Why is Ari Rosenfeld, the cyber expert who tried to get a hot Hamas document to Bibi's desk, still in prison? 

Photos: Elchanan Kotler, Family archives

Why is Ari Rosenfeld, the noncommissioned officer and cyber expert who bypassed military protocol in order to get a document outlining Hamas’s backroom plans directly onto the desk of the prime minister, still languishing in prison? His father, Rabbi Shmuel Rosenfeld, a veteran immigrant from New York and recognized expert in the world of safrus and Sta”m, is asking the same question

IT was a little before 5 a.m., and the young family was asleep. Outside, armed and masked agents from the Israel Security Agency, commonly known as the Shin Bet or Shabak, were clear about two things: They had to surprise their target, and they could not return to headquarters empty-handed. It was an extremely classified case, too sensitive for any mistakes. In situations like this, they held, you simply don’t knock. After receiving their orders, the agents broke down the door, entered the bedroom, and demanded that the suspect surrender. The man and his wife raised their hands, pleading for them not to open fire. In the next room, their two-and-a-half-year-old son was sleeping.

The Shabak agents ordered the man to accompany them. “Say goodbye to your son, you’re coming with us,” they told him. His wife was forbidden from telling anyone what had happened. They showed an increment of mercy by allowing her to inform her parents, but warned that if anyone else found out about the operation, she would regret it. And just as quickly as they had arrived, the Shabak agents left with the suspect.

This operation didn’t take place in Gaza, Jenin, or Lebanon; it happened on the seamline between Ramat Gan and Bnei Brak, and the arrested fellow was no terrorist or underworld operative, but a 30-year-old frum reserve soldier who had just come out of over 200 days of service in defense of the country — and known to the public until last week simply as “Noncommissioned officer A.”