Yoav Baram – Everything you need to know about Israel’s one-man-show elections
One of the best ways to get to know your politicians is to carefully watch them around Election Day. The closer it gets, the more you can learn about their demeanor, their dirty laundry and no less important – their willingness to destroy their opponents, lie, deceit and play dirty tricks on the potential voters.
Less than three weeks left to Israeli elections, and Israelis are learning A LOT about their politicians – even ones who have served as their prime minister for the past ten consecutive years. The number of scandals, leaks, accusations, lies and dirty tricks – have already reached ‘impressive’ lows, and it appears to many that these elections would be one of Israels most critical junctions in its history.
It involves a Prime minister accused of 3 separate corruption cases, and another case was looming over after being exempted from it in the past. It involves an extreme, racist, right-wing party – who advocates Jewish supremacy – running to the Knesset; It involves a leak regarding an Iranian hack to Benny Gantz – Prime Minister Netanyahu’s most prominent adversary – mobile device a few weeks ago. It involves an obvious gift handed to Netanyahu by President Donald Trump only weeks before elections. It involves a struggle between a dominant Prime minister and its right-wing party – The Likud – fighting for its fourth consecutive term (and overall fifth for Netanyahu) – against what seems to be the center-left desperate – and at times hopeless struggle in returning to power after ten years of sitting on the sidelines.
One of the things that makes these elections so heated is the fact that for the first time in its existence, Israel has a Prime Minister whose not only accused in 3 separate corruption cases – but also refuses to stand down because of it, and as many American readers can relate – accuses the media, the law enforcement agencies and the judiciary system at a witch hunt while portraying himself as the victim.
But despite the attorney general recommending to indict Mr.Netanyahu a few weeks back for accusations of corruption – from giving regulatory benefits to media moguls for reporting positive stories on him (case 2000 and 4000) – to receiving gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from what Netanyahu stated as ‘friends’ (case 1000), it is actually the case where Netanyahu was not indicted for – that makes the the most interesting story.
The submarines case that resurfaced
Case 3000 revolves around a corrupt deal to purchase submarines and destroyers for the Israeli navy from ThyssenKrupp shipyards in Germany back in 2012. It involved some top Israeli officials who among others – worked at the department of security and the navy, as well as some people in Netanyahu’s close circle – such as his cousin – lawyer David Shimron, who is indicted with brokering corruption charges, and his former head of staff and office manager David Sheran – who is indicted with bribery, fraud and breach of trust, and whom Mr.Netanyahu recently backed and ran for the Likud primaries.
Case 3000 indictments were officially handed over by attorney general Avichai Mendelblit a few weeks ago and are subjected to a preliminary hearing before going into trial. Prime Minister Netanyahu – although having what seems to be multiple ties to the case – was not interrogated during this investigation (he was only required to give a testimony), and in fact Israel’s State attorney Shai Nitzan – in a move that surprised many – proclaimed that Netanyahu is not even a suspect at the very same day he announced an official investigation being opened (this investigation was preceded by a 3 months ‘examination’ of the case by the attorneys office). It appeared against all the odds that Mr.Netanyahu came out unscathed by the affair.
Billboard by “Shas” – an ultra-Orthodox religious, political party in Israel, showing its leader Aryeh Deri (on the right) and Prime Minister Netanyahu side by side. Deri is a convicted felon who served three years in prison for corruption charges when he was Minister of the interior. He then returned to serve at the very same office in Netanyahu’s recent coalition. The sign reads: “Bibi needs a strong lion” (As Aryeh means lion in Hebrew)
But a few weeks ago, case 3000 – by far the most explosive case for Mr.Netanyahu – both publicly and criminally – resurfaced – this time due to question marks surrounding Mr.Netanyahu’s relationships with yet another one of his cousins – a wealthy businessman named Natan Milikowsky.
Natan Milikowsky is already involved in case 1000 against Mr. Netanyahu, where Netanyahu himself admitted to receiving from him business suits worth hundreds of dollars as well as stacks of 10 to 15 hundred dollars in cash with which Netanyahu claimed he used to purchase cigars. The truly amazing fact is that after being exempted from any suspicion in case 3000 – question marks regarding Mr. Netanyahu’s involvement re-surfaced with the help of no other than Mr. Netanyahu himself.
I warn you, to those of you not acquainted with Israeli politics, the overwhelming details may be hard to wrap your head around.
It all started with a request by Mr. Netanyahu to the permits committee back in 2009, when he asked the committee for a permission to receive a loan from Mr. Milikowsky in order to cover a tax return the former received from selling stocks he owned in Mr. Milikowsky company – SeaDrift.
The stocks were purchased by Mr.Netanyahu in 2007 when he served as the minority leader in the Knesset, at around 2.5 million shekels according to Netanyahu himself (approximately 600,000 dollars) and were sold back to Mr.Milikowsky for 16 million shekels (approximately 4.5 million dollars) less than 4 years later – when Seadrift was merged with GrafTech International – a corporation which sold ThyssenKrupp shipyards steel goods (hence the connection to case 3000 and the submarines).
Even though Netanyahu sold his shares at Seadrift a couple of years before the corrupted submarine deal took place, the transaction turned his cousin Mr.Milikowsky to a key shareholder in GrafTech International, and Mr.Milikowsky even served at the company’s board of directors between 2010 and 2015. Netanyahu’s 2009 request to the committee was eventually approved, and he received the loan from Mr.Milikowsky, but that was only the beginning of the story.
Weird coincidences and a miraculous profit
While all of the above may seem circumstantial as far as Netanyahu’s connection to case 3000 and the submarines, not to mention a little odd as far as Netanyahu’s requesting a loan to help him pay a small tax after he just acquired a huge profit from selling Mr.Milikowsky shares back to him….the interesting facts about Netanyahu selling his shares at over 600% profit – is that the very company he owned the shares in – Seadrift – showed poor performance in its reports during that period of time.
Seadrift clean profit went down from 60 million dollars – when Netanyahu acquired his shares from Mr.Milikowsky in 2007, to 45 million dollars – when he sold them back to Mr.Milikowsky in late 2010, according to Haaretz. In addition to this – GrafTech first purchased 19% of Seadrift at 715 Million Dollars back in 2008, and then the reminder of the company at 308 Million Dollars in 2010. When Seadrift was fully merged with GrafTech in late 2010 as a part of a 2 stage acquisition – its value was essentially cut by 57% compared to its earlier evaluation.
This raised suspicions that Prime Minister Netanyahu bought his shares from Mr. Milikowsky at a deflated rate (a gift worth millions) – only to sell them less than 4 years later at over 600% profit while the company was not doing well in its reports and had its value cut by 57% at the time it was merged with Graftech. All of this information regarding Netanyahu’s shares and business relations with Mr.Milikowsky was known from 2009 as stated above, but was only released to the public a couple of weeks ago, how you ask? Well, once again thanks to Mr. Netanyahu himself.
A couple of weeks ago, the Prime minister reached out to the permits committee once more, this time – requesting permission to have the mounting legal fees around his cases paid by no one else than his cousin and apparent business partner – Mr. Milikowsky. This time the permit committee declined Netanyahu’s request – mainly due to Mr. Milikowsky involvement in case 1000 as stated above.
Also in its response the committee stated Mr. Netanyahu’s apparent business relations with Mr.Milikowsky and mentioned his request to the committee back in 2009 – this is how the story broke to the media (the committee’s full reply to Netanyahu can be read here). At the same request – Mr. Netanyahu’s lawyers had also revealed that he has already received 300,000$ from Mr. Milikowsky to aid with his legal fees – without submitting a formal request to the committee – money that Mr. Netanyahu would now be asked to return.
The committee’s reply to Prime minister Netanyahu’s request immediately raised some serious questions regarding possible conflict of interests by Prime minister’s Netanyahu, being the share holder at a plant owned by his cousin Mr. Milikowsky (Seadrift) – that later merged with another company (GrafTech International) who happened to sell steel products to ThyssenKrupp shipyards – the shipyard at the very center of case 3000 corruption allegations.
A billboard by Blue and White party led by Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid. The billboard features Blue and White main candidates on the left, hanging side by side to Prime Minister Netanyahu and members of ‘Otzma Yehudit’ party on the right.
Netanyahu was already accused of failing to report a possible conflict of interests with mogul media Shaul Alovich – as part of a different case against him (case 4000). It also raises some red flags as to the nature of Netanyahu’s relations with Mr.Milikowsky – who is portrait as Netanyahu’s personal wallet by the Israeli media – which in turn is fueled by Netanyahu’s own statements regarding Mr. Milikowsky’s gifts in case 1000, his admission in the past to not owning any credit cards and numerous other affairs involving his wife breaching protocols and taking advantage of states services to avoid spending the family’s own money – one such a case is currently undergoing mediation between the state and Mrs.Netanyahu.
I’m Not a crook
To prove just how serious Netanyahu takes these new allegations against him, he surprisingly showed up yesterday at channel 2 evening news, casually walking in at the end of the newscast, and giving a rare 35 minutes long interview, one he hasn’t given in years to any serious news outlet because of their ‘biased pursuit of him and his family’ (Netanyahu does give interviews to sympathizing channels such as channel 20 – the equivalent of Israel’s fox news, only with much more religious content, and even less real news).
During the interview, Netanyahu actually confirmed the sums of money mentioned above but denied that he profited in any way from the submarine deal. Then, in what seems to be yet another amazing turn of events – Mr.Netanyahu happened to slip by that he did not have to inform the minister of security and the chief of army (then Moshe Ya’alon, who later resigned because of differences with Netanyahu) that he signed a document giving Germany Israel’s consent to sell the same model of submarines to Egypt.
In doing so, Netanyahu has ended a two years mystery surrounding the consent note to Germany which was already a hot topic on its own, as it was unconfirmed up to that point that he had signed such a document. But most astonishingly of all – Netanyahu said that he did not have to share the info regarding the consent note because of a ‘secret detail’ related to the deal, a detail he said he did share with attorney general Avichai Mendelblit on a call. Mr.Mendelblit’s on his part quickly released a statement that he did not recall such a detail, and this is where things now stand, although not for long, at the rate things are going.
More than two years since the story broke, and following an investigation that had already been concluded by the attorney general, the Israeli attorney’s office is now contemplating launching a new inspection into case 3000 after the elections, which makes this case far from over.
A mysterious hack
At the very same day the story about Netanyahu’s shares broke, a tip made to Amit Segal – a right-wing reporter at Israeli channel 2 news – claimed that a few weeks back, the ‘Shabak’ – one of Israel’s main intelligence agencies – notified former commander in chief Beny Gantz – whose party ‘blue and white’ is Netanyahu and the Likud’s most prominent threat – that his mobile phone was hacked by no other than Israel’s long time nemesis Iran.
Less than 24 hours later, Netanyahu already started to use this news piece to embarrass Gantz, claiming that Gantz could now be subjected to extortion by the Iranians for the contents of his phone, or at least be taken advantage as a strategical asset by the Iranian regime. While these accusations seemed to some as absurd (as if Benny Gantz has a selfie on his device showing his private parts, that the Iranians could then use to extort him with), it becomes even more so when one considers the fact that it is Netanyahu himself who happens to serve as Israel’s head of Cyber security, not to mention the commander in chief of Israel’s intelligence agencies, including the Shabak.
Netanyahu on his part claimed he was not even notified by the Shabak regarding the hack and while the news piece was indeed confirmed by Gantz, Netanyahu was criticized for making a cynic use of a national security matter to hurt a political opponent, instead of showing (or at the very least faking) some solidarity and promising to improve Israel’s cyber security defense for former officials and possible targets of interest for the Iranian regime.
Both the timing (3 weeks before elections), the target (Netanyahu’s most prominent competitor), the assailant (Iran, which is used by Netanyahu as a fear factor for years) and Netanyahu’s own response (accusing Gantz on Twitter of being supported by the Iranians, no less) convinced many in Israel that it was Netanyahu himself who was responsible for leaking the news item.
This suspicion is only intensified by the new moral lows Netanyahu, and the Likud are accused of having reached. The Likud TV – a propaganda channel operated by Mr.Netanyahu and the Likud party has already crossed some distinctive red lines as viewed by many Israelis. This included a propaganda video showing a military cemetery while implying that it will be filled once the left return to rule.
In another video, it included pictures from scenes of terror attacks which allegedly took place during the left’s reign – while making an embarrassing mistake and showing some pictures of terror attacks made during Netanyahu’s terms. In a most recent video – it made fun of reporter Amnon Abramovich (whose considered to be a critic of Netanyahu) scarred face – scars Abramovich suffered during the 1973 ‘Yom Kippur’ war – and for which he received a decoration for bravery (John McCain anyone?).
With a little help from my friends
Earlier this month Mr.Netanyahu was criticized for his support and help in brokering a merger of 3 small Israeli parties who would otherwise have no chance in entering the Israeli Knesset. One of which is ‘Otzma Yehudit’ (or: Jewish Might) – a party known for its messianic, racist, hate-inciting and Jewish supremacy views. One of its leading candidates – Michael Ben Ari – was banned last week from running in the elections by Israeli supreme court due to some hateful and disturbing public remarks he made. It is widely speculated that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s motivation in legitimizing ‘Otzma Yehudit’ is to ensure that he will have a majority in forming a coalition after the elections, as well as secure himself the option of constituting a law that will absolve him from any past crimes, a law that ‘Otzma Yehudit’ will have no problem supporting.
A billboard by the Likud that reads “Netanyahu – A different league.” This particular billboard had to go down only days after being hanged since it was displayed on a municipal building in Jerusalem – which is forbidden according to a 2013 election committee ruling.
And now it would seem that no other than U.S president Donald Trump was enlisted to aid Prime Minister Netanyahu’s cause. President Trump’s declaration a few days ago that the White House will officially recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights – in an expected celebratory White House ceremony featuring Netanyahu, days before Israeli elections – is considered by some as an outright foreign intervention by the U.S in Israel’s domestic politics – benefiting Mr.Netanyahu and giving him possible advantage with the potential voters.
This is Trump’s second ‘gift’ to Netanyahu during his presidency, the first being the relocation of the U.S embassy to Israel’s capital Jerusalem, and the announcement left people both in Jerusalem and Washington wondering what is the strategy – if any – in handing away such gifts to Netanyahu without having him concede to anything – not to mention when or what Netanyahu would be asked to give in return – if at all.
The talk about a possible Israeli-Palestinian deal brokered by the Trump administration after the elections in Israel is absurd when one considers the fact that should Netanyahu win – his coalition will mostly consist of right-wing religious extremists who are not exactly known for their concession making abilities.
Picking a side, not a platform
Whereas past elections in Israel had the pretense of revolving around civil interests such as the cost of living, the housing crisis, the separation of religion and state or a possible resolution with the Palestinian – most parties this time around are not even pretending to have a platform.
These elections are all about one man, his demeanor, his dirty laundry and no less important – his willingness to destroy his opponents, lie, deceit and play dirty tricks on the potential voters, allegedly.
