Behind the back of the security establishment: The direct contacts Netanyahu conducted with Hamas
In the midst of Operation Protective Edge in 2014, the Prime Minister conducted direct contacts with senior terrorist organization member Ghazi Hamad behind the back of the security establishment through his associate, businessman Shlomi Fogel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held contacts and direct negotiations with Hamas behind the back of the security establishment, through an Israeli businessman, one of his associates. This is not about the negotiation technique that was practiced between Israel and Hamas throughout the years - not through the Egyptians, not through the Qataris, and not through a mediator. These were completely direct contacts.
This is not about the negotiations that Netanyahu conducted at the time with Yahya Sinwar, in which Sinwar sent the famous note "Take a calculated risk" to National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat. Even those contacts took place through a third party (the Egyptians). This time it is about a direct contact of a businessman sent by Netanyahu, under the guidance of the head of the National Security Council, who spoke directly with senior Hamas member Ghazi Hamad in the Gaza Strip.
The conversations took place by phone and lasted several weeks, with Netanyahu setting the guidelines, Yossi Cohen shaping the messages, and businessman Shlomi Fogel conducting the conversations. It is important to emphasize that these negotiations took place in parallel to the negotiations conducted by the heads of the security establishment on Netanyahu's behalf, without them knowing about it. These are contacts that took place during Operation Protective Edge in the months of July-August 2014.
Netanyahu, who sought a ceasefire from the first day of the operation, sent a security delegation to Egypt that included Major Generals Poli Mordechai, Nimrod Shefer, Amos Gilad, and Shin Bet head Yoram Cohen. The delegation conducted negotiations for a ceasefire through the Egyptians, with representatives of Hamas and other factions in the Strip.
However, the negotiations did not progress and no breakthrough was achieved. At a certain stage, the security establishment discovered, to their astonishment, that while the delegation was coming and going from Cairo, there was a secret, back-channel that the Prime Minister was operating directly with Hamas, and not through mediators. It turned out that businessman Shlomi Fogel, close to Netanyahu, was the man conducting the contacts with Ghazi Hamad, who was then a deputy minister in the Hamas government in the Strip.
An inquiry made with Netanyahu did not succeed. Shlomi Fogel was called for an inquiry by an official in the security establishment, was warned, and was asked to stop the independent negotiations. However, it later turned out that the negotiations continued as usual. When Fogel was called for an inquiry a second time, he proved, to everyone's astonishment, that he was acting with the authority and permission of Prime Minister Netanyahu, and that he was receiving the messages themselves from the head of the National Security Council, Yossi Cohen. All this without the security establishment knowing, without the knowledge of the IDF Chief of Staff, the head of Aman, the head of the Mossad, or other officials - and without the security delegation, which flew back and forth to Cairo for weeks, being aware of anything.
Ghazi Hamad is a known Hamas terrorist - currently the chairman of the Energy Authority in the Strip and former deputy foreign minister and advisor to senior members of Hamas's military wing. As mentioned, he conducted the ceasefire contacts with Fogel, who conducted them on Netanyahu's behalf. When this became clear, the astonishment among all the heads of the security branches was absolute.
This week, a former senior official in the National Security Council told me about the magnitude of the astonishment that prevailed then among the heads of the security establishment when they discovered the existence of the Prime Minister's direct secret channel with Hamas. "People's jaws dropped. You have to understand, these are not those days, when Netanyahu declared open war on the entire security establishment, this was 12 years ago, he appointed all these people, he sent them on a mission, he dispatched them to conduct indirect negotiations through the Egyptians with Hamas, and in parallel he operated a private businessman directly. Today I see this as writing that was already on the wall back then."
