Liberman calls for Shin Bet to probe leak of IDF chief’s cabinet briefing

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Friday called for the Shin Bet security services to intervene to stop cabinet leaks after details were broadcast of a confidential briefing from IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot that warned the West Bank was  ripe for major violent outbreak.

Leaks from meetings of Israel’s security cabinet are not uncommon even though it handles the most sensitive government issues. They are a regular source of finger-pointing between the small number of top ministers who are members.

But Liberman said a red line had been crossed with the leaking of details of last Sunday’s briefing by Eisenkot.

“Leaks from the cabinet are forbidden and harmful. Leaking the quotes of the chief of staff crosses a red line and represent a real harm to the security of the state,” Liberman tweeted.

“A cabinet where participants hesitate to speak freely, fearing their remarks will leak to the press, is a cabinet devoid of meaning,” he said. “I demand that the prime minister employ the Shin Bet to stop the cabinet leaks.”

In the briefing Eisenkot reportedly warned ministers this week that a major outbreak of violence was likely among Palestinians in the West Bank, due to PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s waning political influence and declining health.

During Sunday’s high-level security cabinet meeting, Eisenkot said a flare-up of attacks in the West Bank would require more troops than an escalation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, highlighting the severity of the threat, according to a Hadashot television report on Thursday evening.

He estimated there was a “60-80 percent” chance of such a scenario unfolding, according to the report.

The TV report attributed the increased likelihood of a surge in violence to Abbas’s loss of international support from both the United States and Arab states; internal Palestinian pressure to clinch a reconciliation deal with Hamas and mounting frustration over the perception that PA forces were aiding Israel to curb terrorism, but were receiving nothing in return; and the 83-year-old Palestinian leader’s health woes.

According to the report, Eisenkot cautioned that a “combative” Abbas speech next week at the UN General Assembly in New York could fuel lone-wolf Palestinian terrorism.

The television report also suggested Eisenkot was critical of recent US steps vis-à-vis the Palestinian Authority. He urged Israel to improve the economic situation for Palestinians in the West Bank and stressed the importance of resolving the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, while suggesting Washington was not fully aware of the repercussions of its pressure on the Palestinians, the report said.

On August 31, the Trump administration announced it is cutting nearly $300 million in planned funding for the UN agency that aids Palestinian refugees, and that it would no longer fund the agency after decades of support. Since then, it has also withdrawn funding for East Jerusalem hospitals and coexistence programs, and shuttered the PLO mission to Washington.

Eisenkot’s warning on Sunday came as a Palestinian teenager fatally stabbed American-Israeli Ari Fuld, 45, in the Etzion Bloc, shattering months of relative quiet in the West Bank.