This week, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-General Aviv Kochavi appointed Gil Messing as the new IDF Spokesman. The appointment was approved by Prime Minister/Defense Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

However, according to a report in the daily Haaretz, Lessing served as an undercover police agent during the corruption investigation into the Yisrael Beitenu party headed by Avigdor Lieberman. If Lieberman becomes defense minister, as is expected will occur, he may decide to cancel the appointment, with Haaretz adding the IDF was not aware of this fact when the appointment was made.

According to the report, in January 2015, Gil Messing met at a Tel Aviv cafe with one of the key figures in the Yisrael Beiteinu corruption affair, media adviser Ronen Moshe. Messing, who was close to state witness Amnon Lieberman, who served as the media advisor to ministers Stas Misezhnikov and Yair Shamir.

It turns out that Messing had talked to Moshe in order to extract a confession from him that bribed senior party figures and encouraged him to coordinate versions with Lieberman, thereby disrupting the course of the investigation.

Moshe was suspected of giving bribes to state witness Avigdor Lieberman and others but was not summoned for questioning. Therefore, he did not suspect that the meeting with his good friend Messing, then a senior at Strauss, was recorded. Nor did he think that this would complicate the investigation against him, and eventually lead to an indictment.

Now, with the publication of the report, the IDF is not really enthusiastic about the chief of staff’s new appointment, in addition to the fact that Lieberman, who may be returning to the Defense Ministry, is expected to thwart the appointment with all his might.

IDF Spokesperson Gil Messing decided not to comment on the matter.

The military said in response that “the chief of staff did not know the details of the publication, and the matter was examined by the relevant authorities in the law enforcement system, and Messing was never suspected of being involved in the affair.”

The Justice Ministry said in response: “Under the circumstances of the case, which we will not be able to detail for various reasons, there was no reason to investigate Mr. Messing as suspected of any offense.”

It should be noted that Gil Messing is supposed to replace Brigadier-General Ronen Manelis, who has been in office for the past two years, and the appointment will take effect in the coming months.

Over the years, since his discharge from the IDF, he served as communications advisor to former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, both during her tenure as foreign minister and when she served as opposition leader.

During his service in the IDF Spokesperson’s Office, Messing was Kochavi’s spokesman while serving in the Gaza Division, including the period of Gilad Shalit, and since then he has been close to Kochavi, who has since been appointed chief of staff.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)