Israeli politicians often complain about foreign countries interfering in Israel's internal affairs. It now turns out that Israeli political figures are guilty of the same kind of interference: a Shomrim investigation reveals that President Isaac Herzog recommended that a candidate running in the Romanian presidential election hire Moti Sender – a businessman and political operative who is close to Herzog – to run his election campaign. Shortly thereafter, Sender was appointed to a senior position in Mircea Geoană’s campaign – taking with him Yonatan Urich and Srulik Einhorn, two advisors to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu whose names recently hit the headlines over their alleged involvement in the investigation over leaked confidential documents to the German newspaper Bild. Moreover, when a financial dispute emerged between Sender and Geoană, the latter asked Herzog to mediate between them – but to no avail.

Geoană did not progress past the first round of voting, which took place on November 24, and announced that he was leaving the political life.

Meetings in Israel and a presidential campaign

Geoană is a former president of the Senate of Romania and the country’s foreign minister, but his most recent position was outside the country, as deputy secretary general of NATO. It was in this capacity that he visited Israel in early September 2023. During the visit, he met with Netanyahu, who referred to him as “an old friend,” and with Herzog. In interviews during his time in Israel, he said that NATO was very keen to expand cooperation with Israel. At the same time, however, he was already planning the next stage in his career: running for president of Romania. That aspiration, it turns out, came up during the meeting with Herzog, alongside the name of Moti Sender.

On September 12, 2023, just five days after the meeting in Jerusalem, Geoană got a WhatsApp message from Sender, whom he had never met before. Sender introduced himself, saying: ‘A mutual friend suggested we should connect. I've been collaborating with Perception Media…led by Srulik Einhorn. They've secured seven election victories just last year, all within a legitimate and ethical framework…We're win-oriented and offer a comprehensive solution for your campaign—strategy, creative, digital, videos, speeches, and GOTV, all in collaboration with your local team. Time is of the essence; a successful campaign starts about a year before election day. I'd love to discuss how we could assist in your upcoming campaign as soon as possible.”

After exchanging WhatsApp messages, the two men met in Brussels in early October last year, along with team members from both sides. Shortly thereafter, a contract was signed, and Sender began working with Geoană’s campaign. The contract specified that Geoană would pay 175,000 euros a month for five months; this sum would pay Sender’s salary and would also be used to pay people that he hired for the campaign.

Who is the “mutual friend” that Sender says suggested contacting Geoană in the first place? Sender recently told several different people that it was none other than President Herzog, whom he describes as a close friend. He also confirmed this in a conversation with Shomrim. A quick search of the archives pulls references to the friendship between them, as well as to incidents when Sender functioned as a mediator between the Labor Party and Netanyahu. In 2020, for example, Kan 11 published that Sender, whom it described as “a close personal friend of the president,’ was responsible for brokering the Netanyahu-Gantz unity government and that in 2025 he tried to forge an alliance between Netanyahu and Herzog.

What, then, was the president’s motivation? According to what Sender told multiple people, Herzog approached him and asked him to help Geoană’s campaign, in part because he is seen as sympathetic to Israel.

Herzog appeared again later in the relationship between Geoană and Sender. On June 10, Sender sent Geoană another WhatsApp message containing a selfie, in which Herzog and his wife can be seen in the background. Sender wrote: “President Herzog asked me to tell you that he is praying for your victory, and he wants to be one of the first to host you in Jerusalem.”

The relationship between Geoană and Sender has hit something of a rough patch in recent months, however, after Sender claimed that he only received partial payment for his work and that he is still owed around 300,000 euros. In an interview with Attila Biro, the founder of the Romanian investigative website Context, Sender said that he worked on every aspect of Geoană’s campaign: strategy, distribution, advertising and more. He also said that he plans to sue the former candidate for the money he is owed. “I’ll go all the way with this so that the media can see everything,” he said. “This is not future salary; this is for the work I did up to the end of July.”

Shomrim has been informed that, when the financial dispute between Geoană and Sender erupted, the former contacted Herzog and asked him to mediate, but the president’s efforts to do so were unsuccessful.

As mentioned earlier, the first round of the election was held on November 24 and Geoană, who ran as an independent candidate, garnered a disappointing 6 percent of the vote. As a result, he announced that he was leaving political life. The candidate with the most votes after the first round was something of a surprise – a far-right populist espousing strongly anti-European views that are fundamentally different from Geoană’s.

Shomrim contacted President Herzog’s office to ask why he interfered in the presidential election campaign of a foreign country and whether it is his position to recommend a close friend for a position in a foreign election campaign. In response, Herzog’s spokesperson said that “the abovementioned allegations are utterly groundless. Despite your claim, the president did not arrange to set up anything between Mircea Geoană and Mr. Moti Sender and did not intervene in any dispute between them. It should be stressed that the president does not interfere in any election campaign in any country.”

Geoană, the Romanian embassy in Israel, and Perception Media did not respond to Shomrim’s request for comment.