Former Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman was questioned by police on Thursday for alleged extortion against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. In an interview with Channel 12 last week, Argaman said that he will reveal private information about Netanyahu if he decides that the prime minister is acting “illegally.” Argaman was repeating the leftist refrain that Netanyahu is acting “illegally” whenever he does anything not to their liking – such as his plans to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and oust Attorney-General Gali Baharav Miara. “For now, everything that happened in one-on-one meetings between the prime minister and me—I keep in that space,” Argaman said. “It is absolutely clear that I have a great deal of knowledge, and I could use it, but I am not, for the reasons I mentioned. If I reach the conclusion that the prime minister is acting illegally, I will have no choice but to disclose everything I know and have kept to myself until now.” Following the interview, Netanyahu filed a complaint against Argaman for extortion by threatening him with the “criminal use of information he was privy to in his position in the Shin Bet.” Argaman was questioned at the central fraud investigation unit on suspicion of extortion by threats. Netanyahu also publicly slammed Argaman’s threats, saying after the interview: “A dangerous new red line has been crossed in Israeli democracy. Never, in all of Israel’s history or in the history of democracies, has a former head of a secret security agency openly blackmailed a sitting prime minister on live television. This crime is part of an ongoing campaign of extortion through media leaks in recent days, orchestrated by current Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)