There are serious murmurings in Israeli media that Bibi Netanyahu faces a new, and far more damaging investigation by Israeli police. Raviv Drucker and others have suggested various reasons for them, but no one knows for sure. Of one thing Drucker is certain: this is the big one, the political earthquake many have expected without knowing when it would hit.
Bibi and his wife, Sara, already face several critical criminal probes that involve bribery, corruption, misappropriation of government funds, etc. One is the Bibitours case in which he received double reimbursement for official travel which was also paid for by foreign donors. In another case, he took hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from a wealthy French Jew who is now himself under investigation there for bilking hundreds of millions of dollars.
There are several theories of what the new brewing scandal involves. Political blogger and lawyer David Levy says it regards stuffing of ballot boxes in the last election which permitted the Likud to pull a last-minute victory out of the fire. He claims a hacker broke into the Israel Elections Commission server and added hundreds of thousands of votes to the Likud column, which added 8 seats to its total. In other words, the election was cooked.
Add to this that each of the three major TV channels predicted based on exit polls that the results of the race would be extremely close. That Likud won six more seats than Labor was astonishing and unprecedented. Levy also documents that in the last two hours before polls closed several hundred more votes were cast than in any previous election.
While all this is very suggestive, given that no one else is supporting these claims, I take them with a grain of salt. Though I don’t discount them entirely.
Haaretz says it’s regarding yet more allegations of receiving funds from foreign donors after Bibi took the reins of the Likud in 2009. Raviv Drucker, who is one of Israel’s best TV investigative journalists calls it “a serious, wide-ranging investigation that will explode shortly.” Another Haaretz reporter has confirmed that the State prosecutor began serious deliberations involving his own staff and the police, on the matter weeks ago.
Readers should remember this is nothing new. Israeli politics is deeply corrupt from top to bottom. The last prime minister, Ehud Olmert is now in prison for graft. Ariel Sharon before him had Sugar Daddy, Martin Schlaff who bought his Sycamore Ranch and offered him endless buckets of cash. The question is whether Bibi can be felled by the scandal or whether he will continue plodding along as he has been.
The Israeli press, which generally hates him (with the exception of Yisrael HaYom), is clamoring for a really big scandal and his downfall. But will it make a difference? Will what follows Bibi be any different than what he’s offered? The answer is clearly no. Look at the candidates who could rise to replace him: Bogie Yaalon, Gideon Saar, Avigdor Lieberman, Naftali Bennett, Moshe Kahlon. They offer more of the same. Perhaps a little dirtier or cleaner, a little more hawkish or dovish. But nothing new or different.
Another problem for the Israeli political system is that unlike many other western democracies, Bibi sees everyone in his own party as a rival and a threat. He hasn’t cultivated a leader to carry on his political legacy after he leaves office. In fact, he deliberately tears down anyone who could do that. Essentially, he has no long-term allies. He has only short-term alliances which are matters of mutual convenience. This creates a crisis in the event of Bibi’s fall from power. It also means that he will not leave his mark on Israeli politics. He will be written out of the history books as a megalomaniacal egotistical petty tyrant. He is no Ben Gurion. No Golda. Not even a Sharon. He’s more like Caligula, Nero or Louis XIV (“apres moi, le deluge“).
A new political thriller has just been published in Israel by Yediot Achronot’s book publishing imprint (Yediot is an arch-enemy of Netanyahu). The book The 1001st Year is about a neo-Nazi conspiracy (by descendants of the German Templer sect) to “plant” some of them in key posts in Israel, in order to cause Israel’s demise. Their biggest success is “planting” IDF’s new chief of staff, Elad Bental. When an investigative reporter discovers the conspiracy, he’s threatened and compelled to keep the secret to himself.
There are a series of hints that the life of the fictional Bental mirrors that of the real Netanyahu. Which means the authors are really saying that Netanyahu is causing, either deliberately or unintentionally, Israel’s downfall. A confidential and knowledgeable source tells me that the book is also a sophisticated way of hinting that Israeli media is being intimidating into not publishing (even more) damning facts about Bibi.
Netanyahu is currently conducting something like a rock & roll reunion tour of Africa, in which he’s being feted by the finest dictators the continent has to offer. Among Israel’s closest friends there are genocidaires, Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni. They’ve accepted thousands of African refugees expelled illegally from Israel, which has dumped them in strange countries with a pittance in send-off money, and without contacts or travel papers.
His tour is part of a hoary old strategy first devised by David Ben Gurion. He used the Mossad and Israeli foreign aid to buy friends and influence people in Africa. Buying influence also involved shipping Israeli weapons to newly independent nations, who returned the favor, becoming loyal supporters of Israel in international bodies like the UN. Today, Bibi pursues this strategy because Israel has no friends left at all in the world, unless you count the Wahabis in Saudi Arabia and the military putchists in Egypt. Oh and let’s not forget the U.S., with presidential candidates like Hillary Clinton offering a Middle East plank in the Democratic Party platform which rejects U.S. foreign policy over the past four decades in not denouncing Israeli settlements.
One of the most hilarious and disturbing statements from Bibi in the past day or so involves a NY Times interview in which the prime minister says that when he’s facing a really tough situation he summons the spirit of his dead brother, Yoni, to help him. The dutiful Times reporters interviewing him let him get away with this crap and treated their subject with the appropriate hagiographic deference:
Whenever he is facing a critical decision, whether for his country’s military or his own personal life, there is one person Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel says he routinely consults: his dead brother.
…Mr. Netanyahu said he frequently held “hypothetical” conversations with Yonatan…
“Often I have to dispatch people to places where if there’s a failure, they won’t come back. It’s in times like these that I consult with my brother — and they’re a lot more frequent than you might think.”
Bibi breaks out this new meme just in time for his speech on the Entebbe runway where Yoni Netanyahu died freeing the Israeli hostages in 1976. It’s like he’s playing the greatest hits of his political career. He is absolutely shameless. Not above exploiting the memory of his dead brother for political gain.
Another bit of delicious Afro-Israeli trivia: on his last trip to Africa as foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, known affectionately by his friends as Yvet, decided to look the part of an African potentate. It suits him, don’t you think?
1. The Israeli press coverage is, of course, atrocious. With all the rabidly pro and anti Bibi coverage (they all have a strong underlying positions) – there isn’t any impartial covering of this.
2. If you want an interesting -sign- of where this might be headed – The AG’s decision that he can’t make decisions (as Communications minister) regarding Bezeq due to a “personal friendship” (which isn’t so close – really an acquaintance) with Elovitch is highly irregular and suspicious. If you can’t make decisions due to an acquaintance (please ignore the Israeli gas COIs – they were born of political convenience (a toxic issue – best not to vote) + trying to obstruct (Isramco benefits from this dragging on – and having a COI and not being able to vote (as opposed to being forced to voting with the coalition as a minister) is….) – ministers in Israel would never be able to make decisions.
Since the AG’s decision regarding Bibi and Bezeq is so unusual – it really only makes sense if there was an ongoing investigation…. Then this is probably around Elovitch and/or other comm stuff.
3. Give Times a pass – this was coverage due to the 40 year mark of Entebbe (which also fell on 4th of July) – really a feel good story. Fluff. Not real journalism. And all the papers (even Times) has some of this
4. Making friends in Africa (and elsewhere) makes sense for Israel. Weapon deals are a good door opener, and they bring in some nice hard cash too.
What’s highly unusual (to put it mildly) is Bibi functioning as a prime minister and as a minister of 4 other departments.
In Israeli politics this has happened before though mainly in an interim basis. Some PMs were also ministers of defense in parallel – which is more powerful than what Bibi is holding at the moment – which is foreign affairs (used to be one of the big-3 in Israel, influence has been waning as in most countries in the digital era), Communications (has quite a bit of power for pols), Regional cooperation (a booby prize, not really an office – is essentially a no-portfolio with a name attached), and industry&commerce (a mid-level office).
Bibi’s probably holding on to most of these (and surely onto the nothing regional cooperation and industry&commerce) in order to allow coalition building (easier to give away a portfolio no one (the PM) is holding – then removing an appointee) – i.e. adding Labor, Yesh Atid, or some other construction.
The AG’s decision, (regarding Bibi and Bezeq/Elovitch ) however, is highly irregular (and doesn’t make sense on the basis of a very loose personal acquaintance) and Bibi’s many offices shouldn’t have influenced it. HOWEVER – if Bibi is under investigation for his connections with Elovitch………. The AG’s decision makes perfect sense.
In short – if there is an investigation regarding Bibi (and all we have is media rumor-based reporting) – it probably involves Elvoitch too.
@ lepxii: First, foreign affairs portfolios aren’t waning in importance. Just the opposite. Hillary Clinton will become the next president largely due to her having served 6 yrs as Obama’s Sec. of State. Bibi holds the Communications ministry because he wishes to destroy public broadcasting independence & turn it into a megaphone for his policies, much as Poland’s right wing governing party has done. It is an extremely important ministry to him and Israel’s far right governing elite.
” … because Israel has no friends left at all in the world,”
Really! … Netanyahu came to uk and Cameron positively grovelled … uk BDJ are never heard to murmur anything but praise for the zionist state.
@Alec
You wrote:
” … because Israel has no friends left at all in the world,”
Really! … Netanyahu came to uk and Cameron positively grovelled … uk BDJ are never heard to murmur anything but praise for the zionist state.”
“never heard to murmur anything but praise”? Really?
This is what the British Jewish News fairly recently reported.:
“A major survey on British Jews’ feelings about Israel has shown “feelings of despair” are widespread and that most are torn between loyalty to the country and repulsion at some of its policies. Releasing the findings of its poll, commissioning group Yachad said the research showed that 68 percent felt “a sense of despair” every time Israel expanded settlements, while three quarters felt settlements were a “major obstacle to peace”.”
And about Cameron’s “grovelling”: he hasn’t exactly shown to have a sure grasp of the sentiments of the British electorate, has he?
The Jewish Virtual Library reported this about general British feelings toward Israel (the bottom figures are those of 2014). Apart from North Korea there is no other country in this particular survey people feel so negatively about:
Which of the following do you feel especially unfavourable towards?. (Chatham House, November 2015)
Country
2012
2014
North Korea
40%
47%
Israel
17%
35%
Iran
45%
33%
Pakistan
32%
28%
Nigeria
16%
21%
Saudi Arabia
29%
15%
Argentina
18%
12%
China
8%
10%
United States
8%
9%
Egypt
7%
7%
India
6%
5%
South Korea
4%
4%
Source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/poUK.html
@ Alec: It was clear from the context of my comment I wasn’t talking about individuals, but about entire nations. THe level of support for Palestine & opposition to Israeli policy in Britain is growing exponentially. It’s only a matter of time before official Britain will catch up.
[comment deleted: faux snark is not a substantive comment & violates the comment rules.]
[comment deleted: by calling for a lobotomy you’ve violated the comment rules. I don’t joke about such things. If you ever wish to comment here again read them. And don’t break them.
You go to get your trip together and read your own rules.
” where Yoni Netanyahu died freeing the Israeli hostages in 1972. ”
1976
“Avigdor Lieberman, known affectionately by his friends as Yvet, decided to look the part of an African potentate. It suits him, don’t you think?”
If this is not a derogatory statement and also racist what is?
@ thelma: Donning robes of African potentates is what is racist. A fat Moldovan pretending he’s an African king is culturally offensive.
@Richard
So, Bibi, the longest serving Prime Minister of Israel, is unaware that the 1976 hostage crisis, that killed his own brother, was and Israel-PFLP ‘false flag’?
Or maybe the ‘false flag’ canard is vintage, forty year old Soviet era disinformation that’s unfit for re-publication because it doesn’t pass the smell test?
@ Malka: I have no idea what you’re talking about. I didn’t raise this issue here. Comments must be on topic, dealing only with the post on which they’re commenting.
As for the false flag operation you note: it was an article published by the BBC in 2007, which quoted a UK diplomat recounting a conversation he had with an Arab political leader claiming it was a false flag operation. Israel has mounted so many false flag operations in its history, that such claims, esp. when they originate with the respected news outlet, the BBC, and the respected foreign affairs wing of the UK government, must be treated seriously.
Do not comment further in this thread. You may not post off topic comments.
” A fat Moldovan pretending he’s an African king is culturally offensive.”
‘Body shaming’? ‘Othering’.
@ Malka: Isn’t it interesting that Malka is offended by characterizations of Avigdor Lieberman as fat, which Israelis note virtually every day in social media. But if anyone characterized Mahmoud Abbas as a fat corrupt slob, she’d laugh till it hurt. That’s because she’s a hypocrite.
@Richard
I’m not offended by your characterizing him as a fat Moldovan.
I am offended when hypocrites identify themselves as liberal and progressive, but who are anything but.
Faced with your own hypocrisy, you distract, invert and project until Malka is laughing at fat Abbas.
Wow. Fifth grade or fourth?
@ Malka: I’m offended by hypocrites too, like you. You don’t give a crap about anyone of anything but Jews.
The notion that to be progressive I must treat Lieberman with deference & respect is laughable. The fact that you’re laughing at fat Abbas but not offended, as you were about Lieberman, seals the deal. You’re a Class A hypocrite.
I told you not to comment further in this thread. You did. You are now moderated.
[comment deleted–and now you are banned. Be sure to get your new hasbara assignment before checking out here. And prepare for your departure fr Ben Gurdon for a new hasbara destination.]
Well I am one the last to “defend” Lieberman, but is it really wise continue to insult Moldovan and Soviet people time after time. Avigdor Lieberman certainly doesn’t represent Moldova or Russia in any relevant way.
Lieberman’s father and mother raised him to a strong Jewish identity. Wiki tells Lieberman attributes his forthright personality to his youth in the large Jewish community of 1970s Kishinev, saying: “Jews were 25 percent of the population of Kishinev [during the 1970s]… We were more affluent, better educated, and we showed it… The Jews of Moldova have this no-nonsense streak.”
Avigdor Lieberman was 19 year old when he moved to Israel. He studied, went to army and made his political carrier in Israel among “Israelis”. His accent and links to Israeli Soviet Jews is a trick simply connecting to the largest support base he can achieve.
The notion that this nut has some magical connections to Russian ruling elite because he was born in Soviet Union are more or less funny. How could he have made such connections living in a distant periphery and with parents having a obviously politically problematic past? As absurd would say that a Jewish man born in Nowhere Texas and raised there until he was 19 years old when he had moved with his family to Israel, would have some miracle connections to US elite when he is 58 years old, simply because he was born in Texas. Lieberman’s only real asset linking him to Russia is his ability to speak Russian.
The reality is that Lieberman was raised to strong Jewish identity and he lived in a Jewish surrounding already in Moldova. A proof of that mental attitude was his love and activity with Israeli right wing extremists after moving to Israel. The notion that Lieberman is average fat Moldavian or Russian is amusing. Avigdor is a fat Israeli and his less admirable “personality” is not Moldavian or Russian even many in USA and Israel want to believe that and deny that Lieberman is one of “them”.
@ SimoHurtta: Actually, it’s widely believed in Israel that Lieberman was recruited by the KGB before he left for Israel. This is precisely what happened with Boris Krasny. So it’s entirely possible with Lieberman as well.
As for his connection to Moldova: it is one of the more autocratic former Soviet republics and he was a bouncer there. THese are key facts relating to his background.
Lieberman worked as a nightclub bouncer in Israel, that is a fact. From wikipedia
What has that to do with Moldova, KGB or Soviet Union? Nothing, but much with Israel and “Israelis”. On the other hand if somebody as a student worked almost 40 years ago as a nightclub bouncer, what has it to do what he is today? The only one can generate of that is a selling headline to their propaganda, but nothing else. By the way I worked as a student one month in a restaurant as a dish washer.
Actually being widely believed to be recruited by KGB before Israel is not a fact of truth of that recruitment it is only a fact of the existing belief. Such beliefs are called rumors or political smearing attempts. In Finland several presidents and countless politicians have been accused to be recruited by KGB during Soviet times. Now when somebody here dares to say anything positive about Russia, he/she is claimed to be a FSB’s or Putin’s “troll” and acting in hybrid warfare. Hmmmm …
KGB did not recruit 19 years old boys and send them to Israel to work as Jewish right wing radicals/extremists and night club bouncers. Lieberman did not achieve much in IDF. In Israeli politics he has achieved much. It is 100 percent certain, that all possible and impossible American and Israeli secret services have inspected Lieberman’s all links to Russia during past decades before allowing him to enter in the core of Israeli weapon industry and military decision making, where he has been already for a longer time. If there would be any slightest evidence of such links to Russian intelligence services Lieberman would have not become a minister in Israel.
Moldova’s autocratic nature in Soviet times might be the triggering reason why Lieberman’s and other “Israelis” moved to Israel, not explaining what Lieberman is 40 year after moving. Moldova during Soviet Times was an autocratic communist atheistic “society”. Is Lieberman a communist and a known atheist? If not where is the Moldova and KGB influence?
So KGB’s plan was to infiltrate Lieberman to Israel to become a corporal in IDF, night club bouncer in Tel Aviv and a right wing activist in Israeli political life. Can we say that all American Israelis who moved to Israel at the age <20 are sent there by CIA? Especially those most crazy ones.
By the way if birth place is used as the identifier then Ariel Scheinermann alias Sharon was a fat Palestinian being born in the British Mandate of Palestine. The Fat Palestinian who reduced the amount of thinner Palestinians in considerable amounts …
@ SimoHurtta: The reason his earlier occupation is so resonant is because he assumes the same role today. Surely you can see that. He’s a brutal, lying, corrupt, wheeler-dealer, tyrannical figure, qualities that probably made him a good nightclub bouncer.
And whether he was a bouncer in Israel is immaterial. He began doing the job in Moldova.
Being a dishwasher is much different than being a bouncer. Unless you smashed the crockery over the heads of the customers & expelled them from the restaurant.
You are wrong about KGB recruitment. BOris Krasny was that age when recruited. THere is no age specification for recruitment of spies.
I have written extensively about Lieberman’s alleged KGB involvement. These are not simply unfounded rumors. You should read my posts on this subject. Even Israeli intelligence has refused to offer him briefings on Russian matters which involve classified or privileged information because they too share these fears; or perhaps are convinced that he is a agent.
As for your certainty that suspicion he was a Russian agent would prevent him from becoming a minister, quite a number of Russian agents either are or have been very powerful politically in Israel. AMong them is Boris Krasny. In some senses, he is as powerful or more so than any minister. Marcus Klingberg was the second highest official in Israel’s biological weapons division.
Lieberman’s political views are certainly heavily influenced by his Communist past. He would’ve made an excellent commissar & behaves as one to this day.
I find this comment series to be totally a waste of time. You are wrong in most of your assumptions about how the KGB & Israeli society work in regards to this subject. I really don’t want to conduct a tutorial on this. You’re just going to have to accept that I reject most of your claims regarding this & don’t want to conduct a long disquisition about it. You can have whatever opinions you have on this. But keep them to yourself.
@Thelma (thelmsbara?)
“if this is not a derogatory statement and also racist what is?”
Maybe that fat Moldovan whining about “niggers” and “cancer in Israel”, as many others of his political mindset in the “Jewish state” are wont to do?
That fat Moldovan advocating for the “transfer” of the remaining indigenous population (hint– not the Jews) from the Israeli state and the occupied Palestinian West Bank?
Actual racism. Of course, certain elements will overlook the fanatical racism of Lieberman and others in favour of shrieking “racist” as slander or an attempted spoiling tactic.
In the words of a certain fat, orange piece of trash stateside: Sad!
@Kyle-your comments seem to come from a very immature person and are totally puerile.
It is also obvious you are not Jewish and you post anti-semitic posts on other sites.
So what it comes down to is that you are the actual racist.
@ thelma: Read my comment rules. Your comments must be substantive. Don’t attempt to make personal statements about other commenters. Stick to ideas.
This may upset you but we don’t have any religious litmus tests here. Anyone of any religion may publish comments. And no commenters may disparage any other for being or not being a follower of any religion. Also, the comment rules direct you to support any claims you make. Calling someone anti-Semitic, especially without proof, is absolutely unacceptable here.
Follow the comment rules or your stay here may be short.
I’m sorry Richard but the fat Moldovan thing makes no sense at all and really is racist. I’m trying to wrap my mind around your justifications and some of these comments. What if someone called an American a fat-X (insert country of birth demonym)? It’s completely racist. That language simply shouldn’t be used period.