Calls grow for state commission of inquiry into PMO scandals and responsibility

The reports are heavily shrouded in secrecy, point fingers in different directions, and must be taken with a grain of salt.

By JPOST EDITORIAL NOVEMBER 14, 2024 06:03

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walking outside his office at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, November 11, 2024 (photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

The media hype and near-daily news reports about more and more developments into the overstepping and severe lack of professionalism in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) point a glaring light on what we already knew: It is high time for a state commission of inquiry.

The reports are heavily shrouded in secrecy, point fingers in different directions, and must be taken with a grain of salt. This reality in itself is a problem, a situation where, no matter how you spin it, there was a severe breach of trust and protocol, and there are still no answers, no one to come forward and clarify and take responsibility. This is a stain on the public’s intelligence and what it deserves, which is the truth.

The suspicions were initiated and brought forward by journalists doing their job – calling a check on the power institutions that make this country run – perhaps the most important role that journalism fulfills. Yes, all journalists lean in one direction or another, and that information must be taken in the reporting. Still, with enough journalists and enough reports, a more complete picture is slowly being formed.

The three current allegations include the obtaining, alteration, and leaking of classified documents to foreign press to serve the prime minister’s political agenda; tampering with protocols of meetings and phone conversations at the beginning of the war; and blackmailing a former senior IDF officer in the military secretariat.

If there were a proper state commission of inquiry, these breaches would be investigated by a body licensed to do it, and that can be trusted to do a thorough job; journalists wouldn’t have to bend over backward to obtain and corroborate information.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walking outside his office at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, November 11, 2024 (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

“Taking responsibility” is not an empty slogan; it is the baseline foundation in the social contract between government and civilians. If people can’t trust and believe the government they are identifying with and paying taxes to, the whole project can start to crack from within. Only then can the frayed strings begin to tighten once more.

patterns of leaks

Last month, State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman told the Israel Bar Association that one of the gravest results since October 7 is the unprecedented erosion of the value of taking responsibility. This value is central to Israel’s democratic foundation, he said.

Israelis are exposed to “a pattern of leaks [to the press] – the entire purpose of which is to cast responsibility on other officials,” he said. Some of the public institutions in which the value of taking responsibility has been eroded are those actively trying to prevent objective review and investigation, he added.

“We must look in the mirror and say honestly that there has not been a single elected official, public official, or military or security personnel who has met the worthy and expected standard when it comes to taking personal responsibility,” he said.

The PMO’s responses to the news reports have been at least consistent. The office said on Tuesday that a KAN report was “yet another stroke of imagination and complete fake news. This didn’t happen.” The same words and tone were taken against Channel 13’s investigation on Monday.

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They can’t all be lying; they can’t all be against the government, left-wing, and whatever other sticker is easy to slip onto an entire newsgroup.

Calling a legitimate investigation into one of the most important and highly entrusted offices in the country a “witch-hunt” is childish, shortsighted, and empty.

Instead, do your duty to the public: Come clean, provide the information, and give answers.

This isn’t a far-fetched request or expectation. In fact, it is exactly what a state commission of inquiry would do. Withholding that information is wrong and undemocratic. The way the highest offices in Israel were run, across the board, on October 6 is what is behind Israel’s lack of response and the letting down of its citizens. You can’t run from this.

As Jon Goldberg-Polin said on Sunday, “This is not a political issue… This is a nation learning and struggling with the truth… From across the political spectrum, people want to know and learn from the failures of October 7. I am joining the 85% of Israelis calling on the government to open a state of inquiry commission immediately, one that will appropriately examine everything and everyone.”