Eli Feldstein's arrest isn't justice — it's about sending a message
Amonth after Eli Feldstein, a talented and dynamic 32-year-old spokesman who’d landed a job with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, was arrested and hauled away in the middle of the night by hooded Shin Bet agents, then denied access to a lawyer during an intensive weeklong interrogation, the questions surrounding his case have only grown stronger.
Feldstein was accused by prosecutors of damaging Israel’s state security by leaking a highly classified internal document seized from Hamas to Germany’s Bild newspaper. The document outlined the terror group’s strategy for surviving the IDF’s operation in Gaza by leveraging its hostages in psychological warfare on the Israeli public. The document had come into Feldstein’s possession from a line officer in military intelligence — bypassing normal channels. Prosecutors say the leak endangered intelligence sources inside Gaza.
But in Israel’s murky world of leak and counter-leak, it appears that the over-eager Feldstein may be a pawn in a larger war — between the defense establishment, and the political right wing led by Netanyahu. The question is whether prosecutors have overreached in their investigation of Feldstein.
“The glaring issue here is the selective enforcement — that’s the crux of it,” says attorney Moshe Osditcher. “After all, journalism in Israel depends on leaks. Whether we like it or not, that’s an integral element of the free press in this country.”
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