August 3, 2021
Had Prime Minister Naftali Bennett been Israel’s defense minister or just a member of its Security Cabinet, he would have surely banged on the table and demanded direct action against Iran.
Before he became prime minister, Bennett (as mentioned here previously) likened Iran to an octopus deploying its tentacles in the region against Israel. Having branded himself as a high-tech version of then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bennett s use of the octopus example was an enhanced version of Netanyahu’s description of Iran’s use of regional proxies against Israel as “arming the cat’s paws.” As education minister, Bennett demanded that Israel strike the head of the octopus whenever it used one of its tentacles to attack Israel or to spread terrorism in the region. A year later, in 2019, he made the same argument as defense minister, saying in closed-door meetings that there was no point in hacking off the tentacles of the proxies that Iran sends to
Photo Credit: Kobi Gideon/GPO
Prime Minister Netanyahu at the inauguration of the new submarine Rahav at the Israeli navy base in Haifa, January 12, 2016.
The Tax and Economics division at the Prosecutorâs Office announced Monday that it was closing the cases against Adv. David Shimron and former Navy Commander Maj. Gen. Eliezer Marom who were suspected in a corruption case that involved receiving bribes, money laundering, tax evasion and fraud.
The case, dubbed Case 3000, alleges that senior Israeli officials received bribes in exchange for their promotion of the acquisition of a Dolphin-class submarine for Israelâs navy from the German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp.
Affaire des sous-marins: David Shimron et Eliezer Marom innocentés timesofisrael.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from timesofisrael.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Jan. 7, 2021
Every criminal affair has a seminal moment, a kind of opening salvo for the unsavory plot. It’s the moment when the interests of the protagonists intersect, a moment after which there is no turning back.
The affair of Israel’s purchase of submarines and patrol boats from Germany, known as Case 3000, had a moment like that. According to the state prosecution, it took place in 2009, in two meetings, held in the bureau of the finance minister at the time, Yuval Steinitz, and in the office of the then-commander of the navy, Vice Admiral Eliezer Marom. Marom was in the forefront of a group that wanted to replace the Israeli agent of the German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp, the middleman between Israel and Germany in the submarine deal. For years that role had been played by Brig. Gen. (res.) Yeshayahu “Shaike” Bareket. Marom and his group wanted to replace Bareket with businessman Miki Ganor.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seen at a welcoming ceremony for a new submarine, Rahav, at the Israeli Navy base in Haifa, on January 12, 2016. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)
The High Court of Justice announced on Monday that it will hear petitions calling for a criminal probe into the alleged involvement of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the so-called submarine scandal.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel has requested that the court compel Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to order a criminal investigation into Netanyahu’s possible involvement in the affair, also known as Case 3000, which revolves around allegations of a massive bribery scheme in the multi-billion-shekel state purchase of naval vessels from German shipbuilder Thyssenkrupp.