In the midst of the war that Israel is fighting on several fronts, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing a new internal crisis that may not have been anticipated. A government committee investigating what is known as the "Submarine Case" announced that it has sent warning notices to five individuals it believes may be affected by its investigation, including Netanyahu and former naval commander Admiral Ram Rothberg, according to the "Times of Israel."
According to an 11-page statement issued by the committee, Netanyahu made "decisions with significant security implications without an organized decision-making process, bypassing his government to reach agreements with Germany on a series of political, security, and military issues, as well as concluding defense deals without organized functional work."
Additionally, the statement confirms that Netanyahu excluded "relevant security bodies from the decision-making process when dealing with sensitive political security issues, avoided documentation of meetings, and created parallel and conflicting work channels, thereby risking national security and harming Israel’s foreign relations."
Besides Netanyahu and Rothberg, former Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, and former National Security Council employee Avner Simhoni are also set to be warned by the committee. The warning notices have been sent to allow these individuals to provide additional testimony and present evidence relating to their actions.
The investigation committee, formed during the tenure of former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in 2022, has spent more than two years investigating the purchases of submarines and naval vessels that occurred during Netanyahu's previous term.
Israel had purchased submarines from the German shipbuilding company ThyssenKrupp in a mysterious $2 billion deal, which came under scrutiny amid suspicions of potential corruption and bribery. While Netanyahu is not considered a suspect, he has testified before the police regarding the deal, and several of his close aides have been charged and convicted for their involvement in the negotiations.
In a statement on behalf of Netanyahu, the Office of the Israeli Prime Minister stated that "submarines are a key element in the Israeli national security and in ensuring its existence against Iran, which seeks to destroy us." It continued, "The purchase of submarines and surface vessels did not harm the country's security, but rather guarantees its existence," adding that "history will prove that the Prime Minister was right in this matter and made the correct decisions for Israel's security."
