{"id":468213,"date":"2025-12-24T05:14:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T05:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/468213\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T05:14:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T05:14:17","slug":"netanyahus-ex-aide-says-pm-was-behind-leak-of-intel-to-bild-and-lied-about-it-after","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/468213\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu\u2019s ex-aide says PM was \u2018behind\u2019 leak of intel to Bild and lied about it after"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the one behind the leak of classified intelligence aimed at swaying the Israeli public\u2019s opinion regarding ongoing hostage negotiations last year, his beleaguered former spokesperson Eli Feldstein alleged on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to [publicize] such a document, the prime minister must be in the picture \u2013 from beginning to end,\u201d Feldstein said in an interview with the Kan public broadcaster.<\/p>\n

In the second portion of a three-part series, Feldstein went further than he did in the first interview that aired on Monday, when he only claimed<\/a> that Netanyahu was aware and supportive of the classified intel leak to the Bild German daily.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Netanyahu) is the one who ultimately was behind the leak,\u201d Feldstein said emphatically, adding that he told interrogators the same thing repeatedly after his arrest and eventual indictment over the matter.<\/p>\n

The document in question was an internal Hamas memo purporting to show that the terror group wasn\u2019t interested in the compromises necessary to reach a hostage deal. After it was leaked to the Bild, Netanyahu used it to argue that only further military pressure would lead to the release of the hostages.<\/p>\n

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However, it was later revealed<\/a> in media reports that Bild had seriously distorted the file to serve the interests of the Netanyahu government.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tBild\u2019s September 6, 2024, story citing a document ostensibly found by the IDF on slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar\u2019s computer.<\/p>\n

The document was branded as classified by the IDF, making it prohibited for publication by Israel\u2019s military censor, amid concern that an intelligence source in Gaza could be endangered by its release.<\/p>\n

In order to publish the document anyway, Feldstein leaked it to an international news outlet, given that foreign media isn\u2019t beholden to Israel\u2019s military censor. The tactic is, in fact, used rather regularly by Israeli government and security officials.<\/p>\n

Still, he insisted in the Kan interview that Netanyahu was aware of the strategy and that it couldn\u2019t have been pulled off without his involvement, given the sensitivity of the document in question.<\/p>\n

Feldstein said that after the story was published in the Bild in early September 2024, Netanyahu\u2019s top adviser Jonathan Urich texted him the following message: \u201cThe boss (Netanyahu) is thrilled.\u201d<\/p>\n

A smoking gun against Netanyahu?<\/p>\n

Shortly thereafter, the three of them held a conference call during which Feldstein said Netanyahu thanked him for his work on the matter.<\/p>\n

The trio then discussed how they would respond to a query that they themselves would see to it that Channel 12 would submit to the Prime Minister\u2019s Office: Did the army inform Netanyahu of the existence of this Hamas memo?<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tA graphic illustrating a confeence call held by (R-L) Jonathan Urich, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Eli Feldstein, as part of a segment aired on the Kan public broadcaster on December 23, 2025. (Screen capture\/Kan public broadcaster)<\/p>\n

The goal of the query was to allow Netanyahu to push the narrative that the IDF was hiding information from the political echelon, as this would bolster the argument that the premier wasn\u2019t responsible for Hamas\u2019s October 7 onslaught \u2014 a message he was intent on advancing.<\/p>\n

In the first portion of his interview that aired on Monday, Feldstein revealed how Netanyahu was hyper-focused on combating media narratives that were critical of his conduct and had directed his aides to limit public chatter about him being \u201cresponsible\u201d for Hamas\u2019s October 7 onslaught.<\/p>\n

During the conference call shortly after the Bild leak, the three agreed that Netanyahu\u2019s office would insist \u2013 falsely \u2013 that the premier had not heard about the document from the army and only learned about it from the media, Feldstein told Kan.<\/p>\n

Feldstein, Urich, and a close adviser to the premier, Yisrael (Srulik) Einhorn, are all being criminally investigated in connection with the leak of stolen classified intelligence in the so-called Bild case.<\/p>\n

Feldstein was arrested in October 2024 and later charged with leaking stolen intelligence to Bild the previous month.<\/p>\n

He has been indicted along with military intelligence reservist Ari Rosenfeld, who was the source within the IDF that handed over the classified document.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tAaron \u2018Ari\u2019 Rosenfeld, one of the suspects in the Prime Minister\u2019s Office classified documents leak case arrives to the courtroom at the Tel Aviv District Court on January 7, 2025. (Koko\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

Netanyahu himself is not a suspect in the probe, though he may well become one if Feldstein\u2019s assertions regarding the prime minister\u2019s involvement are proven accurate.<\/p>\n

While Urich has purported to have no knowledge of any criminal wrongdoing, Feldstein told Kan that Urich \u201cknew everything that I knew\u2026 Where [the document] came from, why it wasn\u2019t put out in Israel, all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRead all my texts [with Urich]. I don\u2019t conceal anything,\u201d Feldstein told Kan. \u201cOther than asking him if I can go pee, he [was behind] everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ex-spokesman said he is certain that, by the eve of the classified document\u2019s publication in the Bild, Urich had informed the premier of the plan to leak it.<\/p>\n

The Bild leak was triggered by the execution of six Israeli hostages at the hands of their Hamas captors, who sensed Israeli troops approaching the tunnel where they were located in the southern Gaza city of Rafah at the end of August 2024.<\/p>\n

The execution sparked massive public uproar against the government, which critics saw as the obstacle in hostage negotiations due to Netanyahu\u2019s perceived prioritization of an amorphous \u201ctotal victory\u201d against Hamas at the expense of the captives\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference at his office in Jerusalem, August 10, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

\u2018They took advantage of me\u2019<\/p>\n

Feldstein is also a suspect in the so-called Qatargate affair, which has also implicated Netanyahu\u2019s closest advisers.<\/p>\n

That case centers around Urich and Feldstein\u2019s alleged side work on behalf of Qatar while they were in Netanyahu\u2019s employ. The work was with the Perception PR firm headed by Einhorn, Netanyahu\u2019s former campaign manager.<\/p>\n

In the Tuesday Kan interview, Feldstein denied having knowingly worked on behalf of Qatar or of having known that Urich was doing so.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have very good reason to think they used me, took advantage of me,\u201d Feldstein said of Urich and Einhorn.<\/p>\n

Felstein was pressed on a series of media interviews he helped organize for Jerusalem Post editor Zvika so that the latter could promote the messages he had heard from Qatari officials on a trip to Doha organized by Perception.<\/p>\n

Feldstein insisted that it didn\u2019t occur to him that this might be part of a foreign influence operation, in which a foreign agent for the Qatari government paid Perception to promote a media narrative friendly to Doha.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tDemonstrators stage a scene depicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holding money received from Qatar outside the District Court in Tel Aviv, on April 9, 2025, where Netanyahu is testifying in the trial against him. (Jack GUEZ \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

Moreover, Feldstein told Kan that when he received pro-Qatari messages from Urich to pass along to journalists, he believed it was accurate information.<\/p>\n

One of the main allegations against Feldstein is that he was paid by a businessman tied to a foreign agent for Qatar.<\/p>\n

Feldstein told Kan that he thought the odd payment scheme was due to the fact that he had failed a security clearance backgound check and therefore couldn\u2019t receive his salary directly from the Prime Minister\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it possible that things I put out served, aided, helped, after-the-fact, or as a side effect, or a consequence, some official in Qatar? It could be,\u201d he acknowledged. However, he insisted that he was not aware of it in real-time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey took me, with my motivation, my desire to belong, to feel a part of something, and they used me,\u201d Feldstein said.<\/p>\n

Undercutting Feldstein\u2019s claims, i24News published on Tuesday what it said were texts showing that Feldstein had been in contact with Jay Footlik \u2014 a foreign agent for Qatar registered in Washington \u2014 who praised his work advancing media messaging that suited Doha.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tEli Feldstein\u2019s attorney Oded Savoray (left), Jonatan Urich\u2019s attorney Amit Hadad (center) and other attorneys attend a court hearing at which police asked to extend the remand of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s aides Urich and Feldstein amid the ongoing Qatargate investigation, at the Rishon LeZion Magistrate\u2019s Court, April 3, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

The network said that Feldstein passed along the message to Urich, who in turn, expressed his own approval, given that Urich is also alleged to have been working on Qatar\u2019s behalf<\/p>\n

Bennett urges probe of Netanyahu in Qatargate \u2018betrayal\u2019 case<\/p>\n

As the Qatargate revelations mounted regarding Netanyahu and his inner circle, former prime minister Naftali Bennett gave a statement to the press in which he called on Israel\u2019s law enforcement agencies to leave no stone unturned in investigating the scandal and to question Netanyahu himself.<\/p>\n

Bennett said the actions of Netanyahu\u2019s inner circle \u201care a \u201cknife in the heart of our heroic soldiers and a knife in the heart of the entire people of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the gravest betrayal in the history of the State of Israel because it does not come from minor figures\u2026 but from the most senior and powerful people in Israel. We must honestly acknowledge that planting active agents inside the office of the prime minister of Israel is a significant intelligence and security success for our enemy, Qatar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennett says that he is \u201cnot claiming that Netanyahu gave the order to act on behalf of Qatar, or even that he knew his closest advisers were receiving hundreds of thousands of shekels from the enemy.\u201d But he said the public had a right to know why the prime minister remains silent and continues \u201cat this very moment, to cover up the betrayal in his office.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tFormer prime minister Naftali Bennett gives a video statement on December 23, 2025. (Screen capture\/X)<\/p>\n

Netanyahu, Bennett asserted, should have fired his advisers and summoned Israeli law enforcement to investigate the moment he learned about the scandal.<\/p>\n

However, Netanyahu acted in \u201cexactly the opposite way,\u201d alleged Bennett, accusing the prime minister and his team of \u201cdoing everything they can to torpedo the investigation of the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Likud hit back at Bennett, accusing him of mudslinging in order to distract from his own problems.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Likud said that Qatargate suspects Einhorn and Feldstein \u201cwere never part of the Prime Minister\u2019s Bureau.\u201d<\/p>\n

To make this claim, Netanyahu\u2019s office is apparently relying on the fact that Feldstein failed his security clearance background check and therefore was never formally employed by the government. However, this did not appear to stop Netanyahu from using his services, and Feldstein was photographed in high-level security meetings with Netanyahu over the past year.<\/p>\n

Feldstein was widely known by reporters as Netanyahu\u2019s spokesperson for military affairs throughout the war, regardless of whether he was receiving his paycheck directly from the prime minister\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tJonatan Urich, who was arrested as part of the Qatargate investigation, arrives at a court hearing in Lod on August 19, 2025. (Jonathan Shaul\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

After Feldstein\u2019s arrest last year, Netanyahu\u2019s office first claimed that he wasn\u2019t an employee. The premier then shifted to defending him as a loyal aide before eventually turning on him, after Feldstein began telling investigators that all of his actions were at the direction of the Prime Minister\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

The Tuesday Likud statement insisted that no evidence has shown any ties between Netanyahu\u2019s office and Qatar.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the beginning of the war, the Prime Minister\u2019s Office and the prime minister have attacked Qatar, and Qatar has attacked the prime minister countless times,\u201d Likud said, accusing Bennett of inventing blood libels against Netanyahu\u2019s party to divert attention from \u201cthe serious materials revealed in the hacking of his phone, which are being concealed from the public eye.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, Bennett acknowledged that hackers<\/a> had gained access to his Telegram account, and a number of files, including his contact list, were posted online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the one behind the leak of classified intelligence aimed at swaying the Israeli…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":468214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[50,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-468213","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115772842854632901","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}