If Rabin & Olmert got Corruption Trial, Why Netanyahu Didn't

Tel Aviv 3.01am

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who as recently as 2009 led his country, was sentenced in May 24th 2015, days after Israel Independence Day, by a Jerusalem court to eight months in prison for unlawfully accepting money from a U.S. supporter.

The Dollar Account affair (פרשת חשבון הדולרים, Parashat Heshbon HaDolarim) was a political scandal in Israel in 1977, following the exposure of an illegal United States bank account held by the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and his wife Leah Schloßberg - Rabin. It led to Rabin's de facto resignation from the government.

photo: Plestia Alaqad

In March 1977, while Nobel Winner Yitzhak Rabin was meeting United States President Jimmy Earl Carter, Leah Rabin was spotted making a withdrawal from a Washington, D.C. bank. She had been withdrawing money from a joint account in U.S. dollars in the names of Yitzhak and Leah Rabin. At the time, it was illegal for Israeli citizens to hold bank accounts overseas, barring exceptional circumstances; the account in question had been opened while Yitzhak Rabin was the Israeli ambassador to the United States (1968–73), and according to procedure, should have been closed once he left that post.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces a litany of bribery, fraud and breach of trust charges, has denied all accusations, vociferously attacking those who seek to prosecute him. The trial put Israel into uncharted territory, dominating political life and fueling a debate about the state of Israeli democracy and the country’s legal system.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial resumed last Monday or 7 days ago, following a two-month recess. The timing, in the midst of the war against Hamas, rekindled a stormy debate over whether a head of government should be allowed to make fateful decisions for his country while fighting for his political survival.

This question has dogged Netanyahu since his January 2020 indictment on bribery, fraud and breach of trust, and particularly since his trial began in May of that year, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Now postponed again because war. If using standard count by Euromed HR, 23,000 Gazans killed since October 7th, 9,000 + are children. If timeline started since ceasefire ended, 5,100 Gazans killed since December 1st, 2023, 7am local time, a time when Ground operation started again. One of them killed after ceasefire ended is Palestinian / Gazans Professor Dr. Refaat al Areer, & according to local Gazan Asem Alnableh, body of Refaat still under rubble for 3rd day, because no machines / excavator available.

By multiple count, at least around 210 Merkava Tanks destroyed by Hamas since Ground Operation started October 27th, 2023 7.10pm local time, until December 7th, 2023. Then Biden approve another new weapon package to Israel around 41 hours ago.

At the time, Netanyahu and his associates pushed back against opponents’ insistence that he cannot defend himself while running the country because his decisions would be tainted by personal considerations rather than dictated by the public good. He has been repeatedly reminded of his 2008 demand as opposition head that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resign because he was under investigation for corruption. "There is concern that he will make decisions based on the personal interest of his political survival and not on the basis of the national interest," he argued at the time.

This argument has never been more relevant. Netanyahu is steering Israel through one of its most difficult and complicated wars, sparked by the colossal Oct. 7 failure for which he and his government will likely be held accountable once the fighting ends. His trial was put on hold at the start of the war due to the state of emergency, which limited the work of the courts. Last week, Justice Minister Yariv Levin lifted the state of emergency, opening the way for the trial to resume. 

The investigations into Mr. Netanyahu’s conduct began in 2016, when the authorities pursued claims that the prime minister had a habit of performing official favors for wealthy businessmen in exchange for gifts both material and intangible.

Mr. Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, was accused of receiving cigars, Champagne, bracelets, bags and luxury clothes; disrupting investigative and judicial proceedings; and even demanding fawning coverage by two leading Israeli news outlets, Yedioth Ahronoth (Hebrew: יְדִיעוֹת אַחֲרוֹנוֹת, pronounced [jediˈ(ʔ)ot aχ(a)ʁoˈnot]; lit. Latest News) and Haaretz (Hebrew: הָאָרֶץ lit. 'The Land [of Israel]', originally Ḥadshot Haaretz – Hebrew: חַדְשׁוֹת הָאָרֶץ, IPA: [χadˈʃot haˈʔaʁets] lit. 'News of the Land [of Israel]'), the 1st and 3rd largest circulation in Israel. One of very popular writer Haaretz is Gidon Levy.

An unbridled and terribly cruel attack against Gaza creates hatred of Israel at levels we've never seen before, in Gaza, in the West Bank, in the Palestinian diaspora, in the Arab world and everywhere in the world. A few years from now there will be some new horrific attack on Israel. Everyone will be shocked because no one will have asked the questions Gidon Levy asks. And no, this has nothing to do with religion or antisemitism. It’s about land, history, memory.

‘DUO LEVY’, Daniel Levy and Gideon Levy very popular as tireless critical about Zionism.

In February 2018, the police formally recommended that he be prosecuted. In November 2019, he was indicted, and the trial began in May 2020.

The Jerusalem District Court made its way through a list of more than 300 witnesses. But the trial, originally expected to last a year or more, has been delayed several times for various reasons, including once when a central witness cited “personal reasons” in 2021, another time because of coronavirus restrictions, and again in February this year, when the judge in the case tested positive for Covid.

The corruption trial combines three separate cases, known as Cases 1000, 2000 and 4000. (Mr. Netanyahu was cleared in a fourth case, Case 3000, which concerned the government’s procurement of German-made submarines.) Mr. Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, is also said to have received gifts but is not a defendant in the trial.

One court is hearing all three cases at once, instead of one after the other, slowing down the prospect of a verdict any time soon.

In Case 1000, Mr. Netanyahu is accused of accepting nearly $300,000 in gifts from 2007 to 2016 from the Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and the Australian billionaire James Packer. In return, prosecutors say, the prime minister acted on Mr. Milchan’s behalf, including pressuring the Finance Ministry to double the duration of a tax exemption for expatriate Israelis like the producer after they return to the country from abroad. The indictment also accuses Mr. Netanyahu of lobbying the U.S. government to help Mr. Milchan renew his American visa and assisting with a merger deal involving a TV channel partly owned by Mr. Milchan.

Mr. Packer is not accused of receiving anything in return for his gifts, and he and Mr. Milchan — who are not on trial — have denied wrongdoing.

In Case 2000, Netanyahu allegedly discussed a quid pro quo arrangement in 2014 with Arnon Mozes, the publisher of Yediot Aharonot, one of Israel’s leading newspapers. Under the deal, the indictment says, Mr. Netanyahu was to receive supportive coverage from the paper. In exchange, he is accused of agreeing to consider enacting legislation that would curb the strength of Israel Hayom, a rival newspaper owned by Sheldon Adelson, a supporter of Mr. Netanyahu. But Mr. Netanyahu is not accused of following through on that promise. Mr. Mozes, also on trial, has denied any wrongdoing.

In Case 4000, prosecutors claim that from 2012 to 2017, a telecom mogul named Shaul Elovitch and his wife granted favors to Mr. Netanyahu and his family in the hope that Mr. Netanyahu would not obstruct the Elovitches’ business interests. Mr. Elovitch is alleged to have repeatedly allowed Mr. Netanyahu and his family to shape the coverage of his news website, Walla. The Elovitches, who are on trial, deny wrongdoing.

To some, his decision not to resign was evidence of a dangerous selfishness. Other analysts said that Netanyahu’s decision not to step aside when indicted, as his predecessors Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Olmert had done when under investigation, was a national badge of shame and exposed a grave weakness that could become more critical the longer the trial lasted.

But to Netanyahu’s supporters, the trial was proof of a deep conspiracy against him.

Netanyahu pleaded not guilty in an East Jerusalem courthouse in 2021, but not before delivering a fiery speech denouncing the case against him.

He called the trial “an attempt to thwart the will of the people, an attempt to bring me and the right down.” He accused the police, the prosecution and “left-wing newspapers” of colluding against him but said he would not be cowed.

“They don’t mind if some sort of obedient right-wing poodle comes instead, but I am not a poodle,” he declared.

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I know a lot of high-ranking media, such as New York Times, Guardian, Anadolu, BILD, Spiegel, Financial Times, Strait Times, Washington Post etc subscribed my substack. Plestia ‘Bosbos’ Alaqad ready to be your Stringer or Keynote Speaker or Source about [everything related] Gaza. Plestiaa2011@gmail.com or collab@plestiaalaqad.com

Toddler with Plestia, before war, living in Northern Gaza and they evacuated to Southern Gaza. Since Friday, Oct 13, when Israel announced to every Gazans from northern move to southern, more than 5,000 killed in southern, not counting barbaric bombing in northern Gaza. Northern Gaza is being depopulated, while even residents in the south are ordered to evacuate as the israelis implement their ethnic cleansing. Refugee literally fulfilled Israel warning, and still killed with barbaric bombing by Israel. Documentation by Plestia Alaqad

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