Shin Bet chief says Netanyahu was briefed soon after Feldstein arrest

Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar told investigators that he informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the arrest of Netanyahu’s former spokesman, Eli Feldstein, shortly after it happened. The report, revealed Thursday evening by Israel’s Channel 12, says the Prime Minister’s Office was briefed in the early stages of the investigation, even though a gag order was then in place and only a small number of people knew about the case.

The disclosure matters because it suggests Netanyahu and his aides were aware of Feldstein’s arrest very soon after it took place, despite the secrecy surrounding the probe. According to the suspicion reported in the article, Jonathan Urich deleted the contents of his mobile phone within 24 hours of Feldstein’s arrest. Urich has said he routinely clears his phone and that he did not know about the arrest at all.

Bar’s testimony, however, points to a different picture, one in which the Prime Minister’s Office already knew about the arrest at that stage. Netanyahu himself has given testimony in the case, but he was not asked whether he passed the information on to others.

Bar said he wanted to brief the prime minister personally because of Feldstein’s closeness to the office. After receiving approval for a limited version of the update, he called Netanyahu using the phone of the prime minister’s close security guard and told him only the general facts of the arrest. Bar added that he later met Netanyahu, who tried to get more details, but Bar said no pressure was put on him regarding the investigation.