Today Israel Hayom published two articles undercutting Bennett.
Strange bedfellows
By Mati Tuchfeld
As much as one can judge over the course of two weeks, in these elections the stars are certainly aligned in favor of Habayit Hayehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett. Much like Yisrael Beytenu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman in the last election, who managed to rise from a handful of seats in the polls to winning 15 seats in the election within a matter of weeks, Bennett too has climbed in the polls and appears to have turned the veteran National Religious Party (the predecessor of the current incarnation) into a hot, trendy commodity. [..]
When it comes to polls, count me out
By Dr Haim Shine
The dramatic rise of the Habayit Hayehudi party headed by Naftali Bennett has impressed the kind of people who are impressed by polls. Within just a month of Bennett’s ascendancy, we apparently have a titan on our hands, a party rising so fast that there is no point in holding elections because Habayit Hayehudi could single-handedly form the next government, without any need for coalition partners.
Last Thursday, I met a long-standing Habayit Hayehudi activist who was previously involved with the National Religious party. She told me the polls do not accurately reflect what she sees on the ground. In her opinion, veteran Habayit Hayehudi members will not vote for the party this time because Bennett is not focused on Jewish education and Jewish values. [..]
@ Canadian Otter:
It is healthy to be afraid. Those who are not afraid are stupid.
From time to time you only have bad choises, Plage or Colera
@ yamit82:
So this has been hanging above Bibi all this time.
The story is repeating itself (how many times already?) – of a high govt official being investigated for wrongdoing while still in office and in a position of making crucial decisions that affect the present and the future of the country.
Not a case unique to Israel, however. We could name other top govt officials in powerful countries who have questionable issues in their background. I’m not saying that they could be subject to improper influence. No. that’s not what I’m saying at all.
yamit82 Said:
Forming a(nother> sectarian party and whining in opposition is not Manhigut’s goal or method. Enjoy yours.
Bennet is another Hendel. How did that work out for everybody?
PM sues Channel 10, Maariv over ‘Bibi-tours’ reports
By RON FRIEDMAN
LAST UPDATED: 03/29/2011 19:02
Netanyahu files 2 NIS 1,000,000 libel suits accusing news organizations of exposing false information about him regarding flight funding.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu filed two NIS 1 million libel suits against Channel 10 and Ma’ariv on Tuesday, accusing them of reporting false information about him in their coverage of what has come to be known as the “Bibi-Tours” affair.
Last week, Channel 10 investigative reporter Raviv Drucker reported, on his show Hamakor, on a series of flights that Netanyahu took with his wife Sara in the late 1990s and early 2000s, flights allegedly paid for by wealthy associates.
According to the report, Netanyahu allegedly utilized a carefully crafted network of wealthy associates to finance private flights, luxury hotel suites, first-class restaurants, and trips abroad for him and his family, benefits that the show characterized as ethical infractions.
In the wake of the publication, Channel 10 news and other media outlets continued reporting on alleged wrongdoings by Netanyahu.
In one of the lawsuits filed in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, Netanyahu’s lawyers, David Shomron and Michael Rabello, stated that a news report broadcast on Channel 10 news on Sunday, in which Drucker revealed an internal list of foreign donors who promised contributions to Netanyahu’s 2005 Likud primary elections and said that Netanyahu failed to report the contributions to the state comptroller, was patently false and that Drucker broadcast the information despite being told that the information was false by Netanyahu’s attorneys.
The lawsuit claimed that Channel 10 knowingly broadcast a false report with intent of embarrassing and defaming the prime minister. It drew specific attention to a statement by Drucker, who said that for actions similar to the ones Netanyahu allegedly took, others had gone to prison.
The lawyers said that the funds in question were returned to the donors and that no wrongdoing had taken place.
“Reference to the prime minister in the said false report was disparaging and very hurtful, creating a negative portrayal of him and depicting him as a felon, all in order to humiliate him in public or to make him a target of contempt or ridicule for alleged actions that are completely without foundation,” read the statement of claim.
“These publications are part of a slander campaign the respondents are waging against the plaintiff.”
Netanyahu’s lawyers wrote that the prime minister is aware of the importance of media criticism, but that a line needed to be drawn on publishing untrue items.
“There is no reason to enable a slander campaign against the prime minister, in which statements are made about expected sanctions, when there is no grain of truth to the facts and when the publishers were told so beforehand,” read the statement.
“It is time for the court to put an end to the publication of false and irresponsible news reports about the plaintiff, and make it clear that his name cannot be sullied without having to take responsibility.”
The second lawsuit, against Ma’ariv, was over an article and an editorial cartoon that appeared in the paper on Sunday.
The article indicated that Netanyahu and his wife had held a dinner costing NIS 60,000 on one of their visits abroad, and that the meal was part of their overall self-indulgent behavior.
The lawyers argued that the article, as well as the caricature, which showed Netanyahu walking through airport Customs carrying a suitcase with large sums of money overflowing from it, were published with harmful intent, and that Ma’ariv had not even bothered to ask for Netanyahu’s response.
Both lawsuits stated that Netanyahu reserved the right to sue over additional libels.
Drucker said in response to the lawsuit that the Sunday report was neither false nor libelous.
“We stated clearly in the broadcast that the document in question [the list of donors] could be interpreted in several ways. By one interpretation it would indicate wrongdoing, and by another it could be innocent. We never presented the document as proving illegalities.
I don’t know what Netanyahu’s lawyers are basing their claims on,” said Drucker.
Drucker added that he found it odd that Netanyahu was choosing to sue over the Sunday report and not over the original investigation that appeared on his show last week.
“If this is what he’s suing us over, I think it’s strange that he’s trying to present it as if he were suing over the flights story,” he said.
Ma’ariv failed to respond.
Following last week’s report on Channel 10, several bodies – including the Kadima Party – have urged State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss to investigate any possible wrongdoing by Netanyahu. Lindenstrauss said on Monday that he would decide by the end of the week whether to launch such an investigation.
Right-wing NGO the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel sent a letter to the state comptroller on Tuesday, requesting that while he conducts an investigation into Netanyahu’s case he should also look into the conduct of other high-ranking officials.
In the letter, written by the group’s director-general Nachi Eyal, the group asked Lindenstrauss to specifically look into flights made by President Shimon Peres. The letter cites two occasions on which Peres allegedly flew to the United States on board the private jet of American businessman Daniel Abraham.
The letter states that Peres flew on Abraham’s private jet in May 2009 on his way to give a speech to the AIPAC conference and in 2004 for the opening of former US president Bill Clinton’s presidential library in Arkansas.
The letter also states that Peres received $120,000 from Abraham for the 2005 Labor primary elections and notes that the state comptroller had written a scathing report on the matter and ordered Peres to return the money.
The group volunteered its assistance in uncovering infractions by other public officials.
BE AFRAID – BE VERY AFRAID
PM Netanyahu may be investigated for criminal acts.
Still thinking of voting for Likud?
@ Michael devolin,
Nope didn’t read any of that stuff.,did you?
I’ve been informed that I’m gonna be censored from now on if I speak about the bankers.
So,I’m going.
“Eppur si muove ” ,though.
Bye,bye.
“In all of your rantings I see no direct evidence of any insider whistle-blower..I do see a lot of fantasy with a few genuine facts mixed in with a lot of Bullshit.”
BRAVO!! Needed to be said.
Sounds to me like this guy’s been reading The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Just my guess.
@ Yamit82,
That’s because you’re myopic.
The bankers became invisible over a hundred years ago,they created the ADL in 1913,to make sure nobody will attack the bankers.
They control science,finance ministries, the central banks,parlement, the judges and the goldmarket,that’s all they have to control,invisibly.
“Give me control over a country’s finances ,and I do not care who makes their laws” Me’ir Amshel Rothschild,1790.
The way the bankers are manipulating the Israeli elections right now,is a system they use in most countries,where the government is not to their liking.
The top of the pyramid is Rothschild,Warburg and Rockefeller,the same ones behind all wars in the last century.
The rest are free riders,buying into the story they belong to the Elite,that will survive.
They don’t ask questions and don’t speak out,as long as they have all the power they want.
@ shachalnur:
The prerequisite for successful conspiracies is that there are very few conspirators and that there are built in safeguards to insure secrecy.
The larger the group the less secure are their secrets.
Your groups of conspirators are to large to be credible and today there are always whistle-blowers
In all of your rantings I see no direct evidence of any insider whistle-blower..I do see a lot of fantasy with a few genuine facts mixed in with a lot of Bullshit.
@ Shy Guy:
Old news, he backtracked a day after his appearance on Mishal.
If the soldiers did not heed their Rabbi’s call to disobey orders, they are going to listen to Bennett?
Sour Grapes Shy because he did in a few months what Feiglin couldn’t do in 14 years? I have long maintained that Feiglin is divisive when he should be a unifier. He should be partnering with Bayit ha Yehudi, not dumping on them because of jealousy and ego. I have long maintained that a real nationalist party should be inclusive of both religious and nonreligious Jews.
Bennett is too Parve for my taste but I support his efforts none the less even though I won’t vote for his party.
Feiglin reminds me of Nero and burning Rome. Were he were ever to succeed I believe it would be a Pyrrhic Victory.
Polls are fake,
Bennet is a placed asset,eating away votes from likud-beitenu.
It’s Bibi and Lieberman under attack.
Expect more dirty laundry on everybody exept Bennet.
The bankers won the US(Obama) and lost Israel,so now the bankers are trying the same coup in Israel ,through Bennet.
Bennet+Livni+Lapid+Labor+Stanley Fisher= your planned government by the bankers.(All placed assets)
The plan is (civil) war.
The Israeli Left is Down But Not Yet Dead!
This Poll only polled 500 people and we don’t know the breakdown of those polled. The Low # means it was bought and designed to produce predetermined results. blue white future Leftist Ami Ayalon and disgruntled failed politician is in back of this poll, yet it made TV news this eve. to demonstrate that Peres is correct and representing Main Stream Israeli sentiments and the Likud criticism of Peres comments today are out of touch with the Israeli public.
Poll: Majority of Israelis prefer two-state solution
By GABRIELLA WEINIGER
12/18/2012 11:55
Smith Research poll shows majority of Israelis fear a bi-national state; youth hold more right-wing positions.
A clear majority of Israelis believe that the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state is Israel’s best chance to remain a Jewish and democratic state in 20 years’ time, a Smith Research/Jerusalem Post poll showed on Monday.
The survey, commissioned by Blue White Future, was conducted among 500 respondents from a representative sample of the adult Jewish population in Israel.
According to the survey, 58 percent of Israelis would prefer to see Israel remain as a Jewish, democratic state through fixed borders along the route of the West Bank security barrier, with Israel preserving its character alongside a demilitarized Palestinian state.
A majority of 62% supports the principle of “two states for two peoples.”
The survey shows that younger people have more right-wing positions than adults, with 69% of respondents aged 50 and above supporting the two-state principle, compared to 63% among those aged 30-49 and 42% of those aged 18- 29.
What a shocker! The paper is owned by Bibi promoter Sheldon Adelson. What else is news?!
As for Bennet, backtracking already. Take a hint already. What did you think you were getting?!