Bibitours: Netanyahu Took Millions from Pro-Israel Groups and Donors, Violating Knesset Ethics Rules

Yesterday, I wrote my first post about a brewing Israeli scandal, Bibitours, which is enveloping the Israeli airwaves and political discourse.  I’ve just started watching Raviv Drucker’s video reports which broke the story and it’s potentially huge.  As I understand it, Bibi, in the period from when he ended his first prime ministership in 1999 until as late as 2005 (and possibly later) accepted millions of dollars worth of speakers fees, hotel, food, and personal jet travel from a network of pro-Israel groups and individual right-wing donors against the ethics rules of the Knesset.  Those rules state that an MK may only speak or travel when it is directly related to his government role and that family members must be paid for directly by the member and not by outside parties.  MKs must also receive permission from a Knesset committee for such travel.  In addition, any benefit accrued on behalf of family members must be declared on personal tax returns.

According to my understanding of Drucker’s report, Bibi did none of these things.  To give you a sense of the scope of the charges, between 1999 and 2001 alone Bibi earned $2-million in speaking fees from pro-Israel groups like Israel Bonds, American Enterprise Institute and BICOM.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars in stays at luxury hotels in London, New York, Brussels and elsewhere were paid for on his behalf by corporate fatcats with business interests that could directly benefit from helping a future prime minister.  Scores of trips using private jets of these same fatcats.  Private cars at the beck and call of Sara Netanyahu and her children.  All of this again in direct violation of ethics guidelines and Israeli tax law.

In a number of these cases, the groups themselves were reimbursed for the fees and other expenses by private parties whose names are the cream of the crop of French, U.S. and British Jewish corporate power.  Among the names of those who offered Bibi financial carte blanche are Arnon Milchan, the Hollywood powerbroker and Poju Zabludowicz, chairman of BICOM, who helped fund Adam Werrity’s first-class world travel conniving for regime change in Iran.  Most of those individuals either refused to discuss their actions or offered limited explanations and were reluctant to talk.  Some confessed to memory lapses.  Some even tried to hide them in ways that are even more suspicious.

That Bibi is a typically corrupt Israeli politician will come as no surprise to any Israeli.  Prime ministers going all the way back to Yitzhak Rabin have been accused of, and toppled because of corruption and bribery charges.  So this is nothing new.  The question becomes whether the story has legs.  What brought down Ehud Olmert was a cascading series of charges which reinforced the corruption charges against him.  So far, Drucker has opened a huge reservoir of information and charges which the State Controller has begun to investigate.  If these charges stick, then the Israeli media will be forced to delve into them in greater detail, which may lead to even more and newer revelations.

That could threaten Bibi’s hold on power, which is why he’s attempted to get Drucker fired and the government’s chief investigator removed from the case.  This story is potentially deadly for him, though it’s still too early to tell how it will play out.

It should be noted that even if Bibi falls it likely will not change the complexion of Israeli politics or make it any easier to resolve the thorny issues of the Israeli-Arab conflict.  Anyone who takes his place will almost as bad on these issues as Bibi is or was.  But if Bibi does fall, it can only be for the good both for the direct reasons related to the corruption charges and because his is a deeply noxious influence on the Israeli political scene.