database that was leaked to Bild “should have been on my desk,” the premier said. “It’s a top-secret document. Why did it not come to me? I have to make decisions on the basis of that material.” The material was kept from him, and “this is not the first time” that has happened, he claimed, apparently endorsing explanations provided by suspects in the case that they took the IDF material in order to bring it to his attention.
He added that he had read the indictment published on Thursday and that it was clear that the NCO indicted in the case was worried that “relevant documents were not reaching me.”
Citing the military, prosecutors have said the document in question was not sent to the prime minister because shortly after it was acquired, other intelligence was acquired that was deemed by the professional levels to be of greater relevance, and this material was conveyed to leaders.
Eli Feldstein, a spokesman in the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the main suspect in an investigation launched in late October 2024 of alleged illegal access and leaking of classified intelligence material. (Kan screenshot, used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)
The premier also denied claims that an officer in his military secretariat had been blackmailed by another member of his office, and argued that the “witch hunt” against his aides also targets Israelis who support him.
Appealing to the Israeli public — which he said would not be fooled by the selective prosecution of leaks — he said that the country “is fighting on seven fronts. And we are also fighting on this front.”
Allies of Netanyahu have lionized the suspects as whistleblowers who sought to alert the premier to the content of the document as well as other documents that the unnamed NCO allegedly illicitly removed from IDF computers.
‘Five unprobed leaks’
As he has in the past, Netanyahu on Saturday lamented previous leaks that were not investigated, citing five specific cases of leaked material that he argued endangered the state and were not investigated, despite his repeated requests that they be probed.
This “flood of leaks,” which he said endanger the lives of IDF soldiers and hostages held by Hamas, and help Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, have come from the discussions in various cabinet forums, hostage negotiating teams and the most intimate, high-level security deliberations.
He cited, first, a leak from IDF headquarters on October 11, 2023, of “strategic information” on army capabilities — a leak he called “one of the gravest in Israeli history.”
He also said nobody had investigated the leaking of footage from the IDF’s Sde Teiman detention center, which purported to show IDF soldiers abusing a detainee amid an investigation into the matter.
Third, he cited the leak of material from an August 2, 2024 discussion on the hostages and strategies for a potential deal and concessions, a leak he argued helped to harden Hamas’s positions.
Advertisement
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a state ceremony marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas invasion and massacre on October 7, 2023, at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on October 27, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Fourth, he cited what he claimed was material leaked to The New York Times and local media exposing Israeli deliberations with regard to Iran’s ballistic missile attack on the country.
And finally, he cited a leak to Channel 12’s “Uvda” investigative program of the Jericho Wall document, which detailed Hamas’s plans for what became the October 7, 2023, attack.
Nobody was investigated in any of these cases, Netanyahu said, adding that he could detail many other incidents of documents being stolen and given to others without authorization. He said most such leaks were aimed at harming him and to serve a narrative of capitulation to the enemy, and that it was therefore “easy to understand” why they were not investigated.
On Friday, in a highly unusual move, the State Prosecutor’s Office published a rebuttal to allegations that it has been selectively enforcing the law, in a three-page Q&A document posted to social media.
The State Prosecutor’s Office said it published the document in response to “questions and allegations in the media and public discourse regarding the Feldstein case, as well as widespread misinformation propagated by those with vested interests.”
‘Abhorrent’ leadership
Responding to Netanyahu’s video, former Shin Bet head Yoram Cohen denounced the prime minister for “casting aspersions” about the security service and its head, saying his leadership was “abhorrent.”
Former head of the Shin Bet, Yoram Cohen, speaks at a protest against the Israeli government’s planned overhaul to the legal system, in Jerusalem. February 18, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Cohen said the Shin Bet, which was asked by the IDF to help investigate the stolen documents case, has probed 15 different cases of leaked material in the past year. He also noted that the investigation into this specific case had been launched before anyone knew it would lead to Feldstein and the PMO, rejecting the notion that anyone had been targeting the premier.
Tying the matter to recent intensifying criticism of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar by Netanyahu and his supporters, Cohen noted that the prime minister was “the direct boss of the head of the Shin Bet” and said he was “staggered” by the prime minister’s statements attacking the Shin Bet.
“What is he saying to the thousands of staff at the Shin Bet working 24/7 [for the good of the state], in casting aspersions on the head of the service? This is inconceivable from a man who should be showing leadership!”
Cohen went on: “I’m pained to say this, but this is abhorrent behavior by the prime minister.”
Feldstein lawyer: He was acting on behalf of the PM
Also on Saturday night, the lawyer representing Feldstein said in a TV interview that he was hired by the defendant’s family because Feldstein’s father feared, when he was arrested, that “this good soul might ‘lay on the fence’ in order not to involve anybody from the Prime Minister’s Office.”
Oded Savoray told Channel 12 that Feldstein had believed throughout that he was working for Netanyahu.
Oded Savoray, a lawyer representing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aide Eli Feldstein in a case of stolen and leaked IDF documnts, speaking to Channel 12 News, November 23, 2024
“It’s completely clear that Feldstein is a minor figure who in real-time understood he was working with permission and authorization.”
“Eli Feldstein did not act on his own behalf,” the lawyer said “He provided advisory services in the Prime Minister’s Office.”
Savoray said Feldstein believed it was legitimate to leak the classified IDF document to Bild even though he knew it had been barred from publication in Israel by the military censor, because, as his client saw it, “the prime minister is the person authorized to overrule the [military] censor in Israel. The prime minister gets all the intelligence material, knows what is permitted for publication, what is barred from publication.”
“If there are claims [regarding the matter], they should be directed to the Prime Minister’s Office. In real-time, [Feldstein] was convinced that the figure, to whom he turned and said, ‘I need the prime minister,’ is someone who is trusted by the prime minister and has worked there for a decade. When that figure comes back to him and says, ‘Get [the document] out, get it out,’ and connects him to someone who referred him to Bild, [Feldstein is certain] that he is working on behalf of the prime minister,” Savoray continued.
Asked whether the “figure” to whom he is referring is Netanyahu aide Jonatan Urich, Savoray says he won’t name names. The indictment indicates that Urich is indeed the figure to whom Feldstein turned for guidance. Urich has reportedly twice been questioned under caution in the case.
Savoray is asked: Is he saying that Feldstein is a victim of a battle between the PMO and the defense establishment? “That’s exactly what I’m saying,” he replied.
Feldstein “was acting in the name of the prime minister,” said Savoray. “It was the Prime Minister’s Office that was acting here. It acted by means of Feldstein. And today Feldstein has been left alone, alone, alone.”
Most Popular
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) speaks in a video statement on November 12, 2024. (Screenshot/GPO);
Netanyahu aide charged with harming state security in leaked document case, could face life term
‘The boss is pleased’: Indictment suggests PM may have known of aide’s leak of intel
Report: Netanyahu adviser Urich questioned for second time in document leak case
We the human race could not recognize PEACE ON EARTH
if it bit us on the ass
Eddie…..aka…..tzvi