The Shin Bet was aware of suspicions of foreign money entering Israel to influence the election several days before the vote took place, Channel 12 reported, and only informed Central Elections Committee chairman Justice Yitzhak Soleimberg after the fact.
The report follows Soleimberg's public call to Shin Bet chief David Zinni to open an investigation into suspected bribery during the election campaign. In a letter, the justice wrote that he had been presented with serious suspicions of improper influence through foreign funding from external actors working against Israeli interests. "I cannot attest to the nature of these suspicions, but it seems to me, given that the suspicions concern foreign actors, there is an obligation to investigate them thoroughly, in order to preserve the purity of Knesset elections and to prevent illegal activity aimed at harming the democratic order and preventing subversion," Soleimberg wrote, without specifying which foreign actor allegedly interfered or which party allegedly received the funds.
Soleimberg continued with explicit instructions to Zinni: "I am directing you to do everything in your power to investigate these suspicions and to make use of the General Security Service framework to locate evidence to substantiate or refute the suspicions. Only in this way can we ensure public confidence in the election process and the integrity of the democratic process."
At the close of the letter, Justice Soleimberg demanded that the investigation's findings, if any, be presented to him within one week, citing the tight schedule for vote counting.
