Sensitive materials related to former defense minister Yoav Gallant are held within the Prime Minister’s Office, former military spokesman for the PMO, Eli Feldstein, asserted in an interview with KAN 11 on Wednesday.
The materials allegedly include a video documenting a violent altercation after Gallant was denied entry to the office.
According to Feldstein, Benjamin Netanyahu is aware of these materials, and Gallant himself knows that they were gathered about him. "Therefore," he asserted, "Gallant will never open his mouth."
Feldstein described how, in the early stages of his interrogation by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), he chose to take full responsibility, believing that someone from the PMO would come and clarify to the investigators that he had acted with the Prime Minister's approval and knowledge. “I thought I’d be out in two hours,” he said, “that someone brave would come and say, 'it was our work.'”
However, as the investigation progressed, he claimed it became clear to him that Netanyahu and his people were not backing him. “I didn’t know it was a one-sided friendship,” he said.
'I realized I was alone'
At some point, after what he described as heavy pressure regarding the identity of his lawyer, Feldstein met with his attorney and discovered that the PMO was publicly distancing itself from him.
“That’s when I realized I was alone,” he recalled. “The Shin Bet is against me, the prosecution is against me, and now even the prime minister is against me.”
Feldman also described the direct confrontation with Yonatan Urich, Netanyahu's former advisor and lead suspect in the Qatargate investigation, in the interrogation room.
Feldstein recounted that Urich didn’t look at him, and when Feldstein tried to confront him about the leak, allegedly done with the office's knowledge, he was met with the response: “I see the investigators broke you.”
After 15 days of detention by the Shin Bet, Feldstein was transferred to police interrogation at the Eshel prison. There, he says, the investigator told him, “The investigation is over, but if everything you’ve said is true, you’re a fool.”