The Media Line: Ex-Netanyahu Aide Claims PM Sought To Dodge Oct. 7 Accountability, Leaked Classified Document 

Ex-Netanyahu Aide Claims PM Sought To Dodge Oct. 7 Accountability, Leaked Classified Document 

By The Media Line Staff 

Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ex-spokesperson for military affairs Eli Feldstein alleged this week that, in the chaotic days after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack and during a later classified-intelligence leak, Netanyahu and senior aides focused on shaping public narratives about responsibility and hostage negotiations. Feldstein made the claims in a multi-part interview with Israel’s Kan public broadcaster, while he faces prosecution in the so-called Bild case and remains a suspect in the Qatargate affair. 

Feldstein said “the first task” he received from Netanyahu after Oct. 7 was aimed at tamping down demands for accountability. “He asked me, ‘What are they talking about in the news? Are they still talking about responsibility?’” Feldstein said. “He wanted me to think of something that could be said that would offset the media storm surrounding the question of whether the prime minister had taken responsibility or not.” Feldstein added that Netanyahu appeared “panicked,” and said he was later told by people close to the prime minister to avoid the word “responsibility” in statements. 

In a second interview segment, Feldstein alleged Netanyahu personally backed the leak of a classified document to the German newspaper Bild in September 2024. “In order to [publicize] such a document, the prime minister must be in the picture—from beginning to end,” Feldstein said. “He [Netanyahu] is the one who ultimately was behind the leak,” he added, saying Netanyahu’s adviser Jonathan Urich texted him afterward: “The boss [Netanyahu] is thrilled.” 

Netanyahu’s office rejected Feldstein’s allegations as “a long series of mendacious and recycled allegations made by a man with clear personal interests who is trying to deflect responsibility from himself,” according to Hebrew media reports. 

The claims intersect with Qatargate, a separate probe into alleged work for Qatar by figures connected to Netanyahu’s circle. Former prime minister Naftali Bennett urged investigators to question Netanyahu, calling the affair “a ‘knife in the heart of our heroic soldiers and a knife in the heart of the entire people of Israel.’” In a statement issued Tuesday, Netanyahu’s Likud party accused Bennett of spreading “blood libels,” saying he was fabricating allegations against the party to distract from his own political problems.