Liberman threatens to sue TV station over allegations he leaked Gaza report

Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman threatened Sunday to sue Channel 10 television over allegations he leaked a secret, damning report by State Comptroller Yosef Shapira on the 2014 war with Hamas in Gaza.

Liberman demanded that the station’s correspondent Or Heller issue an on-air apology for citing a security official who said Liberman was behind the leak to the Hebrew press.

In a letter to the TV station, Liberman wrote the report was “libelous” and “Mr. Heller must publicize an apology and a clarification that the allegations are untrue.” It said Liberman “reserves the right to pursue legal actions against Heller.”

The TV station on Saturday quoted a senior security official who speculated that Liberman, who was foreign minister during the 50-day conflict, leaked the draft in an effort to discredit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon.

The official also said that Liberman, whose party has been in opposition since the formation of the current government last year, was hoping to cause Ya’alon’s political downfall, and then replace him as defense minister. Netanyahu invited Liberman to join his latest coalition, but the Yisrael Beytenu leader refused, citing his objections to deals signed with other partners. Liberman has since positioned himself against Netanyahu, alongside Yesh Atid leader and former finance minister Yair Lapid.

Infuriated by the leak, Shapira on Sunday asked Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to investigate who was guilty of handing over the draft report to several Israeli journalists.

The draft report accuses Netanyahu and Ya’alon of failing to update the security cabinet in real time of the imminent threat of war with Hamas, and of not discussing the grave threat of the terror group’s attack tunnels, according to Hebrew media sources who read it.

But Liberman, the official said, was uninformed about the tunnels, as he was not present at cabinet meetings on the issue.

Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said the draft finds that, during the conflict, “the security establishment did not have a comprehensive plan for dealing with Hamas’s offensive tunnels.”

According to Maariv newspaper, the report depicts Netanyahu “as having no crisis management abilities.”

But Yuval Steinitz, a senior Likud minister loyal to Netanyahu, said Friday the reported findings of the report “bore no relation” to the report’s true content.

Meanwhile, the head of the left-wing Meretz party on Saturday accused Netanyahu of placing himself above the law and above any criticism of his performance and his failures.

Zehava Galon said that Netanyahu refused to set up a state inquiry after the conflict, Israel Radio reported. Instead, she said, the prime minister pledged to hold a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee probe, but which he also torpedoed.

Galon said that the 2014 operation had achieved nothing, and placed the blame on Netanyahu, Ya’alon and ministers who, she said, sat beside them and remained silent despite knowing that information was being kept from them.

Shapira sent the highly classified draft report to Netanyahu, Ya’alon and other government officials earlier this week.

The Israeli media began reporting on the content of the draft text on Thursday.

Shapira subsequently demanded explanations, his spokesman Shlomo Raz said Friday.

He particularly asked that “the prime minister and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit examine how the draft — classified top secret — was leaked by one of those who reviewed it,” said Raz.

Hamas, the terrorist organization that has ruled Gaza since a bloody 2007 coup against Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement, has an extensive network of tunnels inside the Strip, including some that reach into Israel and Egypt. The tunnels into Egypt are used primarily to ferry goods and people, while the ones dug into Israel are designed for attacks.

The destruction of the tunnels was cited by Israel as one of its primary goals during the devastating 2014 war, known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge. The IDF said it destroyed more than 30 tunnels during the conflict.

AFP contributed to this report