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jdobbin

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http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/10/24/o...llegations.html

Looks like the bribery allegations against Olmert are making their way through the system.

Since the war, the list of financial and sexual scandals against many of the leaders in Israel has been rather breathtaking.

Makes Canada's scandals look fairly blah.

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Unless you consider the 'under cover' type scandals like Graham's young boy sex slave and Brison's leak e-mail to his investment banking buddy.

If the media would run more with the Graham story it'd put Foley to shame. Yet they don't. I wonder how many reporters get caught up in the Ottawa environment, all the affairs, scandal... maybe that's why we don't hear much about it. There was a story in the Herald a couple days back interviewing a former HoC page. The amount of affairs between MP's and pages is enourmous (of age pages at least in Canada... none the less).

Anyways, I'm off topic. Like the Liberal party in Canada, Omert is corrupt and very questionable. Israel needs to look at a renewed leadership. Too much of that one line of thinking gets you what Canada had and Israel has.

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Unless you consider the 'under cover' type scandals like Graham's young boy sex slave and Brison's leak e-mail to his investment banking buddy.

If the media would run more with the Graham story it'd put Foley to shame. Yet they don't. I wonder how many reporters get caught up in the Ottawa environment, all the affairs, scandal... maybe that's why we don't hear much about it. There was a story in the Herald a couple days back interviewing a former HoC page. The amount of affairs between MP's and pages is enourmous (of age pages at least in Canada... none the less).

Anyways, I'm off topic. Like the Liberal party in Canada, Omert is corrupt and very questionable. Israel needs to look at a renewed leadership. Too much of that one line of thinking gets you what Canada had and Israel has.

I don't subscribe to the innuendo. If the police don't investigate it or if there isn't some background material that has more than single source withness, I think it is gossip. I believe if it is has merit, investigate it but for goodness sake, people shouldn't assume something like pages are having sex with MPs every day.

If the Conservative suspect our pages in Canada are being abused, investigate it and report it. Just don't wink and say the Liberals here do it all the time.

Liewise, just because there was an interview with someone accusing Graham or that Stronach was named in a divorce proceeding, I don't assume that it is true unless it is verified. Go through the divorce records of many an MP and it gets messy.

As for Brison, if someone suspects something, send it to the RCMP. Accusations are better backed up with a police investigation.

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http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/10/24/o...llegations.html

Looks like the bribery allegations against Olmert are making their way through the system.

Since the war, the list of financial and sexual scandals against many of the leaders in Israel has been rather breathtaking.

Makes Canada's scandals look fairly blah.

I would advise you if you really want to get the scoop on what is going on in Israel try read Ha'aretz or the Jerusalem Post which you can get on the inter-net in English. All the CBC does is rely on second hand reporting now that it is has cut its news reporting to shreds. All of its stories are recycled wire service stories or abbreviated from American or British news sources and so are not the most accurate and reflect an anti-Israel bias. If I am going to read news stories about Israel, I prefer the Israeli media because they are tough on the government but get their info first hand.

That said I think your comments are a tad over the top. The "scandals' in Israel are no different then in any other Western nation. I think when it happens in Israel, some people feel that Israel will fall apart or somehow this makes Israel evil because it is part of the double standard that if Israel does something wrong, somehow that has mroe significance. I believe it could be tied to a genuine desire of some people to see Israel fail and so the need to jump on Israel when they think it shows its warts.

In regards to Mr. Olmert, in fact an Israeli investigative reporter Yoav Yitzhak just this Wednesday made the allegation that a business man Avi Naor, paid Olmert's wife, (Aliza) money but she did nothing in return for that money. The scandal seems to flow from Mrs. Olmert's functions and status in Mr. Naor's company. The allegations say she either got paid to do nothing, or was paid too much for too little.

In response to these allegations from the reporter, a spokesperson from the Prime Minister's Office responded to the Jerusalem Post newspaper and referred to the allegations as a "disgusting lie" as would be expected. The spokesperson claims Mrs. Olmert in fact worked full time on a project and received a salary in accordance with her work.

So the contraversy flows from the payments to Mrs. Olmert and whether she did something for them, The reporter says she was paid in 11 monthly installments during a time period when Mr. Olmert would have been the deputy prime minister, minister of industry and commerce, minister of employment, head of the Israel Lands Authority and/or Minister of Communications. Mr. Olmert prior to becoming Prime Minister had his hands on a lot of things because he was a non flashy, hard working, go to guy, content to be the power behind the power. The stroke of Mr. Sharon, prematurely pushed him to the limelight.

The reporter is claiming Naor was financially dependent on government work.

But before you immediately assume Mr. Naor is an evil corupt businessman it is more complicated then that. He has been very active in starting and raising funds for charities. He started a charity for victims of car accidents. He also started a project that looks after children suffering from poverty.

It seems former PM Sharon (also who had his own problems with shady deals with his son) and Olmert worked with Naor on this children's charity and in particular raising money for it. The charity collapsed when funding the government said it would provide did not go through. It now appears Mrs. Olmert was working on this charity project - so the question is why? Was she simply getting kick-backs, or was she genuinely involved in the charity.

It certainly is not good optics to have your wife working and being paid by a charity when the government you are part of us is funding that charity. Kind of stupid and arrogant if you ask me.

Mrs. Olmert's former boss in the charity was quoted in the article as describing her function as being asked to study all the childrens' programs in Israel and abroad helping impoverished children to get ideas to use. Y

The reporter of course has asked for samples of Mrs. Olmert's work but Mrs. Olmert won't give any.

There is also another issue that has come up that Mr. Olmert gave preferential treatment to a colleague of his who gave him an expensive pen as a gift.

Now you must understand mud slinging, name calling and accusations of coruption are very common in Israel because the country is tiny and everyone's business is so related to everyone else's. Israel's economic market is very tight knit and by nature heavily inter-connected.

What we consider conflict of interests or appearance of conflict of interests in Canadian standards are not necessarily considered as such in Israel. They tend to tolerate a lot more of it simply because the economy is so tight and small and doesn't afford as many opportunities and competition as in Canada.

None-the-less, the Israeli press is the toughest in the world and they go after their politicians with little fear.

I think what is happening in Mr. Olmert's case is he has many enemies and his enemies and the press are sensing his weakness. He just made a desperate move to bring into his cabinet a right wink Russian Jewish hawk, to keep the Russian Jewish community happy. The Russian Jewish community tends to be very hard line. On the other side of his coalition it now appears Shimon Peres is posed to take over the ceremonial post of President of Israel taking away his major power source of moderation.

The Israeli Labour Party seems to have major problems, and Mr. Olmert's party seems to be crumbling meaning aq coalition of right wing parties could very well resurface again to take the next election. Mr. Netanyanhu, the former Likud PM and a good friend of Ronald Reagan and Republicans could make a come-back.

As all this dirt is unfolding, which is par for the course in Israel, the real story, is Hamas' struggle with the PLO to see who will run the security forces of Palestine. Israel is preoccupied with this issue because if Hamas is able to wrestle control from the PLO it means in effect Israel is back fighting an open war with Hamas who consider themselves at active war whereas the PLO with the exception of its Al Asqa Martyr Brigade and Al Fatah, do not consider themselves in active war with Israel.

The appointment of a right wing hawk to be in charge of strategy as to how to handle Iran is a joke. Its meaningless. Strategy as to anything in regards to state security and external threats is and has always been created and defined by the Israeli military and the politicians merely mouth off and pretend they

came up with the ideas but they don't-its the military who advise them.

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I would advise you if you really want to get the scoop on what is going on in Israel try read Ha'aretz or the Jerusalem Post which you can get on the inter-net in English. All the CBC does is rely on second hand reporting now that it is has cut its news reporting to shreds. All of its stories are recycled wire service stories or abbreviated from American or British news sources and so are not the most accurate and reflect an anti-Israel bias. If I am going to read news stories about Israel, I prefer the Israeli media because they are tough on the government but get their info first hand.

That said I think your comments are a tad over the top. The "scandals' in Israel are no different then in any other Western nation. I think when it happens in Israel, some people feel that Israel will fall apart or somehow this makes Israel evil because it is part of the double standard that if Israel does something wrong, somehow that has mroe significance. I believe it could be tied to a genuine desire of some people to see Israel fail and so the need to jump on Israel when they think it shows its warts.

I do look at the Israeli press but I tend to think they are a bit over the top and didn't comment on Olmert until an investigation was announced. Until then, it was basically a smear following the war.

Also, there is a tendency to call Canadian scandals more salacious than other countries. This is a fallacy. There are fewer stories of Canadian MPs and ministers within the government enriching themselves in financial deals. There are few sexual scandals as well. The best that people come up with in Canada is innuendo.

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I would advise you if you really want to get the scoop on what is going on in Israel try read Ha'aretz or the Jerusalem Post which you can get on the inter-net in English. All the CBC does is rely on second hand reporting now that it is has cut its news reporting to shreds. All of its stories are recycled wire service stories or abbreviated from American or British news sources and so are not the most accurate and reflect an anti-Israel bias. If I am going to read news stories about Israel, I prefer the Israeli media because they are tough on the government but get their info first hand.

That said I think your comments are a tad over the top. The "scandals' in Israel are no different then in any other Western nation. I think when it happens in Israel, some people feel that Israel will fall apart or somehow this makes Israel evil because it is part of the double standard that if Israel does something wrong, somehow that has mroe significance. I believe it could be tied to a genuine desire of some people to see Israel fail and so the need to jump on Israel when they think it shows its warts.

I do look at the Israeli press but I tend to think they are a bit over the top and didn't comment on Olmert until an investigation was announced. Until then, it was basically a smear following the war.

Also, there is a tendency to call Canadian scandals more salacious than other countries. This is a fallacy. There are fewer stories of Canadian MPs and ministers within the government enriching themselves in financial deals. There are few sexual scandals as well. The best that people come up with in Canada is innuendo.

Well we had the Chretien years and the Mulroney years certainly no shortage of the same b.s. going on in Israel.

In terms of wives of elected officials getting involved in scandals well we know about Hilary and that gentleman committing suicide and her shady deals and of course Tony Blair's wife got involved with a con man scoundrel from Australia who they just arrested in Fiji and the Mr. Chirac's spouse in Paris, also had her share of accusations.

As for the shoot to kill, like I said, I am sure Figleaf when he gets over his shock will provide us the tapes he took of Hamas shooting at Palestinians from his last visit there.

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Well we had the Chretien years and the Mulroney years certainly no shortage of the same b.s. going on in Israel.

In terms of wives of elected officials getting involved in scandals well we know about Hilary and that gentleman committing suicide and her shady deals and of course Tony Blair's wife got involved with a con man scoundrel from Australia who they just arrested in Fiji and the Mr. Chirac's spouse in Paris, also had her share of accusations.

As for the shoot to kill, like I said, I am sure Figleaf when he gets over his shock will provide us the tapes he took of Hamas shooting at Palestinians from his last visit there.

I think Chretien personally wasn't enriching himself in office. I do have some questions when he was out of office though but no one ever raised them officially.

Mulroney's investigation was poorly handled. It still appears there are questions to be asked about the money he received from an account linked to bribery.

It is the one area of the RCMP that I think needs improving: The Commercial crime squad unit. They need more forensic accountants and investigators. And not just for political hanky panky but for business and non-government agencies funded by some government money.

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Well we had the Chretien years and the Mulroney years certainly no shortage of the same b.s. going on in Israel.

In terms of wives of elected officials getting involved in scandals well we know about Hilary and that gentleman committing suicide and her shady deals and of course Tony Blair's wife got involved with a con man scoundrel from Australia who they just arrested in Fiji and the Mr. Chirac's spouse in Paris, also had her share of accusations.

As for the shoot to kill, like I said, I am sure Figleaf when he gets over his shock will provide us the tapes he took of Hamas shooting at Palestinians from his last visit there.

I think Chretien personally wasn't enriching himself in office. I do have some questions when he was out of office though but no one ever raised them officially.

Mulroney's investigation was poorly handled. It still appears there are questions to be asked about the money he received from an account linked to bribery.

It is the one area of the RCMP that I think needs improving: The Commercial crime squad unit. They need more forensic accountants and investigators. And not just for political hanky panky but for business and non-government agencies funded by some government money.

If you genuinely believe neither Chretien or Mulroney enriched themselves while in office, all I will say is I disagree and think they both did and did what all politicians do but what some of our posters seem to think only exists in Israel. That was the pt.

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http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/10/24/o...llegations.html

Looks like the bribery allegations against Olmert are making their way through the system.

Since the war, the list of financial and sexual scandals against many of the leaders in Israel has been rather breathtaking.

Makes Canada's scandals look fairly blah.

Imagine reporting equivalent scandals in the Saudi press. Unless you assume their government is clean.

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Imagine reporting equivalent scandals in the Saudi press. Unless you assume their government is clean.

Of taking money during elections? Yes, I'd say they were clean in that area.

How about taking money from the Saudi people under whatever conditions, since they don't have multi-party elections.

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How about taking money from the Saudi people under whatever conditions, since they don't have multi-party elections.

I am pretty sure they disperse money.

I mean public money going into high living and Swiss bank accounts of ruling class.

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  • 6 months later...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/05/03/...t.ap/index.html

JERUSALEM (AP) -- A mass rally in Tel Aviv is expected to draw tens of thousands of demonstrators calling for the embattled Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, to resign.

Problems with how the Lebanon Israeli war last year.

Failed to rescue any of it's captured troops.

Time will tell, and time does tell.

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http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/10/24/o...llegations.html

Looks like the bribery allegations against Olmert are making their way through the system.

Since the war, the list of financial and sexual scandals against many of the leaders in Israel has been rather breathtaking.

Makes Canada's scandals look fairly blah.

What is amazing is that he has been able to survive as long as he has. I mean his wife was caught red handed in a charity fraud and he survived that and so many other things. As well the Israeli press spits its politicians out, it has no mercy and has been relentless. Then add to that the scathing report of his incompetence during the Lebanon war and its amazing he still stands.

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Unless you consider the 'under cover' type scandals like Graham's young boy sex slave and Brison's leak e-mail to his investment banking buddy.

If the media would run more with the Graham story it'd put Foley to shame. Yet they don't. I wonder how many reporters get caught up in the Ottawa environment, all the affairs, scandal... maybe that's why we don't hear much about it. There was a story in the Herald a couple days back interviewing a former HoC page. The amount of affairs between MP's and pages is enourmous (of age pages at least in Canada... none the less).

Anyways, I'm off topic. Like the Liberal party in Canada, Omert is corrupt and very questionable. Israel needs to look at a renewed leadership. Too much of that one line of thinking gets you what Canada had and Israel has.

In my personal opinion Olmert should do the honourable thing and resign so he won't. As for me, I find sex scandals not as bad as coruption ones unless of course its with kids. Then its bad. But I think who you have sex with I could care less about (unless its a kid) but if you screw with people's money-then look out.

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I don't know too much about the current situation, but am bold enough to make a prediction. If their PM steps down or is forced out, their enemies will automatically commence bombing and otherwise trying to influence the choice of any replacement.

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I don't know too much about the current situation, but am bold enough to make a prediction. If their PM steps down or is forced out, their enemies will automatically commence bombing and otherwise trying to influence the choice of any replacement.
Or the enemies will kill hundreds with a huge bomb just to get rid of him.
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I don't know too much about the current situation, but am bold enough to make a prediction. If their PM steps down or is forced out, their enemies will automatically commence bombing and otherwise trying to influence the choice of any replacement.

So Israel should dispense with choosing who it wants in government?

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