Another hole in PMO as Netanyahu's bureau chief steps down

Gil Sheffer announces resignation, says leave unrelated to Ch. 2 report that decision was due to A-G investigation.

By HERB KEINON
Gil Sheffer 370 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Gil Sheffer 370
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Gil Sheffer, the prime minister’s bureau chief and a trusted confidant of the Netanayhu family, announced on Wednesday he was leaving his post, making him the latest senior adviser to Binyamin Netanyahu to announce his intention to resign.
Following a Channel 2 report on Wednesday night that Sheffer’s decision to leave comes after the attorney-general closed an investigation against him stemming from a complaint lodged by a woman in 1998, Sheffer issued a statement saying his decision to quit his post had nothing to do with investigation. According to a statement issued from the Prime Minister’s Office, the complaint was totally baseless, and proof of that is that the police closed the case after three polygraph tests showed Sheffer to be telling the truth. According to the Channel 2 report, the investigation was carried out by the police’s fraud division. The report said that that complainant also passed a polygraph test.
The attorney-general ruled that there was nothing preventing Sheffer from remaining in his position.
Nevertheless, Sheffer said that – as was previously agreed upon with Netanyahu – he will leave his position in the coming months after more than four years in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Sheffer first served as the person in charge of arranging Netanyahu’s meetings and trips inside the country, and was promoted to bureau chief in February 2012 after Natan Eshel was forced to resign.
The announcement that Sheffer will leave comes fast on the heels of the announcement last week by National Security Council head Yaakov Amidror that he will also be leaving in the next few months. Netanyahu, who only has a handful of close aides, has still not filled the senior policy adviser post vacated in March by Ron Dermer.
Dermer is expected to be appointed ambassador to the US in the near future.