Was Yediot in cahoots with a military scandal?
The latest developments in the Harpaz Affair (this has morphed into the Ashkenazi Affair and the Benayahu Affair) are subject to various gag orders. Nevertheless, the facts are gradually being unearthed.
The revelations have not come out in one fell swoop. Rather, there is a slow and steady drip.
The information will just continue to trickle out. The investigation cannot be stopped in its tracks. It is bound to reach its final destination.
Last week there were the damning allegations leveled by Yedioth Ahronoth's well-established military analyst Alex Fishman, who said former IDF Spokesperson Avi Benayahu was directly involved in this affair, as a uniformed member of the armed forces.
And two days ago, another layer was unearthed. It turns out that about a year ago, Boaz Harpaz wrote a letter to the state comptroller alleging that Benayahu and others in the military's top brass had an active role in besmirching the political echelon. This was a political campaign, plain and simple, according to Harpaz.
If these allegations are true, this could be one of the biggest scandals in Israeli history. It attests to the lack of basic norms in our democracy and to the distorted norms in the press.
That senior officers used the media against the political echelon, as some of the testimonies suggest, is problematic in and of itself. But the fact that reporters willingly took part in such action by providing their services to active duty personnel who mounted an insurgency against the defense ministry (there is no other way to call it) is just as troubling.
The new revelations have spread like wildfire, both online and in the printed media. After all, this scandal is on the same scale as the Lavon Affair [a bungled Israeli plot to sabotage relations between the U.S. and Egypt in the 1950s]. That is, except if you are Yedioth Ahronoth. While its online portal reported on it, albeit after ignoring it for a few hours, Yedioth Ahronoth's readers were left in the dark.
Last Friday, Yedioth Ahronoth's most senior analyst, Nahum Barnea, actually opined on the matter. He tried to belittle this whole affair, to make it sound like an esoteric matter. If you were to believe Barnea, this was nothing more than a small prank.
As Israel Hayom has reported, Yedioth Ahronoth's publisher Arnon (Noni) Mozes has been rooting for the Ashkenazi-Benayahu axis.
In light of Fishman's affidavit, which was not reported on by Yedioth, and in light of Harpaz's letter, which was ignored by Yedioth as well, the media's conduct in this affair warrants scrutiny.
טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו