From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, March 5, 2024
TV report: Netanyahu told UK embassy not to help with Gantz’s visit in any way, but his security won’t be harmed
So incensed is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by war cabinet minister Benny Gantz’s current overseas trip to the US and UK that the Prime Minister’s Office has instructed the embassy in London not to assist with any aspect of Gantz’s visit, including unspecified matters that relate to his security, Channel 12 says, in a report that it notes is constrained by limitations imposed by the military censor.
“This is not only the diplomatic aspect of his trip, but a matter that relates to the essence of Gantz’s trip,” it says.
The report stresses that Gantz’s security will not be harmed, because Gantz’s own staff and the relevant Israeli entity took care of various unspecified arrangements and coordinated them with the British authorities.
The PMO denies any intervention, the report says.
The TV report says that the Israeli military censor has, “for reasons that are not clear to us,” barred Channel 12 from specifying what exactly is involved.
Reports in recent days have claimed that Netanyahu bitterly resents Gantz’s current trip to Washington, DC, and thence to London, that the minister arranged it without his approval, and that the prime minister told Israel’s Ambassador to the US not to assist with Gantz’s visit there.
Reporter Dana Weiss, plainly struggling to explain what is going on without breaching censorship, says that “the Prime Minister’s Office instructed Israel’s Ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely,” to tell her embassy team “not to help another Israeli entity do its necessary work” regarding Gantz’s trip.
Weiss notes that Gantz is a member of the war cabinet, a former defense minister and chief of staff, and is making the trip at a particularly sensitive time. The instruction to Hotovely relates to “logistical assistance,” but also, beyond this, to assistance in securing unspecified “permissions,” Weiss reports.
She notes that when a senior Israeli official makes an overseas trip, Israel’s legation routinely carries out all the necessary coordination with the host nation. In this case, however, “because of the boycott imposed on Gantz,” the minister’s team and the unnamed entity had to handle all the coordination with the UK authorities themselves. “One can only imagine what the authorities there think of the government of Israel,” she adds.
The Foreign Ministry had no comment on the issue, the TV report says. The PMO said it had not intervened. And, says Weiss, she was not able to report the response of the relevant entity because the military censor would not let her name it.
It may be, she says, that the censor fears publication of the item might harm Gantz’s security. “Our understanding is that Gantz’s security will not be harmed,” she said.
During the TV report, Channel 12 shows a ticker at the bottom of the screen which states at one point, “Minister Gantz’s visit to London: PM to the Israeli Embassy: Do not help with the security coordination,” and, at another point, “Minister Gantz’s visit to London: PMO instructed embassy not to help with any aspect.”
Gantz, who has been holding two days of talks with senior US officials, is tomorrow set to meet in London with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron.
