Top Netanyahu Aide Alleges Blackmail After Abuse Accusation
A major sex scandal has erupted at the heart of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, threatening to further destabilize an administration already battered by a cascade of criminal investigations and public outrage. According to a bombshell report by Haaretz, Tzachi Braverman—Netanyahu’s powerful chief of staff and his handpicked candidate to become Israel’s next ambassador to the United Kingdom—has claimed he was the target of blackmail after a woman privately accused him of serious sexual offenses, providing evidence to police but refusing to file a formal complaint out of fear for her safety.
The woman, who has not been named, told investigators that Braverman committed grave sex crimes against her, Haaretz revealed. Police sources confirmed that she presented material backing up her allegations, yet pleaded with officers not to open an investigation or act on the information. “She’s afraid,” a person familiar with her told Haaretz. “Her descriptions are horrifying, and they are apparently backed up by evidence and things that people heard about the incident shortly after it happened.”
The revelation strikes at the core of Netanyahu’s inner circle. Braverman, one of the prime minister’s most trusted confidants, has been a fixture in the corridors of power, managing the leader’s schedule and serving as a key gatekeeper. His appointment as ambassador to London, announced earlier this year, was seen as a reward for years of loyalty. Now, however, that loyalty is under a harsh spotlight.
Braverman has denied all wrongdoing. Yet despite alleging he was being blackmailed over the accusations, he never filed a complaint with Israeli police—a move that has raised eyebrows among legal observers. The Haaretz investigation uncovered that a central figure in the affair is Attorney Amit Hadad, who represents Netanyahu and several close associates in multiple ongoing corruption cases. The woman consulted Hadad and sought his advice, but because of an obvious conflict of interest—Hadad’s professional ties to Braverman—he referred her to other lawyers. Sources said Hadad also encouraged her to go to the police.
What happened next further blurs the lines between private scandal and government power. According to sources cited by Haaretz, individuals close to the woman reached out to Braverman to “mediate” the matter without criminal proceedings and far from the public eye. Those discussions, the sources said, included the potential for financial compensation—effectively a monetary settlement to make the accusations disappear, though this was never explicitly stated. Hadad himself later attempted to broker a resolution between Braverman and the woman’s associates, but the chief of staff refused to cooperate. Police then became aware of the communications between Hadad and the woman, the report stated.
The timing is particularly damning. The woman’s meeting with police took place on the same day Braverman was being questioned in the “BibiLeaks” case, a scandal in which Netanyahu’s aides are accused of leaking classified military documents to the German press in order to sway Israeli public opinion on hostage negotiations. Braverman is under investigation for obstruction of justice in that matter, specifically for allegedly warning a key suspect about the probe.
The convergence of a sex abuse allegation with a high-level national security leak case paints a picture of a government in perpetual crisis mode. Netanyahu’s coalition, the most far-right in Israel’s history, is already reeling from multiple legal and ethical scandals: his own trial on corruption charges, probes into illicit Qatari propaganda dissemination by aides, and recent testimonies from soldiers about looting in Lebanon. A gag order has been placed on aspects of the broader investigation into Netanyahu’s top aides, but the Haaretz report breaks through a wall of silence.
Neither Braverman nor Hadad responded to requests for comment. The Prime Minister’s Office has not issued a statement. But for a prime minister who has long presented himself as the only leader capable of securing Israel’s future, the scandal at his doorstep—a terrified accuser, claims of blackmail, and an attempted back-channel settlement—signals that the rot in his government may run deeper than even his fiercest critics imagined. As one police official told Haaretz, officers tried to persuade the woman to come forward, but “they couldn’t convince her.” For now, the full truth remains locked behind a door of fear, even as the epicenter of Israeli power trembles.