Israel minister accuses Gantz of leaking cabinet sessions to the media

An Israeli minister from the Likud party led by Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Minister of the War Council, Benny Gantz, and another minister from his State Camp party of leaking the proceedings of the security cabinet to the media.

According to Israel’s Maariv newspaper, Regional Cooperation Minister, David Amsalem, said during the Knesset plenary meeting on Monday evening, “I am describing a fact, who leaked? I am looking at who is benefiting from this. I tell you: In my head it is them who leaked, Tropper and Gantz. Because they wanted to ridicule us.”

“Therefore, I tell you, the ones who leaked it were ministers Hili Tropper and Benny Gantz, because they wanted to mock us, and this (leak) came from them.”

Amsalem was referring to the incident with Transportation Minister, Miri Regev, eating popcorn in a cabinet session, on Friday, during a heated verbal conflict between the extremist National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Defense Minister, Yoav Galant, over how to manage the war in Gaza.

Yedioth Ahronoth reported at the time that Regev said, “Oh! The show has started, I’ll bring out some popcorn,” after which she took out a bag of popcorn.

Amsalem said in the Knesset session on Monday evening, “They had discussions in all the television studios on who ate popcorn and what kind.”

As of 20:15 GMT, there was no comment from Gantz and Tropper regarding Amsalem’s accusations.

READ: Gantz vows to remove Hezbollah from border with Israel

On 12 October, the Knesset approved the formation of the emergency government, which included 5 Knesset members from the State Camp party as ministers without portfolio, including Gantz, Tropper, and former Chief of Staff, Gadi Eisenkot.

Tropper had responded to Amsalem by saying, “I think you should be careful with your accusations and generalisations. You talk a lot about stereotypes and camps, and that’s exactly what you just did. I would suggest you be more careful with leaks and in general,” according to Maariv. 

“Only you can, before the vote on the Unity Law, continue to sow divisions. We are fed up with this language and this way,” he added.

The Israeli political system is witnessing several divisions, including major disagreements between the ministers of the right-wing coalition led by Netanyahu, on the one hand, and the ministers of the State Camp led by Gantz, on the other.