Netanyahu accuses Ben Gvir of leaking state secrets; Otzma leader retorts with demand for polygraph tests

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"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir of Otzma Yehudit in the Knesset in Jerusalem on March 6, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir of Otzma Yehudit in the Knesset in Jerusalem on March 6, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The ruling Likud party appears to accuse Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben Gvir of leaking private conversations after Hebrew media reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered to include the far-right national security minister in a limited group of cabinet members receiving security reviews in exchange for his support of a controversial bill regulating the appointment of municipal rabbis.

The articles are “full of inaccuracies,” Likud says. “Prime Minister Netanyahu told Minister Ben Gvir one simple thing: whoever wants to be a partner in a limited security consultation team must prove that he is not leaking state secrets or private conversations.”

In response, Otzma Yehudit declares that it supports a law requiring cabinet members to undergo polygraph tests. The party “calls on the prime minister to promote it quickly, provided that it also applies to owners of a pacemaker.” Netanyahu had a pacemaker fitted last year.

Earlier this week, Netanyahu announced that the war cabinet — the small forum created on October 11 to manage the military campaigns against Hamas and Hezbollah — had been officially disbanded following National Unity leader Benny Gantz’s exit from the coalition.

Ben Gvir, a member of the security cabinet but not the smaller war cabinet, has grumbled throughout the war about being left out of decision-making forums by the prime minister.

Responding to Likud’s statement, National Unity slams Netanyahu, declaring that “someone who believes that there is a minister leaking state secrets should not give him control over the Israel Police and membership in the cabinet.”

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