Israeli journalist Avishai Grinzaig has raised some pointed questions about the conduct of the Shin Bet in the case of the alleged Qatari funding intended to influence the Israeli elections.
Along with publishing new details about the money that was allegedly transfered, Grinzaig claimed that at this stage, the scope of the affair is far from being clear, and criticized the manner in which the suspicions were revealed to the public.
According to the details that Grinzaig published, the suspcion that the Shin Bet is investigating focuses on the transfer of hundreds of thousands of shekels from a Qatari official to a mechanism affiliated with the Joint List.
According to his report, the Shin Bet's working assumption is that the purpose of the funds was to assist the Joint List in the elections. This being said, the Shin Bet is still looking into where the funds ended up and if this was part of a larger Qatari campaign to influence the election in Israel.
Grinzaig emphasizes that at the moment there is no confirmation that this was a widespread influence campaign, but the investigation has not yet concluded.
One of Grinzaig's central questions concerns the timing at which the affair is being dealt with. He stated that the Shin Bet had already recieved the information about the tranfer of funds before Election Day, but the suspicions were only revealed after polls closed.
Grinzaig points to the gap between the information that the Shin Bet had and remarks made by the agency's director, David Zini, on Election Day, in which he described the measures to suprivise and secure the elctions positivly.
According to Grinzaig, the remarks were made as Zini already new of the information about the suspicious tranfer of funds.
He also discussed the series of updates that were given to senior political and diplomatic officials as the investion was underway.
Zini met on Wednesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, updated the Central Elections Committee Chairman Noam Sohlberg, and later also sent information to Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot and other officials.
President Isaac Herzog announced this morning that he had spoken with Sohlberg and the head of the Shin Bet and that he was closely following developments in the investigation into the allegations.
Grinzaig questioned why updates had been provided to various political figures and why a public letter had been issued on the matter while the Shin Bet was still examining the nature of the money transfers and the scope of the affair.
While acknowledging that the transfer of funds from a Qatari source warrants investigation, Grinzaig argued that the authorities' handling of the matter so far raises significant questions.
Based on the information currently available, he described the affair as "blown wildly out of proportion."
He criticized the sequence of actions taken by the authorities, arguing that it defied the logic of both criminal investigations and preventive security operations.
At the center of his criticism is the claim that the allegations were made public before the facts had been established, and that the Shin Bet, whose primary role is to prevent security threats, allowed the elections to proceed despite the information in its possession.
Grinzaig explained: "What is particularly troubling is that the conduct is puzzling and defies all investigative or preventive security logic. First, they make it public, and only then do they investigate. First, they allow the elections to take place, and only afterward do they address the matter, even though the Shin Bet is a preventive security agency, not a law enforcement agency."
He added: "The conduct so far is extremely puzzling. The head of the Shin Bet updates Netanyahu, Eisenkot, Herzog, and others. A public letter is issued. All of this happens while the examination is still underway, and before the agency conducting it even knows the overall nature of the affair it is investigating."