Another reason to support the anti-Sharon Resistance

Another reason to support the anti-Sharon Resistance

This article deals with a most disturbing piece of news. Were it not based on a report by a former deputy minister, Zvi Hendel, and were it not published in World Tribune, it could be dismissed as yet another conspiracy theory. But now that the cat is out of the bag, we might as well pay attention.

The piece in question was published on December 31 and is entitled, "Wag the dog: Official says Sharon weighed war during probe".

The report states:

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon considered launching a war in the Middle East to divert attention from a police investigation into allegations that he accepted bribes, an Israeli newspaper reported.

At the conclusion of a meeting on the subject, the prime minister decided instead on a plan to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip, according to the report.

A former member of Sharon's government said the prime minister met his aides in 2003 and discussed a range of options to respond to a criminal investigation, which also involved his sons. Former Deputy Education Minister Zvi Hendel said the war option was discussed by Sharon and his aides as a means to divert attention from the probe of a series of alleged criminal deals by the prime minister.

...

Hendel said he tried to meet Sharon to dissuade him from the withdrawal plan, but the prime minister refused to see the deputy minister. Hendel said Jewish settlement leaders decided against publicizing Sharon's intention to announce a withdrawal in hope that it could be stopped in another way.

"In retrospect, I say that it's a pity that we didn't torpedo this [by revealing the Sharon meetings with his aides]," Hendel said. "Then, it would have been more credible."

Hendel said the Sharon meetings took place in the fall of 2003. He said that just months earlier, during the elections in February of that year, Sharon rejected a proposal of his challenger, Labor Party's Amram Mitzna, for a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

If true, this news would explain the amazing change that happened in Sharon's policy after he was elected, a change that has puzzled me for a very long time.

Posted by Joseph Alexander Norland at January 4, 2005 07:30 AM

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Comments

1. Jerusalem Posts [TypeKey Profile Page] said:

Joseph,

I've been saying for months now that Sharon is sacrificing Israel to save his own arse in this state of affairs... and this article has finally proved that my conclusions were true.

Looking back through my forum, I see that the unilateral disengagement was announced when it looked certain that Sharon was to be indicted for corruption.

As soon as the scandal broke, he decided to release 400 terrorists from prison...

Does anyone remember the tapes that mysteriously disappeared?

Link to Spector's interview

Here's an article which was posted, but the link is dead...

By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) was questioned by police Thursday in two corruption investigations, Israeli media reported.

Sharon, the third sitting prime minister to be investigated by police, has denied wrongdoing.

One probe involves a $1.5 million loan from a South African businessman to Sharon's two sons, allegedly used to cover illegal contributions to his 1999 election campaign.

In the second case, police are looking into a business deal between Sharon's younger son, Gilad, and businessman David Appel, who has ties to Sharon's Likud party.

Appel allegedly paid Gilad Sharon hundreds of thousands of dollars to market a tourism project in Greece, media reported. Police are investigating whether Gilad Sharon was hired in an attempt to get his father, who was foreign minister at the time, to assist in getting the Greek authorities to approve the land deal, media reported.

A district court recently overturned a police request for Gilad Sharon to handover documents.

Israel Radio and Haaretz said Sharon was expected to refer questions about both cases to his sons, as he has done previously. Sharon has promised to fully cooperate with the police investigation. Media reports said police questioned Sharon at his official residence in Jerusalem.

Sharon is the third prime minister to be investigated by police. Previous corruption inquiries against Benjamin Netanyahu (news - web sites) and Ehud Barak (news - web sites) were eventually dropped.

The first corruption allegation evolved in October 2001 when a report by the state comptroller said Sharon's son Omri, now a lawmaker, raised money abroad, through a company called Annex Research, for his father's successful 1999 campaign to win leadership of Likud.

Although there was no suspicion of criminal wrongdoing, the comptroller ordered Sharon to reimburse the company the $980,000 it paid his campaign.

According to Haaretz, Omri and Gilad Sharon tried to pay the money back by securing a bank loan using the Sycamore Ranch in Israel's Negev desert as collateral. The bank called off the loan after learning Sharon did not own the land outright but leased it from the state.

In January, a South African businessman and longtime friend of the prime minister, Cyril Kern, transferred $1.5 million to Sharon's sons. The money served as collateral for a loan to repay Annex.

Kern has said the money was not a political donation but a personal gift to help the prime minister's struggling ranch. Israeli media reported in July that investigators believed Kern was not the real source of the loan, but rather a front for other, unnamed businessmen.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=540&u=/ap/20031030/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_sharon&ncid=736

Posted by: Jerusalem Posts [TypeKey Profile Page] on January 4, 2005 12:21 AM

2. Joseph Alexander Norland said:

Through the magic of google, I found the link:

http://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2003%20News%20archives/October/30%20n/Sharon%20questioned%20by%20police%20on%20suspected%20corruption%20allegations.htm

Same AP piece also at

http://www.msnbc.com/news/986936.asp?cp1=1

Posted by: Joseph Alexander Norland on January 4, 2005 07:08 AM

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