Edelstein questions need for coalition bill letting soldiers leak secret info to PM
‘Transferring classified information in a disorderly manner may result in the disclosure of sources,’ former chief of the IDF Intelligence Corps Moshe Schneid warns lawmakers
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
A coalition bill to decriminalize the provision of classified information to senior government officials by unauthorized members of the defense establishment is likely to undermine information security and the chain of command, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein argued on Tuesday, coming out against the position of his own right-wing Likud party.
“I would be interested to hear how we, through this proposal, will not cause a situation where highly classified material will flow to elements that are not authorized to receive the material and that do not have the appropriate security clearance,” Edelstein told lawmakers during a heated debate on the so-called Feldstein Law — which was referred to his committee after passing a preliminary reading in the plenum earlier this month.
Coalition lawmakers submitted the proposed law in response to charges against two individuals over the leaking of classified documents. One, an unnamed Israel Defense Forces noncommissioned officer, is accused of removing classified documents from military systems and sending them to Eli Feldstein, who served as a spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Feldstein is the second suspect, and is accused of leaking the classified material to the German newspaper Bild in September in an effort to sway public opinion against a hostage-ceasefire deal with the Hamas terror group.
The bill has been dubbed the Feldstein Law, though this is a misnomer because it would only address the actions of the NCO in the case.
Edelstein’s skepticism was shared by Brig Gen (Res.) Moshe Schneid, a former chief of the IDF Intelligence Corps, who declared that the prime minister and defense minister are “fully exposed to all materials in the possession of the Intelligence Directorate.”
“Transferring classified information in a disorderly manner may result in the disclosure of sources,” he told the committee, arguing that the bill would “allow soldiers to bypass the IDF chain of command and directly approach the political echelon,” which may “seriously harm national security.”
National Unity MK and former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot likewise panned the bill, dismissing it as “ridiculous, frivolous and unserious.”
In response, co-sponsor Amit Halevi of Likud argued that his legislation is necessary because unelected officials “are shutting the prime minister out,” though he did not offer evidence for this. “This law is intended to eliminate such phenomena,” he claimed.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has previously alleged that vital classified documents have not reached him, which was why the suspects passed them from the IDF to the Prime Minister’s Office — a claim that the military and defense establishment, which oppose the bill, have rejected.
Officials have argued that the premier receives documents deemed most relevant by intelligence professionals and that these should move through the proper channels — while Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has warned that the bill could constitute “improper political interference” in a criminal case concerning individuals close to Netanyahu.
Halevi’s co-sponsor, Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky, meanwhile, stated explicitly that the bill was intended to ensure that the NCO who passed on the classified documents to Feldstein “is released from prison because the offense he committed will cease to be an offense.”
The NCO in question “saw that vital information was not being released and took action,” Milwidsky asserted. “As a result, they broke into his house, took him in for questioning, denied him a lawyer, and treated him much worse than many others.”
“The goal is to make sure that these things don’t happen again and that no one is intimidated anymore regarding the transfer of information to the authorized political echelon,” he declared.
Addressing the committee, Avital, the unnamed NCO’s wife, argued that her husband’s actions were motivated “purely for the benefit of the State of Israel” and that he is “a law-abiding man.” His arrest and detention are “not a matter of politics but of human rights,” she said, adding that she just wants him home as the legal proceedings against him progress.
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