New scandal rocks Netanyahu’s office: Chief of staff accused of blackmailing IDF officer

Israeli media is reporting today that the senior official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office who allegedly used a video to blackmail an IDF officer is his very own chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman. 

Braverman is accused of obtaining “sensitive footage” of the officer, who had previously worked with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and was apparently in a relationship with one of the female staffers there. 

On Friday, Israel’s Channel 13 reported that senior officials in the PMO approached the staffer and demanded she hand over her mobile phone for examination, claiming that she was suspected of leaking information. They used this tactic as a means to discover correspondence between the employee and the senior IDF officer. 

An appeal was sent several months ago to IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, raising a serious allegation that someone within the PMO allegedly had sensitive documentation of the IDF officer. 

Braverman issued a statement on Sunday morning, strongly denying the allegations.

“The serious claim that I have the documentation of an officer or that I tried to blackmail someone is false, as is Michael Shemesh's defamatory report,” Braverman argued. “This is a lie from start to finish aimed at harming me and the Prime Minister's Office in the midst of a war." 

Braverman also sent a warning letter to Israeli journalist Michael Shemesh, who first published his name, following the "false reports.” 

Several senior sources familiar with the details of the incident told Channel 13, “Netanyahu's office is acting like a criminal organization.” 

Reports in Hebrew media said that on Saturday night, Nov. 2, police investigators arrived at the prime minister’s office to investigate activities there, confiscating several records amid reports of an attempt to disrupt protocols related to minutes of meetings discussing events before and after Oct. 7 in the PMO.

According to a report in Ynet, despite the requirement that all cabinet meetings and secret consultations be recorded, the PMO ordered the cancellation of all recordings of the War Cabinet at the beginning of the war. 

Haaretz also reported earlier this year that several classified documents related to preparations for Oct. 7 were removed from the government secretariat. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara instructed National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi to return the protocols, which she believed were not removed in accordance with procedure. 

Besides the attempts to edit or dispose of minutes related to the Oct. 7 massacre, Ynet News also reported that an attempt was made to edit minutes of meetings related to the International Court of Justice suit against Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.  

According to political analyst Amir Ettinger, of Israel Hayom, Netanyahu’s office decided shortly after the shock of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre to begin looking for any evidence that could be used to place the responsibility for the security failure on the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet). 

While Netanyahu has not been personally connected with any of the scandals so far, political commentators in the Israeli press have questioned why so many scandals have occurred in his office. 

The PMO responded to claims of destruction or removal of minutes, calling it “a complete lie, information that never existed and was not created.”

“Anyone familiar with the work processes knows that there is no possibility of such an incident,” the office stated. “All the discussions are recorded and transcribed by law, and therefore their content cannot be changed.” 

Police special unit Lahav 433, similar to the FBI, only confirmed with Ynet that "a number of open investigative actions were conducted.” 

Regarding the decision to open an investigation into officials in the office, the statement said, “This is an unprecedented witch hunt against the Prime Minister's Office in the midst of a war.” 

The office also questioned why “the only two investigations opened were directed against the Prime Minister's Office and not against the wholesale leakers, none of whom were investigated, and who caused tremendous damage to the abductees and to Israel's security.”