National lottery chief sought to quash damning story on ex-Mossad boss – report

The head of Israel’s national lottery reportedly asked Channel 13 to shelve a December report alleging that Yossi Cohen revealed state secrets to a woman he was having an affair with while he was serving as Mossad chief, and has since slashed advertising on the station because it went ahead with the broadcast.

Mifal HaPayis CEO Avigdor Itzhaki denied Monday’s report in the Haaretz daily, saying he only asked that the Cohen segment not be run because he thought it was unworthy and that an ongoing dispute with Channel 13 over advertising was unrelated.

Channel 13’s “HaMakor” investigative program reported that Cohen’s affair with the married woman began in late 2018 and saw the spy chief brag to her and her husband about various secret details from the spy agency’s operations around the world, as well as provide them with information on his global travels.

Ahead of the broadcast, Itzhaki called Channel 13 station head Avi Ben-Tal as well as investigative reporter Raviv Drucker and asked them both to not go ahead with the report, Haaretz said.

The broadcast was nevertheless aired and in its wake, a meeting between Mifal HaPayis and Channel 13 representatives over the 2022 advertising budget was canceled, the report said. Since then Mifal HaPayis advertising on the station has dropped to a fraction of what it was the year before, according to the report.

Itzhaki confirmed to Haaretz that he asked Ben-Tal and Drucker to drop the report, but said his opposition was due to its content and not because Cohen had asked him to intervene.

He said he had only met Cohen twice, once at an event honoring an Israel Prize winner and another time shortly before the segment was broadcast.

“We met at his place,” Itzhaki said, without specifying if the meeting took place at an office or in Cohen’s home. “He asked to consult on matters concerning his future, and also told me about the investigative report that was soon to be broadcast.”

Itzhaki said he had only spoken with Ben-Tal and Drucker once each, which did not add up the “heavy pressure” sources told Haaretz he applied on the two. He also denied that the topic of advertising contracts came up when he asked for the Cohen report to be dropped.

According to Itzhaki, they both told him that no media outlet would give up such a story.

Sources told Haaretz that the approach from Itzhaki came just as Channel 13 was seeking to renew its contracts with Mifal HaPayis for 2022.

Disputes arose between the two sides and a meeting was scheduled between Ben-Tal and Itzhaki in January to sort out the differences. However, the meeting was abruptly canceled after Channel 13 broadcast the story on Cohen, according to the report.

Itzhaki said he had put off the meeting due to personal medical issues and another meeting would be set up in the coming weeks. He said the contract for 2022 hadn’t been finalized because Channel 13 hadn’t agreed to drop its prices.

Since the beginning of the year Mifal HaPayis has hardly run ads on the station, according to data from business information provider Ifat.

According to the company, in 2021 Mifal HaPayis spent 26.4% of its television advertising budget on Channel 13 and 53.4% on Channel 12. Since the start of the year, 90% has gone to Channel 12 and just 2% to Channel 13. Sources familiar with the developments said the change has already cost Channel 13 millions of shekels in revenue.

A Mifal HaPayis report for 2020 said the organization spent NIS 96 million ($30 million) on commercials and promotions, of which NIS 75 million went to television, newspapers and radio ads.

Mifal HaPayis said in a statement to Haaretz, “There is no connection between the conversation described in the [Haaretz] report and the negotiations led by professional entities in Mifal HaPayis with the station, during which gaps emerged between the sides.”

The statement said that talks were ongoing “without any connection to the claims raised in the report.”

Channel 13 said in a response that it was engaged in “professional dialogue” with Mifal HaPayis, and other than noting a joint campaign by the two organizations aimed at workplace inclusiveness for people with disabilities, it would not comment on the matter.

Izhaki, a former member of Knesset for the now-defunct Kadima party, was appointed as head of Mifal HaPayis in 2018 by then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his finance minister at the time, Moshe Kahlon. Cohen was known to be close to Netanyahu and though he has stayed out of politics since leaving the Mossad last year, his name has been raised as a possible successor to Netanyahu as Likud leader.