Netanyahu Lied, Israeli Prisoners Died

In the first post today, Coping With Slipping Hegemony, I cited Alastair Crooke’s personal experience to illustrate the fact—let me repeat that, the FACT—that the Israeli government regularly lies. To America, to it’s own people. Today’s news brings another example.

One of Netanyahu’s top advisers has been arrested for an “intel leak.” Except that he didn’t actually leak intel. He leaked purported intel, claims that were, in fact, false—the falsehoods were deliberate plants, intended to sway public opinion, in Israel and in the US. The falsehood that was “leaked” was that Hamas leaders were planning to flee to Egypt with the Israeli prisoners that were taken on October 7th, and from there maybe on to Iran. There was no such information. This was a falsehood that Netanyahu spread--aimed at both the American and Israeli public—to take pressure off him to make a deal with Hamas, get the Israeli prisoners released, and stop the genocide against Palestinians. The claim was that Israel needed to continue the brutal genocide because Hamas was only pretending to negotiate, while actually planning to flee with the Israeli prisoners. It was all just a lie. Netanyahu’s lips were moving again.

Netanyahu Aide Arrested Over Intel Leak Which Damaged Ceasefire Talks

Via The Cradle

Israeli police have arrested a top aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and four others for allegedly leaking classified information to foreign media, court documents released on Sunday revealed. The intelligence allegedly claimed Hamas was planning to smuggle Israeli captives from Gaza to Egypt.

Opposition leaders say the intelligence was leaked to take pressure off Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire deal with Hamas that would bring home the roughly 100 Israeli captives still held by the Palestinian resistance movement. It is estimated that roughly 70 remain alive.

Netanyahu has repeatedly sabotaged ceasefire talks with Hamas since the start of the war on October 7 last year, despite heavy pressure from the families of the captives to reach a deal.

…

The court documents said that information taken from the Israeli military’s systems and “illegally issued” may have damaged Israel’s ability to free the captives held by Hamas in Gaza.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid on Sunday accused the prime minister’s office of leaking “faked secret documents to torpedo the possibility of a hostage deal – to shape a public opinion influence operation against the hostages’ families.”

By claiming that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was planning to flee to Egypt with the captives, the leaked documents appeared to promote Netanyahu’s claim in the minds of the Israeli public that any ceasefire deal must allow Israel to keep its forces on the Philadelphia Corridor, which runs along the Gaza-Egypt border. 

Otherwise, the captives could end up in Egypt’s Sinai or “pop up in Iran or Yemen,” Netanyahu claimed.

Netanyahu added the demand that Israel be allowed to continue occupying the Philadelphia Corridor in the 11^th hour of negotiations for a ceasefire this summer. The demand torpedoed the talks, as Hamas has long insisted on a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as part of any ceasefire deal.

The issue with the leaks from Netanyahu's office is that intelligence assets may have been burned not for military purposes but for PR or politicking, @da64 tells @laura_i24 pic.twitter.com/vFs4LNEI7h

— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) November 4, 2024

Members of the Likud, Religious Zionism, and Jewish Power parties, which comprise Netanyahu’s governing coalition, have stated it is their priority to continue the war. They hope to ethnically cleanse Gaza and annex it, ideally to build Jewish settlements atop destroyed Palestinian cities. 

Israeli soldiers have stated the army is currently carrying out the so-called “Generals’ Plan” to forcibly expel the remaining 300,000 residents in northern Gaza and move them to the south of the strip. The plan calls for starving or killing any … Palestinian … who refuse or are unable to leave.