Eshel whistleblower resigns after scolded by PM

Two days after losing his bureau chief, one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top aides is resigning and another is expected to tender his resignation in the coming days.

National Information Directorate Secretary Yoaz Hendel quit his post on Tuesday and Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser is expected to resign soon, Haaretz reported. This comes after the prime minister’s bureau chief, Natan Eshel, was forced to step down Sunday in the wake of allegations that he harassed a colleague.

Hendel and Hauser were among the three senior officials in the Prime Minister’s Office who reported Eshel’s alleged sexual misconduct to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein last month.

According to Haaretz, Netanyahu reprimanded the two senior aides for not confiding Eshel’s misconduct to the prime minister.

“I am disappointed that you did not share the information with me and hid it for a month,” Haaretz reported Netanyahu telling Hauser and Hendel. “You should have turned to me first and I would have acted exactly like you did and turned to the attorney general.”

The third whistleblower in the Eshel affair, Military Secretary Yohanan Locker, was also scolded, but is already leaving his post for a position in the Israel Defense Forces.