Eldad Yaniv, the token left-winger on the panel of Channel 14’s popular news show, The Patriots, on Monday night, announced on the show that during the investigations of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, journalists, and protest leaders were briefed by senior police officers with information directed against the prime minister. According to Yaniv, the briefings consisted of reports on the investigation and its findings, including progress reports and details of the state’s witnesses.
“We were briefed, not in reverse engineering but in real-time,” Yaniv said. “We were regularly briefed by senior investigators in the Israel Police.”
A leader of the 2010 protests, Yaniv was dedicated to removing Netanyahu from his post as prime minister. He passed news about Netanyahu to the media, and in 2016 petitioned the High Court of Justice demanding that AG Mandelblit and others launch an investigation against Netanyahu as well as publish the suspicions and findings against him. The petition was rejected in March 2017, with the judges hinting at a possible connection between Yaniv’s political activity and the petition.
In that context, Yaniv was a useful idiot in the service of the police, bombarding the media with promises of tight cases and unbreakable indictments against Netanyahu.
For example, Monday’s testimony of Opposition Leader MK Yair Lapid as a witness for the prosecution in Netanyahu’s trial turned out to be meaningless. Lapid, who served as Netanyahu’s finance minister, testified that the PM had spoken to him casually (he even suggested it may have been in a hallway rather than during a proper meeting) regarding a law that would allow Olim to maintain their businesses abroad for 10 years after making Aliyah, without having to report their income to the Tax Authority. The law would have favored millionaire Arnon Milchin, the man who plied the Netanyahu family with cigars and champagne, but according to Lapid, all Netanyahu was doing was “putting down a checkmark,” rather than advocating in favor of the bill.
But according to the hype foisted on the media by the police and its messengers, such as Eldad Yaniv, Lapid was going to be the key witness in Case 1000 who would destroy Netanyahu’s defense and throw him to jail. In the end, on Monday, Lapid had to fend off the cross-examining defense attorney Amit Hadad that Lapid’s own friendship with Milchin was much deeper than Netanyahu’s and that the ex-pat millionaire had treated Lapid and his wife to all-expenses-paid vacations in Israel and Europe.
Yaniv has altered his demeanor around the right’s Nov. 1, 2022 election victory, and has been a regular “pro-Netanyahu left-winger” on all the available panels on Radio and TV, including his own podcast, “What’s Happening?” He often repeats ideas on the same night on Ayala Hasson’s 7 PM show on Kan11, and less than two hours later on Yinon Magal’s Patriots on Channel 14.
When Patriots panelist and FM94 host Yotam Zimri, who trusts Yaniv as far as he can throw him and doesn’t bother to hide it, challenged him Monday night, Yaniv promised that he would soon reveal the whole truth about the police conduct in forging the cases against Netanyahu.
“I will reveal the names faster than you think,” he promised. “I will not only expose them – I will also make sure that none of them can deny it. We were being informed in real-time about the shape of the cases, who was going to close state’s witness deals, and what was in the cases.”
Meanwhile, journalist David Mizrahy Verthaim revealed on Twitter that Haaretz has forbidden its employees from participating in The Patriots, the show that’s second in the ratings only to Channel 12 and on occasion pushes ahead of its programs as well. According to Verthaim, Haaretz Chief Editor Aluf Ben confirmed to him that leftist talents such as the paper’s police reporter Josh Breiner and perpetual pro-PLO pundit Gideon Levy are no longer allowed to appear on The Patriots.
Breiner tweeted: “Administrative notice: after 4 years, dozens of programs, and one torn shirt, I decided to take a break from the Patriots. Many thanks to Yinon [Magal, the host], Hagai the great editor, to the panelists and viewers, those who liked [me] and those who didn’t. I saw the importance of voicing my opinions precisely on the 14, and precisely these days. All in all, it was fun. Believe it or not, there are also great people over there. Heart.”
Hasbara Minister Galit Distel-Atbaryan demanded that an immediate investigation be opened against former police commissioner Roni Alsheikh. “In light of Eldad Yaniv’s unimaginable disclosure on Channel 14, according to which he and other protest activists from the left were being briefed on the details of the Netanyahu investigation, with a stated goal on the part of senior police officers to topple the incumbent prime minister from power – an immediate investigation must be opened against Roni Alsheikh, [former AG] Avichai Mandelblit, and [former State Attorney] Shai Nitzan on suspicion of attempting to carry out a coup d’état.”
