FOES
ARE BEHIND BIBI 'SCANDAL'
By
URI DAN
New York Post, September, 19, 1999
THE political enemies of Benjamin Netanyahu last week
tried to destroy his
chances for regaining the Israeli prime ministership he
wants - and they did
it with a police probe of him and his wife.
In what looked like an orchestrated campaign encouraged
by the ruling Labor
Party, banner headlines and comments by high-ranking
police painted the
Netanyahus as suspects in a scandal involving bribes,
misuse of state money
and, perhaps, obstruction of justice.
All this because a Jerusalem contractor submitted a bill
for about $100,000
for services rendered to the Netanyahus when he was prime
minister, from 1996
to this summer.
The Netanyahus' lawyer, Yaakov Weinroth, dismissed the
charges, saying,
"Every prime minister has his vipers and Brutuses
who are ready to strike
when the right time comes."
He alluded to certain officials in the prime minister's
office who would like
to ingratiate themselves with Israel's new leader by
incriminating the old
one.
Israeli TV's Channel Two reported Friday night that 54
percent of people
polled disapproved of the way police are handling the
case.
That stems from the way the Netanyahus were interrogated
separately for eight
hours at a police station Wednesday, while details of
their allegedly
contradictory testimony were leaked to the press.
But, as Police Chief Yehud Vilk said, "This is an
invention of journalists
and not leaks from the police."
Nevertheless, the police reporters somehow got some
details, such as how Sara
Netanyahu had tears in her eyes during the questioning
and how her husband
had a long coughing fit at one point.
This case came about as a result of a media campaign:
The largest daily newspaper, Yediot Achronoth, sent its
investigative
reporters out on the contractor's story. He said he
worked on the then-prime
minister's office and private residence, with most of the
work ordered by Sara.
The contractor, Avner Amedi, presented his bill only
after Netanyahu, leader
of the Likud Party, lost in the May 17 election,
prompting the newspaper to
ask what he had been expecting for all the previous work.
Was he waiting for a bribe?
The newspaper unleashed its attack Wednesday, the same
day police treated the
Netanyahus as a pair of dangerous suspects.
Israelis wondered whether the police had become a tool of
the newspaper and
its expos.
Or was the news media becoming the tool of a much-maligned
police force?
The police no doubt need a case involving a big name to
revive their
prestige. Recently, they've been under fire for failing
to catch a serial
rapist and for being surprised by the car bombings in
Tiberias and Haifa two
weeks ago.
The same police had been involved in a politically
motivated bribe
investigation of then-Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon in
February.
That case was pushed by the Likud-hating Ha'aretz
newspaper.
The charges were found baseless, and the investigation
was closed after the
election.
So it wasn't surprising that Sharon was among the first
to say he believed
the Netanyahus will be exonerated.
He added, "The wicked leaks during the investigation
are a severe blow to
human dignity and freedom, and the police force itself
should be subjected to
an investigation."
So why did the contractor submit his bill so late?
"Just stupidity, not criminal intent," said his
lawyer.
This may be a case of stupidity - or of political
machinations, since the
only rivals who pose a threat to Prime Minister Ehud
Barak's future are
Netanyahu and Sharon.
Or it may just be a case of cherchez la femme, in which
an eager police force
pursues a wife who unwittingly brings problems for her
husband.
It's happened in Israeli politics before: During his
first term as prime
minister, in 1977, Yitzhak Rabin had to resign when it
was discovered his
wife, Leah, illegally kept $20,000 in a Washington, D.C.,
account
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