Ilan Yeshua, who heads the Walla News website, has provided police investigators with recordings in which Bezeq controlling shareholder, Shaul Elovitch, is heard applying pressure, demanding that the website provide favorable coverage of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his family.
This latest finding is connected to Case 4000, which have police of the Major Crimes Unit probing an alleged connection between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for allegedly promoting regulation worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Bezeq in return for favorable coverage on the Walla News website, which is owned by Bezeq.
Yeshua has already told both police and the Israel Securities Authority that he plans to cooperate fully, providing the recordings of Elovitch doing exactly what police alleged he is guilty of. According to a Ynet report, Yeshua realized that the pressure being exerted on him by Elovitch was somewhat unexplainable, leading to his decision to begin recording the conversations.
While this ties Elovitch to the allegations against him, police would still have to prove he was acting at the behest of Netanyahu and not on his own. This leads to the statements of Mr. Nir Hefetz, another former close confidant and media advisor to PM Netanyahu, who is one of the suspects arrested in the case as investigators move forward.
Police have also enlisted Shlomo Filber, a former Communications Ministry Director-General and close confidant to PM Netanyahu as a state witness. While Mr. Netanyahu continues releasing statements of calm and reassurance, many analysts insist this case will prove to connect directly to Mr. Netanyahu and result in a criminal indictment, which will compel him to step down from office prior to completing the coalition’s four-year term in office.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
Stupid ppl. To get rid of a great prime minister that knows how to speak to the world over such petty stuff like “favorable news coverage”. Unbelievable
To anon21: You couldn’t have said it better?
What law is broken when a major shareholder makes demands (or anyone else) on a company ? So he demanded the media outlet present (or not present) certain things. What law is broken? The assertion that the demand is “unexplainable” is itself “unexplainable”. Netanyahu was schooled and trained in the U.S. as a business man (economics). The consistent economic well being of Israel under Netanyahu, despite the extreme economic turbulence in the much of the rest of the world (even certain European states were on the brink of bankruptcy, oil prices went haywire, etc.) attests to his competence. Yet it is somehow allegedly “unexplainable” that a business person should favour Netanyahu? Even leaving aside the economic benefits Netanyahu has brought to the entire country, how is it “unexplainable” that a personal friend would step in to defend his friend from a hostile media?
This itself raises suspicions that the guy Ilan Yeshua, deliberately posted items to incite Netanyahu and Netanyahu’s friends and allies to confront him so that he could record it.
No one is above the law. Bibi and his family are truly loathsome sometimes. His wife is terrible to staff and his sons go between spoiled brats to actual perverts. He allows charedi law breaking for political ends and bends rules for big givers.
Leaders are held to a standard. His power and success have gotten to his head.