Bennett Demands Security Cabinet Ministers Take Polygraph Tests, Shaked Says

Education Minister Naftali Bennett has asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to conduct polygraph lie-detector tests on all members of the security cabinet, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said Wednesday.

• Bennett proposed strike on Hamas' tunnels in Gaza, but Netanyahu and Ya'alon rejected him
• Hamas tunnel threat burrows into minds of Israeli military, political leaders
• Israeli attorney general gives Netanyahu cover to leak information at will

Shaked, in an interview with Army Radio, said Bennett asked for the tests to discover who leaked his proposal that Israel attack Hamas’ tunnels being dug from Gaza under the border. Bennett made his suggestion at a security cabinet meeting in recent weeks.

Netanyahu has yet to respond to Bennett’s request, said Shaked, the No. 2 to Bennett in the right-wing Habayit Hayehudi party.

After Bennett made his proposal, an official close to Ya’alon said cabinet members must stop making “childish, uninhibited and irresponsible remarks while deceiving the public. This phenomenon of ministers willing to drag the country to war out of cynical political motives simply jeopardizes Israel’s security.”

But Shaked said Ya’alon should apologize to Bennett because Bennett was not responsible for the leak.

For the security cabinet “to be good and effective, everyone must say what they think without fear that their remarks will be leaked. Minister Bennett has already asked the prime minister for a polygraph test for this leak because it can’t be that in the cabinet people are afraid to say things for fear it will be leaked,” Shaked said.

“I don’t want to blame people without knowing. If there is such a leak, it would be appropriate to examine it and not blame those who aren’t guilty.”