Former PM Naftali Bennett denies Epstein worked for the Israeli government
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett issued a public denial on Monday that Jeffrey Epstein worked for the Mossad – the Israeli Secret Intelligence Service – in what appears to be the first such denial from an Israeli prime minister.
“As a former Israeli prime minister, with the Mossad having reported directly to me, I say to you with 100% certainty: The accusation that Jeffrey Epstein somehow worked for Israel or the Mossad running a blackmail ring is categorically and totally false,” Bennett wrote on 𝕏.
“Epstein’s conduct, both the criminal and the merely despicable, had nothing whatsoever to do with the Mossad or the State of Israel. Epstein never worked for the Mossad.”
Bennett then called out journalist Tucker Carlson by name, accusing him of slandering the State of Israel and the Jewish people.
“This accusation is a lie being peddled by prominent online personalities such as Tucker Carlson pretending they know things they don’t… There’s a vicious wave of slander and lies against my country and my people, and we just won’t take it anymore.”
Carlson responded by inviting Bennett for an interview.
“You ‘just won’t take it anymore’?” Carlson wrote. “Instead of issuing threats on social media, why don’t you sit down for a rational interview on Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to the Israeli government? We’ll reach out to your office this morning.”
The back-and-forth came after Tucker gave a speech at a Turning Point USA event, in which he stated his belief that Epstein worked on behalf of the Israeli government.
“It’s extremely obvious to anyone who watches that this guy had direct connections to a foreign government,” Carlson said. “No one’s allowed to say that that foreign government is Israel, because we have been somehow cowed into thinking that’s naughty.”
“The effect of making that off-limits has been to create a lot of resentment, and, I’ll say it, hate, online,” he continued.
“People feel like they can’t just say, like, ‘What the hell is this? You have the former Israeli prime minister living in your house, you’ve had all this contact with a foreign government. Were you working on behalf of Mossad? Were you running a blackmail operation on behalf of a foreign government?’”
He then claimed that this is already a consensus opinion in D.C., but that people are afraid to say it.
“By the way, every single person in Washington, D.C. thinks that,” Carlson said. “I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t think that. I don’t know any of them that hate Israel. But no one feels they can say that. Why?”
The widespread belief that Epstein had ties to Mossad comes largely from Epstein’s association with numerous prominent Israeli officials.
As has been previously covered on ALL ISRAEL NEWS, Epstein had connections to a number of high-level figures in the Israeli government, including three prime ministers.
Epstein had a close relationship with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Barak also served as head of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate, among other roles.
Barak and Epstein were especially close between 2013 and 2017, during which time Barak visited Epstein at least 36 times.
In 2015, Barak also co-funded the Tel Aviv-based tech startup Carbyne with Epstein.
Barak, who served for a time as Carbyne’s Chairman of the Board, was publicly criticized by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after reports of his business ties to Epstein emerged.
“Investigate Ehud Barak immediately,” Netanyahu said in 2019, shortly before Epstein’s death.
The Times of Israel noted that Barak’s relationship with Epstein became “a favorite election talking point for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Barak reentered the political fray.”
Barak, who denies being involved in any of Epstein’s crimes, has said he was introduced to Epstein in the early 2000s by former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres.
Besides this comment from Barak, the extent of Epstein’s connections to Peres is not publicly known.
However, a phone number and email address of longtime Peres advisor Avi Gil appeared in Epstein’s “black book” of contacts.
“Gil, a former Israeli diplomat, served under Shimon Peres for some 30 years in various capacities, including as his chief of staff,” the Jewish News Syndicate reported.
Also found in Epstein’s “black book” were three phone numbers of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Public speculation regarding Epstein’s ties to Israeli intelligence does not start with Tucker Carlson but traces back to at least 1992, when an article in the Mail on Sunday mentioned that “one outrageous story links [Epstein] to the CIA and Mossad.”
One journalist who in recent years has covered Epstein’s possible ties to intelligence agencies is Whitney Webb, as another ALL ISRAEL NEWS report noted.
Webb has written extensively on Epstein’s Israeli connections, including reporting about his ties to influential pro-Israel billionaire Les Wexner, and to Robert Maxwell, the father of Epstein’s closest confidant Ghislaine Maxwell.
“Robert Maxwell was buried on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives in the presence of numerous Israeli intelligence figures, and eulogized by then Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir,” the Times of Israel has reported. “Amid reports of his links to Britain’s MI6 intelligence, the KGB, and Mossad, Shamir declared that Maxwell ‘has done more for Israel than can today be said.’”
While Carlson focused on the Israel angle to the Epstein story in his recent speech, Webb has covered potential ties to U.S. intelligence agencies as well.
Ghislaine Maxwell, who was seen reading The Book of Honor: The Secret Lives and Deaths of CIA Operatives shortly before being arrested, has publicly said she believes both her father and Epstein were murdered.
After the (US) Department of Justice released a memo denying it had evidence that Epstein was murdered or involved in sexual blackmail, a reporter asked Attorney General Pam Bondi whether Epstein “ever worked for an American or foreign intelligence agency.”
“To him being an agent, I have no knowledge about that. We can get back to you on that,” Bondi responded.
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
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