By Itamar Fleishman, ISRAEL HAYOM
The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation reported this week that the submarine affair, Case 3,000, has all but collapsed.
Its correspondent Roi Yanovsky said that the Israel Police was poised to announce that “the prime minister and the members of the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet were not involved in the submarine affair, and the decision involving the procurement of naval vessels were made on purely professional grounds.”
This, all the while the competing network was busy rehashing the police’s statement saying that there was a major development in the case underscored by the questioning of the prime minister. Those with a healthy dose of skepticism knew all along that the affair, one of Israel Police Commissioner Insp. Gen. Roni Alsheikh’s most troubling productions in the theater of absurd, would end in a whimper.
The resources and efforts invested in this case rival only the scope of deceit and falsehoods that investigators tried to feed us with the help of their loyal servants in the media and a few failed politicians. Everything has been thrown against the wall to see what sticks, to make sure to drive home the grand conspiracy allegedly concocted by the prime minister and his associates in their attempt to pad their bank accounts in Panama and Narnia on the backs of Israel’s security.
Here are just some of the surreal allegations.
Left-wing activist Eldad Yaniv and former MK Erel Margalit produced one of the most vile and inciting clips we have seen in years. In that clip they tell the viewers that Netanyahu, his family and his friends stole tens of millions of shekels to secure their children and grandchildren mansions while struggling Israelis collect coupons to put food on their Shabbat table.
Channel 10 journalist Raviv Drucker tried to sell the Israeli public that its leaders effectively allowed submarines to be sold to the Muslim Brotherhood; in a cross-continent investigative piece, backed by a major promotional campaign, the prize-winning journalist depicted Netanyahu as an octopus who used his tentacles – associates – to abuse his powers and enrich his coffers on the backs of Israel’s people and its security.
Some in the obsessive Left mused that he was worthy of a Pulitzer Prize. Israel Police Commissioner Insp. Gen. Roni Alsheikh gave an interview to investigative news show “Uvda,” saying with a smile that “all of the protagonists in this affair will be indicted.” He had no qualms in leaking sensitive information on the investigation right in front of television viewers.
Netanyahu’s image appeared in all of the reports, showing him entering a submarine; protesters cried foul and accused him of treason and one even held a makeshift guillotine in the city square and vile signs against the attorney general, calling him the Netanyahus’ private lawyer.
This is just a sample of what Netanyahu has had to go through. I didn’t mention the fact that investigators traveled to various continents just to collect testimony; nor did I mention former Defense Minister Moshe Bogie Ya’alon, who has become the darling of the media for his incessant attack, or Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, who could be heard lambasting Netanyahu for his alleged role in the affair just hours before it collapsed on live television.
The public and the facts refused to go down this imagined rabbit hole, but the lie industry kept going and going. The presumption of innocence was thrown out the window.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, a state’s witness was recruited, and now it turns out that he may have very well been the true villain in this case: He got the deal of the century even as he led the police on a wild goose chase. In other words, he has secured his financial future by taking advantage of the corrupt deal for which he was the chief architect.
In democratic countries, such a fiasco in dealing with a major case should result in heads rolling, in soul searching and in some major housecleaning. In normal countries, journalists do not team up with police officers who are intoxicated with power just for the sake of a witch hunt and a coup d’etat against an elected prime minister while undoing the presumption of innocence.
But don’t hold your breath for an apology. Those who are going to pay the price, regardless of what unfolds in court, will continue to be the average citizens who have the misfortune of being targeted by the Lahav 433 Major Crimes Unit at random, facing a blood libel that destroys their life and reputation. We are all paying for this.
Itamar Fleishman is a media adviser.
This supports my claims about the machinations of Israel’s unelected and all-poerful deep state. They enforce their poer through phony criminal investigations, and sometimes indictments, of right-of-center politicians, either to run them out of office or blackmail them to comply with leftist demands (this latter was tactic used to blackmail Sharon into the Gaza unilateral withdrawal). The incident also shows how the “deep state’s” machinations imperil Israel’s national security; in this instance, by trying to scotch a deal to purchase badly needed state-of-the-art submarines for the Israeli navy.
Exactly the same thing as the Mueller witch hunt here.