Political furor erupts over (corruption) allegations against Sharon

[Wordie]

Political furor erupts over allegations against Sharon
By Gideon Alon, Mazal Mualem, Zvi Zrahiya and Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondents

The political establishment erupted Tuesday evening following a Channel 10 report that said police are in possession of evidence that the family of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took bribes from businessmen in the Cyril Kern affair.

MKs from the opposition called on Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to decide as soon as possible whether an indictment against Sharon should be filed.

The Prime Minister's Office did not comment on the allegations. Kadima sources said the report had no new information and therefore was of no political substance. "We fully trust that the law enforcement officials will do their jobs faithfully despite the atmosphere of elections and political attempts to deceptively and manipulatively take advantage of a routine investigation procedure for their own needs," the sources said.

Chairman of the Knesset Ethics Committee, Aryeh Eldad (National Union), said, "The nation of Israel is knowingly letting a crime family lead it, and the latest update is another link on the chain of the Sharon family's corruption.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/665867.html

[dusmcj]

1. time to screw Sharon into silence for breaking ranks with Likud. nt

[Wordie]

2. The parties mentioned in this article are from "the opposition"

Shinui has demanded that an indictment is made and a trial be held before the Israeli elections.

Labor (left of center party) has suggested that he resign.

A former Shin Bet (former centrist party) head has said he should not run in the elections. (Although this person is also a candidate, so he may have a bit of a vested interest - as they all do.)

Former Meretz (left of center party) MK Avsalom Vilan said, "...we are on our way to becoming a third world country."

And a former MK and Meretz chairman called upon him to retire from politics, "to spare the public..."

It's hard to know, if this is politically motivated (and it probably is), where it's coming from.

[dusmcj]

5. upsetting the power status quo ?

interesting. The scenario seems to be that the established parties in Israel can be seen as ineffectual, locked into extremist partisan positions, and hard to distinguish from one another (at least the large blocks, Likud & Labor). Sharon pulls the rug out from underneath them, and proclaims that he's making a new party while they sit on the floor rubbing their heads. Peres follows. Who's left in the way of statesmen of stature ? Bibi ? What a joke. Enough said. Further, it's not only Likud that has a vested interest in continuing to try to "win" within the current power structure. The traditional left as well stands to lose if a dynamic new party, which might succeed in being seen as a "grand unification" providing a "third way" (I don't mean to tie it to the Clinton/Blair product of the same name) takes the Israeli political scene, which had seemed static in its very chaos, by storm. And with the old Godheads from the Founders' generation at the helm no less. An ancillary question then is, assuming that this is the intent and it comes to pass, how will Sharon, Peres et al use their new political power ? Will they use it to form a sustainable _and_ sufficient Israeli security and foreign policy, and become agents for true change ? Or will they use it in the form of the fascist unifiers of past historical episodes, who shattered comfortable dichotomies and replaced them with command monoliths ?

I am by no means a Sharon apologist, but I do note that he has done more to introduce positive change into the Israeli security situation than anyone in the recent past. He should be given the benefit of the doubt, particularly when his opponents have more than a wafting odor of comfortable upholders of the status quo who are worried first about retaining their influence and power.

Of course, I have both the comfort and deficiency of being an American layperson 5000 miles from the action with only public media as information sources, so I may be missing fundamental information.

[Wordie]

7. What positive change into the Israeli security situation?

(Oh, please, don't say "the wall.")

[pelsar]

8. i do....

fact is we dont turn on the TV every morning and wonder which city got a sucide bomber.....(as we all did years ago)

complain all you like, but we israelis walk around with a lot more security now then we did 3-8 years ago. The stats speak for themselves...

and its all sharons doing.....and pulling out of gaza was sharon (and please spare me the "it was a trick".....actually it was, it tricked the palestenains to face up to their responsabilities and for those with their eyes open to see what israel can expect from further withdrawls.......)

like it or not, he's both israels and the palestenains best hope as prime minister.

[Wordie]

9. I think you're fooling yourself if you think Sharon will bring peace.

Per the BBC:

Forty-five Israelis were killed in Palestinian militant attacks in 2005, the Israeli internal security agency Shin Bet has reported.

This is 60% fewer than the number killed in 2004, and the lowest since the start of the intifada in 2000.

The main reason for the decline, Shin Bet said, was the informal truce observed by some Palestinian groups.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4574720.stm

Do you think Sharon's unilateral scrapping of the road map will bring a reduction in attacks in the future? I don't think so.

[eyl]

11. Very good

now compare the numbers in up to mid 2004 (before the barrier came up) to mid-2004 to mid-2005 (before the truce came into effect). Even before the truce, you'll see a drastic drop in successful attacks against Israelis

[eyl]

13. Correction

the barrier started going up in Summer 2003; compare the number of terrorist attacks inside Isreal in 2003 to 2004.

[Wordie]

15. If you think an aparteid wall will bring peace, you're fooling yourself.

Get ready for increasing boycotts and other worldwide actions to object this cruel action by Israel from the rest of the international community, as well, eyl. Israel will increasingly be seen as a pariah, by as the world increasingly comes to realize that the Wall is actually a means of ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their own land. And the information will get out, even despite the effort to paint those saying so as "anti-semites." Truth will out.

[eyl]

18. First of all

I strongly disagree with your characterization of it as an "apartheid wall", and with your opinion that it's intended for ethnic cleansing. I've shown you indications that the barrier is effective in curbing terrorism against Israel - which you have ignored.

For your information, I don't expect the barrier to bring peace, no matter what those who all it the "Peace Wall" (a term whose origin is unknown to me, but I strongly doubt is Israeli). The purpose of the barrier is to curb terrorism against Israel. The space that buys may be (is, in fact) useful in achieving actual peace - but that's not its purpose.

And if you think the mere fact of international disapproval matters to me, guess again. My observations, especially over the last few weeks, is that the world is quite willing to endorse Israel's right to self-defense - so long as it doesn't actually defend itself. Everyone is eager to criticise, but when asked for viable alternatives, there's suddenly a resounding silence, broken by the occasional platitude. And those same people who will take action against Israel will take no action beyond words - and precious little of them - against Israel's enemies, no matter what they do - and that's assuming they don't just close their eyes to those actions (see, for example, the AUT boycott). So pardon me for my indifference to their opinion.

Lastly, if you're going to accuse me of accusing Israel's critics of being ant-Semetic, be prepared to back it up.

[Wordie]

19. The suppressed EU report says different.

SEPARATION BARRIER/WALL

14. Israel has largely ignored the Advisory Opinion of 9 July 2004 of the International Court of Justice regarding the barrier. On 20 February 2005, the Israeli Government approved the revised route of the separation barrier2. This route seals off most of East Jerusalem, with its 230,000 Palestinian residents, from the West Bank (i.e. it divides Palestinians from Palestinians, rather than Palestinians from Israelis). The Barrier is not only motivated by security considerations. On 21 June 2005, the Israeli High Court ruled that it was legal to take into account political considerations, in addition to security considerations, for the routing of the barrier in East Jerusalem because East Jerusalem had been Israeli territory since its annexation in 1967 (i.e. political considerations are not legal in the West Bank, which has not been annexed to Israel). On 10 July the Israeli Cabinet decided to route the Jerusalem barrier so as to keep around 55,000 East Jerusalemite Palestinians, mainly in the Shuafat refugee camp, outside the barrier. The fact that the Cabinet decision not only included short-term but also long-term measures designed to accommodate the new situation created by the Barrier - e.g. constructing new educational institutions and encouraging hospitals to open branches "beyond the fence" - appears to contradict the notion of the Barrier being a temporary rather than a permanent structure. And if Israel were to provide adequate municipal services to the areas excluded (as it is promising to do) this would be in contrast to hitherto poor service provision in the rest of East Jerusalem. Israeli NGOs working on the Jerusalem issue have looked at Israeli proposals to ensure that the people affected are not "cut off" from the city, and judged them deficient.

15. The barrier extends like a cloverleaf to the northwest, southwest and east, beyond even the (Israeli defined) municipal boundary of Jerusalem, leaving 164 square kilometres of West Bank land on the "Israeli" (western) side. Combined with settlement activity in these areas this de-facto annexation of Palestinian land will be irreversible without very large scale forced evacuations of settlers and the re-routing of the barrier - which reportedly cost 800,000 euros per kilometre. It will also block the alternative Bethlehem-Ramallah route for Palestinians, forcing them to travel via tunnels or Jericho.

16. We should ensure that any support we provide to East Jerusalem is not simply an attempt to reduce the negative consequences of the construction of the separation barrier. The ICJ ruling on the barrier, accepted by the EU with limited reservations, states: "all States are under an obligation not to recognise the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem. They are also under an obligation not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by such construction".

And nowhere did I accuse you of anything. I said that anti-semitism is a charge frequently used to distract from the actual situation, where Israel is attempting to take Palestinian land, for reasons that are not related to security. These policies clearly are meant to force Palestinians out of the areas Isreal wishes for itself, hence they are apartheid policies. If security were the only concern, the wall would be placed on the Green Line (although I would still have problems with it). Instead, it jogs around so to enclose the illegal settlements, built on Palestinian land. In US law, when a landowner builds a wall on a neighbor's property, it must be demolished. That's what Israel must do.

Read the entire suppressed EU report here:
http://www.palestinecampaign.org/campaigns.asp?d=y&id=140

[eyl]

20. I've already stated

my opinion of the ICJ decision - as well as the reason the barrier can't be beuilt on the Green Line - at length before; look around a bit.

Point 14 - I find the comment on "long-term measures" somewhat disengenous - on the one hand Israel is criticised for cutting off Palestinians from municipal services, and on the other hand is criticised for providing them? And those institutions would continue to function even if the barrier were removedm to enhance the availability of municipal services in those areas

Point 15 - I need to look at a map of the route and area before replying; maybe tomorrow, it's getting late here

Point 16 isn't a fact, it's a statement.

[eyl]

12. Shin Bet

isn't a political party

[Wordie]

14. You know...

I got the information from a site I had googled to try to find out whether the calls for resignation, etc., were coming from left or right (I don't know about smaller Israeli parties). I thought maybe a party had this name also. I should have checked further and not just assumeed that the info was correct. Apologies.

Shin Bet is the the Israeli counter-intelligence and internal security service. In many ways, a comment by the former head of the security service seems to carry even more weight than some of the other sources cited, don't you think?

[eyl]

17. No, because the matter he's giving his opinion on

is not a security matter and has no connection to the Shabak's area of competence. As such, his opinion is worth nor more (and no less, of course) than that of any other citizen; and as you've pointed out, Ayalon is not a disenterested party.

[bemildred]

3. It's like you just can't trust anyone.

:sarcasm:

Between this and Jabba's circulatory issues, the election, and other things, it's looking chaotic on both sides of the "peace fence".

[Wordie]

6. Um, who was that again, who said the road map must be scrapped,

due to the other side's corruption?

[bpilgrim]

4. Sharon your doin a heck of a job! (u.s. rw wackos)

there are still 3 or 4 DU'ers who think so at LEAST :evilgrin:

peace

[Englander]

10. Analysis: The return of the nightmare for Ariel Sharon

By Yossi Verter, Haaretz Correspondent

What has not yet happened in this election campaign? We've had the big bang that shook up Israeli politics; the two tribal elders' departure from their mother-parties; the prime minister's stroke and catheterization (Thursday).

And then Tuesday, another wild card was laid on the table. Exactly three years after the Cyril Kern affair first broke, now, like a nightmare, it is back again to terrify Ariel Sharon and his advisors on the eve of what appears to be his third great electoral victory. How much will this card impact the election? That's the three-million-dollar question.

The new development comes at a problematic time for Sharon. His son Omri resigned from the Knesset Tuesday, following his conviction on illegal campaign funding, with the penalty to be decided in the coming weeks. If, in addition, the Cyril Kern affair (and as of Tuesday the businessman Martin Schlaff) once again stars in the media, and worse, in the courts and the interrogation rooms, it might hurt Sharon and his party.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/665868.html

[Wordie]

16. Break in case has come thru documents provided by the Austrians, who

are also investigating.

Police have been investigating the claims for months, but attribute the breakthrough largely to the fact that the Austrian authorities, who were uncooperative in the investigation, changed their mind a few weeks ago and began transferring documents to the Israeli police, including bank statements.

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7001750011