Report: Netanyahu’s campaign against Winter rooted in anger over advice to Eli Feldstein

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aggressive campaign against People of Israel party leader Ofer Winter is rooted in hard feelings over the latter’s advice to embattled former Netanyahu aide Eli Feldstein, Channel 12 reports.

According to the outlet, Winter advised Feldstein’s father, a key suspect in the Bild affair, not to hire Netanyahu’s lawyer, Amit Haddad, for his son.

Winter was once Feldstein’s commander in the IDF.

“Anyone but Amit Haddad,” Winter told the elder Feldstein in October 2024, four days after Feldstein was arrested, according to the report. “Eli needs someone who will take care of him and go on the straight and narrow, and not someone who will take care of Netanyahu. You need to think about your son, and not Netanyahu.”

Feldstein ultimately took on Oded Savorai as his lawyer, under Winter’s recommendation. Savorai has sought to shift the blame to Netanyahu and urged Feldstein not to protect the prime minister or his advisers during police interrogations.

There has been a growing public campaign by Likud and its allies to pressure Winter to withdraw from next week’s election, warning that his party could take votes from right-wing parties and waste them if it fails to cross the electoral threshold.

Feldstein is charged with leaking a classified document to the German tabloid, Bild, in September 2024, which ostensibly detailed Hamas’s priorities and tactics in hostage negotiations.

Feldstein is accused of leaking the document in order to influence public opinion on negotiations for the release of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in a more favorable direction for Netanyahu.