Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attacked Channel 10 reporter Raviv Drucker on Sunday for allegedly trying to derail the appointment of Brig. Gen. Ofer Winter as Givati Brigade commander several years ago, when he was still a colonel. "If this is true, it is just shocking," Netanyahu wrote on Facebook, accusing Drucker of taking part in Channel 10's efforts to unseat him. Netanyahu was referring to Drucker's attempt to secretly record Winter and possibly have him implicate himself in the shooting an innocent Palestinian boy despite there being no record of such an incident ever taking place. Winter is currently the chief of staff to the GOC Central Command Maj. Gen. Roni Numa. "The people of Israel know full well that Channel 10 is taking part in the smear campaign led by [Yedioth Ahronoth publisher] Noni Mozes, Raviv Drucker and others," Netanyahu wrote. "Channel 10 airs libelous propaganda against me and my family every night, with the goal of toppling a Likud prime minister, but apparently Channel 10 and Drucker think that is not enough. Today journalist Erel Segal reported that they tried to create a blood libel against Winter to prevent his appointment as brigade commander. It would be interesting to see if Drucker, the darling of the New Israel Fund [an organization that promotes various left-wing initiatives], who keeps throwing baseless accusations against my family and myself and calls for a criminal investigation against us, will ask that what he did, according to Segal, be investigated as well." Netanyahu added that Channel 10 has "radical left-wing views and therefore it is no wonder that its ratings are so low." Education Minister Naftali Bennett echoed Netanyahu. "Some things are just not done," he wrote on Facebook. "The fact that a media outlet tried to bring down a senior officer by secretly recording him means that a red line has been breached, and it is a great disgrace. I expect Channel 10 to take the necessary steps." Oded Savoray, an associate of Winter, spoke with Segal about Drucker's actions on Army Radio on Sunday morning. According to Savoray, in 2012, several days after Winter, then the commander of the Gaza Division's Northern Brigade, had been tapped to serve as the next Givati Brigade commander, he received a call from a former soldier of his. The soldier, who was thrown out of multiple units, including Givati, because of credibility issues, asked Winter whether he remembers him. He told Winter that he "cannot sleep at night" because of a traumatic event that took place several years ago. Winter then suggested that the two meet and invited him to his headquarters. "During their meeting, the soldier said he shot a Palestinian teen who turned out not to be involved in the incident and accused Winter of giving him the orders to shoot," Savoray told Segal. "He told Winter that he had pangs of conscience ever since. " Savoray then said that during the conversation, Winter's secretary handed him a note saying she noticed something unusual in the soldier's behavior and that he may be secretly recording. Winter asked him whether this was true, and eventually he confessed he was recording their discussion. According to Savoray, when Winter asked him why he did it, he got a surprising response: "Raviv Drucker sent me, Raviv heard that you had been tapped as the next Givati chief and we decided that you will not get that position." Winter called the police, which ultimately determined that no crime had been committed. Later, Winter called information security officials in the Israel Defense Forces to determine whether the recording contained unauthorized information. Savoray told Israel Hayom that he chose to share this story with Army Radio this week because Drucker's investigative report on Winter's conduct as Givati commander was due to air this week, "which will rehash the same old arguments thrown against him," over his response to a case involving improper conduct by one of his subordinates toward another female soldier. According to Savoray, Drucker's upcoming piece "contains no new revelations, and it is completely biased against him, because he is religious and believed to be from the Right, and Drucker doesn't like that." Drucker dismissed any wrongdoing on Sunday, taking to Facebook to explain his side of the story. "Several years ago, a former soldier approached the producers of my program, "Hamakor" ["The Source"], and made harsh accusations against Winter for allegedly shooting and possibly killing a Palestinian boy with no apparent reason," Drucker wrote. "We crosschecked what he said with a friend of that soldier, who confirmed that it may have taken place; the former soldier asked to confront Winter and to record the conversation, and that is what we did. We never followed up on that story because the former soldier had second thoughts and did not want to have his name become public." "The report we will air [on Winter] will deal with what happened in Givati's Zabar Battalion and Winter's conduct as brigade commander. Unfortunately, he chose to discredit our report even before it is aired rather than just deal with the questions we sent him several weeks ago," Drucker wrote. He was later asked on Army Radio whether he had no compunctions about sending someone to record Winter. "I would have recorded you if I thought you did something bad, because this is how one does investigative journalism," he told the host. Channel 10 issued a statement defending Drucker, saying, "Investigative journalists or sources are not out to get anyone, they are just trying to bring back evidence that could prove or disprove claims that are being checked out."
