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Police recommend Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted

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Charlemagne

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NEWS FEB 13 2018, 4:26 PM ET

Police recommend Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted on corruption, bribery charges

by PAUL GOLDMAN and CORKY SIEMASZKO

TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed he would be vindicated Tuesday moments after police recommended that he be indicted on charges of corruption and bribery.

"This will end in nothing," a defiant Netanyahu declared after police made the announcement.

A police spokesman, however, said their case against the longtime Israeli leader is solid and based on — among other things — interviews with some 80 witnesses.

They charge that from 2007 to 2016 Netanyahu and his family received cigars, champagne and jewelry worth "hundreds of thousands of shekels" from Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan and other supporters.

In return, Netanyahu pushed for the so-called Milchan Law, which ensures that Israelis who return to live in Israel from abroad are exempt from paying taxes for 10 years.

"The findings of the investigation revealed that the relationship between the prime minister and Mr. Milchan was a bribery relationship that amounted to a criminal offense and not an innocent relationship between friends," the police spokesman said.

"Bibi," as he is known, is also accused of working out a deal for favorable coverage with Arnon "Noni" Moses, the publisher of an Israeli newspaper, Yediot Aharonot, in exchange for backing a bill that would weaken a rival newspaper.

Now that police have made the recommendation, the decision on whether to indict Netanyahu rests ultimately with Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit. Both Milchan and Moses also face possible bribery charges, the police spokesman said.

Mandelblit, 54, is Netanyahu's former cabinet secretary and has already rebuffed calls to recuse himself from this case.

While no stranger to scandal, this is the first time Netanyahu faces the possibility of being formally charged with a crime. But it could be a year before that happens.

First, the police recommendations have to be vetted by a tax attorney in the AG's office, a process that could take about three months. That lawyer's conclusions then go to State Attorney Shai Nitzan for a review, which takes about a month. Nitzan will then hand the case off to Mandelblit, whose review is likely to take another three months.

If Mandelblit decides to indict Netanyahu, he would be required to appear at a closed hearing sometime around February 2019.

The police recommendations came more than a year after Israeli news media first reported thatNetanyahu had been grilled by police investigators for more than three hours at his official residence on suspicion of receiving illicit gifts and favors from wealthy donors.

In a televised speech on Tuesday, Netanyahu once again called the charges "baseless," and said, "I'll continue to lead Israel responsibly as long as the people of Israel elect me."

Taking a page from his ally President Donald Trump, Netanyahu also went on the attack against the investigators.

"The police is infected with hallucinated allegations, the police can’t be objective," he said. "I’m sure that the attorneys will find that nothing i did was incorrect."

But a former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, said Netanyahu should consider stepping down.

"These are difficult and sad times," Barak said on social media. "The picture emerging from the police recommendation is chilling. The depth of corruption is staggering."

"Netanyahu should declare himself incapacitated tomorrow morning, and the Likud party needs to decide who will replace him," Barak added.

Netanyahu, 68, who is serving his third consecutive term as prime minister and his fourth overall, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. He even leveled a public broadside last week against Israeli Police Chief Roni Al**********h, who is leading the investigation.

After Al**********h told Israeli television that "powerful figures" had hired people to "sniff around" the detectives working on the Netanyahu case, the prime minister accused him of saying "delusional things."

Earlier, after Netanyahu was questioned by police, he tweeted, "There won't be anything because there is nothing." He also decried "years of daily persecution against me and my family."

But Netanyahu and his family's luxurious lifestyle — often at taxpayers’ expense — has come under scrutiny before.

Five years ago, Netanyahu was criticized for reportedly spending $127,000 in public funds for a special sleeping cabin for a five-and-a-half hour flight to London for Margaret Thatcher's funeral. That came just months after the Netanyahu family's taxpayer-funded food budget included $2,700 for artisanal pistachio and French vanilla ice cream.

Goldman reported from Tel Aviv, Siemaszko reported from New York

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/police-recommend-israeli-pm-benjamin-netanyahu-be-indicted-corruption-bribery-n847616
 
B

basketcase

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Good. The only ones I can see upset about this will be people like Franky and Hamas who are going to lose their excuses for rejecting peace.
 
F

Frankfooter

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basketcase said:
Good. The only ones I can see upset about this will be people like Franky and Hamas who are going to lose their excuses for rejecting peace.
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Netanyahu and Abbas should both be booted out.
But lets be clear, its Netanyahu who has decided there will be no peace and no Palestine.
He is the one controlling the Palestinians choices through military action.
 
M

Moviefan-2

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Frankfooter said:
Netanyahu and Abbas should both be booted out.
But lets be clear, its Netanyahu who has decided there will be no peace and no Palestine.
He is the one controlling the Palestinians choices through military action.
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Frankfooter, I was expecting a bit more contrition on your part -- since this news confirms that Israel is a healthy democracy, and not a "theocracy."
 
F

Frankfooter

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Moviefan-2 said:
Frankfooter, I was expecting a bit more contrition on your part -- since this news confirms that Israel is a healthy democracy, and not a "theocracy."
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This has nothing to do with apartheid rule, Netanyahu being indicted won't stop Israel from being apartheid.
As noted, the Justice Minister just declared Israel apartheid, stating that race was more important then human rights.
 
O

onthebottom

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He’s such a dick.
 
F

Frankfooter

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basketcase said:
Even if the reconciliation was working (it isn't - you should read your PA news site more) how does that justify massive corruption by Hamas?
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Every Israeli leader since 1996 has been investigated for corruption, why are you only concerned about Hamas' corruption?
 
B

basketcase

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Frankfooter said:
Every Israeli leader since 1996 has been investigated for corruption, why are you only concerned about Hamas' corruption?
Click to expand...
Go back and read post #2 in this thread. You are the only one afraid to 'apply the law to both sides'.
 
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Frankfooter

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toguy5252 said:
How many Hamas leaders have been arrested and/or gone to jail for corruption?
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How many Hamas leaders has Israel assassinated?
Israel doesn't use the legal system or allow Hamas leaders to live long enough to be brought to trial for corruption.
 
F

Frankfooter

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basketcase said:
Go back and read posy #2 in this thread. You are the only one afraid to 'apply the law to both sides'.
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Not at all, the problem is that Israel's legal system is very much biased and is not the proper venue for applying the law equally to both sides.
That's what the ICC is for.

Netanyahu did just declare himself a war criminal, by the way.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news...-golan-will-remain-israel-s-forever-1.5825066


Oh, and for an example of the Israel's legal system, here's one report and example from today's news.
Palestinian schoolteacher mauled by Israeli military dog as soldiers watch
Bursting into a schoolteacher’s house in the middle of the night, soldiers sicced their dog on him. The dog bit him and held on, as his family looked on, horrified
Gideon Levy, Alex Levac | Feb. 16, 2018 | 1:52 AM | 9
It’s not an easy sight to look at. His wife shows us the photographs on her phone: his wounded arm, battered and bleeding, mauled and mangled, scarred along its entire length. The same with his hip. It’s the aftermath of the night of horror he endured, together with his wife and children.

Imagine: The front door is blasted open in the middle of the night, soldiers burst violently into the house and set a dog upon him. He falls to the floor, terrorized, the teeth of the vicious animal gripping his flesh for a quarter of an hour. All the while, both he and his wife and children are emitting bloodcurdling screams. Then, bleeding and wounded, he’s handcuffed and taken by the soldiers into custody, and denied medical aid for hours, until he’s taken to the hospital, which is where we met him and his wife this week. There, too, he had been under arrest, forced to lie shackled to his bed.

That near-lynching was perpetrated by Israel Defense Forces soldiers on Mabruk Jarrar, a 39-year-old Arabic teacher in the village of Burkin, near Jenin, during their brutal manhunt for the murderer of Rabbi Raziel Shevach from the settlement of Havat Gilad on January 9. And if that wasn’t enough, a few days after the night of terror, soldiers returned again in the dead of night. The women in the house were forced to disrobe completely, including Jarrar’s elderly mother and his mute and disabled sister, apparently in a search for money.

The orthopedics ward in Haemek Hospital in Afula, Monday. A narrow room, three beds. In the middle one is Jarrar, who has been here for about two weeks. On Sunday morning the schoolteacher was still shackled to his bed with iron chains, and soldiers prevented his wife from tending to him. The soldiers left at midday after a military court ordered Jarrar’s unconditional release.

It’s not clear why he was arrested or why the troops set the dog on him.

His left arm and his leg are bandaged, the searing pain that still accompanies every movement is plainly visible on his face. His wife, Innas, 37, is by his side. They were married just 45 days ago, the second marriage for both. His two children from his first marriage – Suheib, who’s 9, and 5-year-old Mahmoud – were eyewitnesses to what the soldiers and their dog wrought on their father. The children are now staying with their mother, in Jenin, but their sleep is troubled, Jarrar tells us: They wake up with nightmares, shouting for him, and wetting their beds out of fear.

Jarrar teaches Arabic in Hisham al-Kilani Elementary School in Jenin. On Friday, February 2, he and his wife went to bed about midnight. Asleep in the adjacent room were his two sons, who stay with him on weekends. At about 4 A.M., the family was awakened by an explosion that came from the direction of the front door. Several windows in the house were shattered by the force of the blast. Jarrar leaped out of bed and rushed to be with the children. IDF jeeps were parked outside. A huge dog, apparently from Oketz, the army’s canine unit, was brought into the house, followed by at least 20 soldiers, according to the couple. It’s not hard to imagine the horror that seized them and the children.

The dog pounced on Jarrar, fastening its teeth into his left side, knocking him down and dragging him along the floor. At first the soldiers did nothing. His wife rushed to him with a blanket, trying to cover the dog with it and to rescue her husband. The children looked on and cried as their parents shouted for help; their cries were very loud, they say now. Innas was unable to free her husband from the dog’s grip.

It took quite a few minutes, they recall, before the soldiers also tried to pull the dog off, but the animal didn’t obey them, either. Mabruk was certain that he was going to be ripped to pieces and die; Innas also feared the worst.

The soldiers tore Jarrar’s clothes off, apparently in an attempt to release him from the dog’s clutches and finally succeeded – after about a quarter of an hour, by his estimate. Then one of the soldiers punched him twice in the face. He was wounded and reeling with fright and in that state, the soldiers bound his hands behind his back. They took him downstairs, at which point an officer arrived, asked Jarrar what his name was, released him from the handcuffs and photographed his injuries. The officer, Jarrar says now, also seemed to be appalled by the bleeding wounds, the torn and mangled arm and hip.

After being handcuffed again, the teacher was taken in a military vehicle to the detention facility at Salem, near Jenin, where he says he remained for about three hours with no medical treatment. Finally he was taken to Haemek Hospital, arriving there at about 10:30 A.M. He was now a detainee, though it wasn’t clear for what reason.

That same night, his two brothers, Mustafa and Mubarak Jarrar, were also arrested. Mubarak was released; Mustafa remains in custody. They all have the surname of the person who was wanted for the murder of Rabbi Shevach, Ahmed Jarrar, who was subsequently killed by the army.

Also on the same night, a similar incident occurred, involving different IDF forces, in the village of Al-Kfir, near Jenin. At about 4 A.M., soldiers broke into the home of Samr and Nour Adin Awad, the parents of four small children. Along with the soldiers, an Oketz dog was brought into the bedroom, and it bit and wounded both parents.

As Nour explained to Abd Al-Karim a-Saadi, a field researcher of the Israeli B’tselem human rights organization: “I held my 2-year-old son Karem, who was crying, to my chest. I opened the door, which the soldiers were banging on, and a dog attacked me, jumping on my chest. Karem fell from my arms. Later I saw that my husband picked him up from the floor. I tried to push the dog away after it bit me in the chest. I managed to move it away but then it grabbed my left hip [with its teeth]. I managed with all my strength to push him away. At that moment, the soldiers looked at the dog, but did nothing. During this whole time my husband was begging the soldiers to release the dog from me. One soldier spoke to the dog in Hebrew and then it grabbed me by the left arm [holding me] for a few minutes, until a soldier arrived from outside the house and removed it. I was bleeding and in great pain.”

The second intrusion by troops came a few days later, on February 8. Now only women and children were in the Jarrar house: Innas, her husband’s two children and also his mother and sister, who live in the same building. It was 3:30 A.M. According to Innas, about 20 soldiers, male and female, took part in this raid. They told her there was Hamas money in the house and that they had come to confiscate it. They stepped on the beds and ignored Innas’ pleas to stop. They asked where Mabruk was – seemingly unaware that he was already in army custody at the time, in the hospital.

Then came the body searches. A female soldier took the three women – Jarrar’s wife, his 75-year-old mother and his 50-year-old disabled sister – into a room and ordered them to undress completely. The search turned up nothing: no money, no Hamas. Afterward, the soldiers gave Innas an entry permit to Israel, to visit her husband in Afula. She says they told her that he was in Megiddo Prison. She went there the next day, only to discover that he wasn’t there. She called B’Tselem’s Abed Al-Karim a-Saadi, whom she describes as her kind redeemer. He made some calls and discovered that Mabruk was actually hospitalized in Afula. He was still under arrest when she got there, and she was only allowed to visit him for 45 minutes.

In response to a request for comment, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit this week told Haaretz: “On February 3, 2017, security forces came to the village of Burkin, to the house of Mabruk Jarrar, who is suspected of activities that endanger security in Judea and Samaria. Once they were at his home, the troops called him to come outside. After repeated calls and after he did not come out, the forces acted according to procedure and a dog was sent to search for people inside. The suspect had locked himself in a room on the upper floor of the building together with female members of his family.

“When the door opened, the dog bit the suspect, injuring him. He received immediate assistance from the army’s medical forces until he was evacuated to the hospital. Thereafter other activities were conducted in search of wanted individuals. We stress that in contrast with what is claimed in the article, the women of the house were not stripped by army forces.”

Jarrar is sitting on his hospital bed, his speech strained, every movement an effort. Innas arrives every day from Burkin. “How do you think I felt?” he replies in answer to a question about what he felt during the dog’s attack. “I thought I was going to die.”

Given the ethnic composition of the physicians, patients, nurses and visitors, this is effectively a binational Jewish-Arab hospital – like most of the hospitals in the north of the country. But a Jewish maintenance man suddenly enters the room, seething with anger. “Why are you interviewing Arabs? Why not Jews?” he demands. The man threatens to summon the hospital’s security officer, because wounded, mauled Mabruk Jarrar was talking to us.
Click to expand...
https://www.haaretz.com/misc/articl...mauled-by-idf-dog-as-soldiers-watch-1.5824682
 
B

basketcase

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Frankfooter said:
Not at all, ...
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Yet you still refuse to hold "both sides" accountable.

Both the PA and Hamas are massively corrupt, the people know it, but there is no ability to actually investigate or prosecute. Instead you focus solely on a moderately functioning democracy (which coincidentally happens to be Jewish unlike the Muslim neighbours you refuse to criticize).


p.s. I used to think you were just an idealist fighting for the underdog but the more you post, the more I wonder if it is religion that is the core of your hatred.
 
F

Frankfooter

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basketcase said:
Yet you still refuse to hold "both sides" accountable.

Both the PA and Hamas are massively corrupt, the people know it, but there is no ability to actually investigate or prosecute.
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Yes, both Israel and Palestine have corrupt leaders.
But the scale of war crimes vs corruption charges make it much more important for Palestinians and Israelis for the ICC to come in and charge both sides in order to find a just and peaceful end to the Israeli occupation.

Charging leaders on both sides for war crimes is much more important for peace.
 
F

Frankfooter

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basketcase said:
Yet you have repeatedly refused to hold Palestinian leaders accountable. Racist much?
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I repeatedly say both sides should be held to the law and support ICC investigations and all charges that result.
How is that 'refusing to hold Palestinian leaders accountable'?

Your lying is so poor you make Trump look good in comparison.
 
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