From the Liveblog of
Saturday, February 15, 2025
Gantz welcomes Shin Bet probe of PMO staffers’ ties to Qatar, slams Netanyahu’s response
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"
National Unity party chairman Benny Gantz welcomes the Shin Bet security service’s announcement that it will investigate aides to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, presumably including his former spokesman Eli Feldstein, for alleged ties to Qatar.
“The thought of an employee in the Prime Minister’s Office acting as a double agent should keep every citizen of the State of Israel awake at night. This must be investigated thoroughly, and the Shin Bet and all investigative bodies must quickly publish their findings on the matter,” Gantz tweets.
Gantz responds harshly to the PMO’s statement on the probe, which attacked the Shin Bet for not investigating Gantz’s former company, Fifth Dimension, for selling “sensitive information technology to the government without authorization.”
“Unlike the current affair, the issue of the Fifth Dimension has already been investigated and examined, and it was found that there is no suspicion against me,” Gantz states.
“However, I have a suggestion for those in the Prime Minister’s Office: They previously proposed establishing a state commission of inquiry into the Fifth Dimension affair. I propose that at the next government meeting, two commissions of inquiry be established: one for Fifth Dimension and the second to investigate October 7.”
Netanyahu, who has issued various calls for state commissions of inquiry into the firm as recently as 2022, has consistently refused to open such an inquiry into the failure to prevent Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023. He claims that the Supreme Court president, who is empowered to appoint those on such a commission, isn’t sufficiently trusted by the people.
In 2020, the acting State Attorney ordered a criminal probe into Fifth Dimension over allegations of impropriety in its efforts to secure a lucrative contract with the Israel Police.
