Benjamin Netanyahu's office is in the throes of a scandal, and it's generating a growing controversy in Israel. Multiple suspects, including a close aide to the prime minister, are being detained for allegedly sharing and distorting classified information. [00:00:15] The leak, seemingly unlawful, appears to have served Netanyahu's own interests and may have prevented a hostage deal with Hamas. So let's break it down. Two months ago, Netanyahu said that Israel troops Israeli troops had to control Gaza's border with Egypt. [00:00:31] This is southern Gaza to prevent Hamas from rearming and smuggling Israeli hostages that they took into Egypt. Well, many in Israeli security establishment dismissed the demand and accused Netanyahu of avoiding a deal to keep the war going. Yet within days, two journals, Germany's Bild and London's Jewish Chronicle, [00:00:47] published articles based on documents that supported Netanyahu's point and point and suggested that Hamas was obstructing a deal. The reports centered on three documents. The first was Netanyahu presented the first in early September, the day after Hamas killed six Israeli hostages. [00:01:03] Netanyahu said it was the outline of Hamas's strategy to use psychological warfare against the Israeli public. The second document reinforced Netanyahu's claim that then Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar would use an Israeli withdrawal from the Egyptian border to smuggle hostages to Egypt and Iran, [00:01:20] and possibly Yemen. A third was said to have been found on Sinwar's computer, laying out instructions on how to handle negotiations in a way that would lead to deadlock. Netanyahu referred to the document at a cabinet meeting after its publication, and said it reveals Hamas's plans to wage war until further notice [00:01:37] until Israel is defeated. While the validity of the reports based on these documents was almost immediately questioned, and it appears that some of the so-called evidence had been distorted. According to an Israeli newspaper, Israeli intelligence doesn't know who wrote the [00:01:53] first document, which doesn't match the handwriting of any senior Hamas leader. The document, allegedly from Sinwar, had been manipulated to present Hamas, Hamas's stand, as more hawkish than it was, and was likely written by mid-level officials rather than Hamas leadership. The reports actually triggered a rare investigation accusing Israeli officials, [00:02:12] including a Netanyahu aide, of leaking classified documents and exaggerating their significance. Until now, a judicial gag order had prevented most of the details, though, from being released. The judge in the case partially lifted the order on Friday, revealing a joint investigation by the Shin Bet, [00:02:27] the Israeli police and the IDF concerning a suspected breach of security involving the illegal distribution of classified information. A court order made public on Sunday said that information taken from Israeli's military systems and illegally issued, may have damaged Israel's ability to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, [00:02:46] and it may have put Israeli intelligence sources in danger as well. Four suspects were initially arrested for for taking the intelligence and leaking it to the media, and one was released on Sunday. Two of the three suspects are still in custody. They are defense intelligence and intelligence officials. [00:03:01] The third is named Eli Feldstein, who served as an aide in the Prime Minister's office. Feldstein began working there a few days after the October 7th massacre, but actually failed a Shin Bet background and security check. Nonetheless, Feldstein took on the role of Bibi's spokesperson [00:03:16] and was responsible for media relations along with some other folks. He was in Netanyahu's close circle and even attended classified meetings with Netanyahu. Of course, Netanyahu's office denies there have been any leaks. They say the investigation is part of a deep state witch hunt [00:03:32] aimed at undermining him. Sounds familiar, right? Well, but Netanyahu's opponents in the Israeli government disagree. Opposition leader Yair Lapid on Sunday accused the prime minister's office of leaking fake is fake secret documents to torpedo the possibility of a hostage deal to shape a public opinion, [00:03:49] influence opposition against the hostages families. They said it implied an active campaign to discredit them. The families of the hostage families said this implied an active campaign to discredit them, and the hostage families called it a moral law that has no depth. This is a fatal injury to the remnants of trust [00:04:06] between the government and its citizens. The hostage families are calling the scandal one of the biggest deceptions in the history of Israel's government. Jack. I'm a little confused by this. I want to ask you a question, David, because to me, leaking questionable [00:04:23] intelligence is, I would say, Israel 101, but really, any country, US 101, whenever the government wants to prove something, you know, whenever it's something that's against the government, America chases you [00:04:38] to the end of the earth. Edward Snowden still in Russia because he leaked things that were true and actually helped us make the correct decisions. But when government officials leaked, there's no consequences at all. And it's and questionable intelligence. That's what IDF puts out every other day. [00:04:55] So what's going on here? Why is there a rebellion here within the Israeli government over this particular document? Well, it's being described as remember before, in the run up to the to the Gulf War, when there was Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell and others talking about, well, we don't want the smoking gun to be in the form of a mushroom cloud. [00:05:13] And they, you know, they essentially it was like the alley oop. They cherry picked intelligence. They put it out there on the Sunday shows. And then that essentially helped Dick Cheney and others slam it home to take the United States to war in Iraq. Well, in Israel, the stakes are somewhat similar in the sense that there's this effort [00:05:29] by the Prime Minister's office allegedly to take some fake information to sort of throw it up there and then say, this is why we can never have a hostage deal with Hamas, because Hamas does not want it. And while the issue, of course, in the Gulf War was the US essentially invading Iraq in Israel for the last several months, ever since it was clear that [00:05:48] Israel had essentially dismantled Hamas. The number one concern, the greatest concern among Israelis has been. Is there any way to get the hostages returned safely? And there has been this perception, and I think it's legitimate to a certain extent, that Netanyahu has not wanted to prioritize the hostages return. [00:06:05] He has wanted to prioritize totally eradicating and pounding Hamas into dust, which, okay, maybe that's his military strategy. But these two things are sort of at odds with each other. And so you have Netanyahu, essentially his office trying to say, look, [00:06:21] there's no way we can get the hostages back because look at this intelligence evidence that we have, even though now it seems the intelligence evidence was false. And it makes a lot of Israelis, and particularly opposition leaders in Israel, of which there are many wonder, well, has Netanyahu been deliberately sandbagging? [00:06:39] The greatest concern that exists in Israel is that polls overwhelmingly show most Israelis they would take a deal now, they would have taken a deal six months ago to end the war. If they can have the hostages back. Netanyahu knows the polling and what he's essentially been caught [00:06:54] doing is trying to essentially manipulate the public to make it seem like, oh, there was no possible way that we could get the hostages back. So let's just continue bombing Hamas when some of the information he was using was not only perhaps cherry picked, but was simply wrong. [00:07:10] Yeah, I guess I'm surprised that people in Israel don't already universally know that Netanyahu has no interest in getting the hostages back. He's scuttled every peace deal himself. The Hamas agreed to a peace deal back in July 2nd, [00:07:26] and then Netanyahu changed the terms. So, you know, there's tape from the IDF entering Syria, over the weekend. And so I'm wondering last thing on this, is there a split [00:07:41] in the Israeli government now where the real issue is get the hostages back, do a cease fire, withdraw from Gaza and Lebanon, and call it a day. That's one camp, and the other camp is. No, we don't care that we killed every leader of Hamas and Hezbollah. [00:07:58] We want to take northern Gaza and maybe southern Lebanon. And so we're going to and we're going to throw the hostages under the bus. We're not doing any peace deal. We're just going to keep going. That to me is clearly the Netanyahu camp. Is there a is there that other camp is there? [00:08:15] And is there any chance that that camp that says, let's wrap this up and get the hostages back wins? I don't even know how they would win. There is a chance, Jack, if the hostages, some of them come back and based on, you know, the the information that they provide about where they were kept and what [00:08:31] conditions they were captained by whom. If it turns out that it might have been easier for Israel to get the hostages back a few months ago than it has seemed so far, that would be devastating to to Netanyahu. It would probably bring down his government, his premiership. Because if it comes if it if it does turn out that Netanyahu could have [00:08:49] gotten more of these hostages back and and took active steps to, to block it. That would bring down his government. Likewise, Netanyahu is also getting pressure from the right because there are some people who are even more hard line than him, who, for example, with Iran, are disappointed that Netanyahu's military, that [00:09:05] the Israeli military didn't go and bomb Iranian nuclear sites and oil facilities. And Netanyahu's position of only attacking some of the the missiles and the air defense systems did not make them happy. So in the weirdness of Israeli politics, we have a variety of coalitions that can also essentially gang up together to bring down a government. [00:09:23] Netanyahu is getting it from from both sides. But I think the threat of from the left and from the center of Netanyahu bypassing opportunities to get the hostages, that's the more serious threat to bring down his government. And look, I you know, I have my own sort of criticism of Netanyahu, [00:09:38] and I would love to find out if the hostages could somehow get out. Okay. Exactly where were they kept? What were the conditions? What were the possibilities? What are the hostages? No, the people who are keeping them. What? What kind of orders were they under? Was it possible to get the hostages back if certain steps had been taken? [00:09:55] And if it turns out that it was. That is huge for Israeli society. And a huge blow to Netanyahu politically. Yeah. Obviously the Israeli society is seeing something different than we're seeing. So if they were here, I would tell them. Mystery solved. He could have gotten the hostages back. He chose not to. [00:10:12] That's super obvious to the entire planet, except Israel, apparently. So if this controversy makes it more obvious to the Israeli people, then it will have done a great service. Thanks for watching The Young Turks really appreciate it. 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