Likud MK Saar to Shas: "You Promised, Now Quit"
(IsraelNN.com) With secret talks over the future of Jerusalem underway, Likud MK Gideon Saar reminds Shas that it promised to quit the moment such talks started. Pressure has been brought to bear upon Shas from other quarters as well.
MK Gideon Saar, head of the Likud Knesset faction, says that the Shas Party is not living up to its promise of only two weeks ago to quit the government as soon as it begins talking about the future of Jerusalem.
Saar, speaking at the Likud Knesset faction's weekly meeting on Monday, said, "There is evidence that negotiations about Jerusalem are underway - and this has not been denied by the foreign minister [Tzipi Livni]. Under these circumstances, the Shas Party, which declared that it would quit the coalition the moment discussions about Jerusalem begin, must fulfill its promise in order to stop this process."
Two Weeks Ago
It was exactly two weeks ago that the Council of Torah Sages of the Shas party, headed by former Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, decided that Shas would quit the coalition government as soon as government representatives start talking with the PA about splitting Jerusalem.
The decision had been long awaited by the nationalist camp and many Shas supporters, especially given the fact that two weeks before, Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) left the government. The government now depends on Shas and its 11 MKs for its very existence; without them, the coalition would number only three parties - Kadima, Labor and the Pensioners - and a total of 55 Knesset Members, or less than a majority of the Knesset.
Shas Spokesman Denies Talks
Shas, however, has a different version of the situation. "[Shas party leader and Industry and Trade Minister] Eli Yeshai speaks with Foreign Minister Livni every day," Shas spokesman Ro'i Lachmanovitch told Arutz-7 Monday afternoon, "and she briefs him on everything that goes on in the talks. Jerusalem is not on the agenda, period."
Arutz-7's Haggai Huberman said that it is clear that Livni is deceiving Yishai, "or perhaps Yishai is simply believing what he wants to believe. The Olmert strategy is that all the core issues are intertwined, and therefore if even one issue is being discussed, then all the issues are being discussed - including Jerusalem."
Huberman explained that originally, Livni suggested there be separate negotiating teams set up for each of the various issues, such as final borders, Jerusalem, water, refugees, etc. However, Olmert rejected this idea outright, saying that all the issues are intertwined, and that a concession on one issue could be given only in exchange for a concession from the PA side on another issue. He therefore instructed that all negotiations be done by the same team headed by Minister Livni.
"Yishai is well aware of this Olmert strategy," Huberman said, "and therefore he knows that if talks are underway, Jerusalem is on the table as well."
Abbas and Others Confirm Talks
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the head of Fatah, said last Thursday as well that Livni and PA negotiator Abu Alla have been talking about "all the core issues." He told a group of European Parliament members that this is being done "quietly, away from the media."
The Makor Rishon newspaper reported earlier in the week that Livni herself confirmed this in a talk with foreign diplomats. She told them that all the core issues, including Jerusalem, were being discussed, and admitted that this was in contradiction to the promise Olmert gave Shas a number of days before.
Despite this, the Shas spokesman told Arutz-7 that though Livni has not denied the reports that Jerusalem is being discussed, "she has not confirmed them either."
PA Source: Israel Agreed to Quit Jerusalem Neighborhoods
Furthermore, a "senior PA official in Ramallah" was quoted in the Jerusalem Post as having said over the weekend that the PA negotiating team has been holding secret talks with Foreign Minister Livni, and that "progress has been achieved during the secret talks, particularly on the issue of Jerusalem."
"We can now say that Israel is prepared to withdraw from almost all the Arab neighborhoods and villages in Jerusalem," the official said. "Israel is prepared to redivide Jerusalem and this is a positive development."
In a letter to Foreign Minister Livni, Jerusalem City Councilman and likely future mayoral candidate Nir Barkat wrote, "If these reports are true, they are a complete departure from the fundamental principles of [your] Kadima party, and a blatant violation of Israel's Basic Law: Jerusalem. They are also a breach of the voters' trust, as well as an undermining of Israel's sovereignty."
Barkat asked, "In your role as negotiations coordinator with the Palestinians, do you confirm that Israel is now prepared to give up parts of Jerusalem to them? If so, and in light of their severity and grave implications for the security and future of Jerusalem, I demand that you reveal from the Knesset podium all the agreements, secret and otherwise, that Israel has reached with the Palestinians. Alternatively, I demand that you deny publicly the existence of such agreements."
In light of the reports, pressure has once again been brought to bear upon Shas and Rabbi Yosef to quit the government and nip the process in the bud. The party spokesman's response indicates that as of now, Shas is remaining in the government.
On the other hand, late this afternoon, Shas Chairman Eli Yishai told his party colleagues, "If the negotiations lead to any further progress while Kassams are still being fired upon us and terrorism is continuing in the West Bank [Judea and Samaria], we will quit the government."
And those poor, blind Israelis who think we're all alone and there's nobody else. They are trying to press the Shas Party to leave the government and bring it down. They don't know that Shas from its inception was blackmailed by the Peres gang to secure the Moroccan vote, or that Deputy Prime Minister Chaim Ramon initially bribed Shas leader Arye Deri with $50,000 to utilize his 23 year old skills to negotiate the sale of the Carmel Bank, or that in 1996 PM Netanyahu appointed today's Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On as Attorney General so he could get Deri a jail saving plea bargain in return for Shas agreeing to the Hebron withdrawal.
******************************************************************************************************************************************************* CHAPTER TWO- THE CONSPIRATORS CAN'T STOP CONSPIRING by Barry Chamish The folks who brought Israel the Oslo Accords and the Rabin Assassination, are too enmired in crime to do anything but continue in crime. As they fight to stay out of prison, Israel sinks into their mire. FROM THE GOOD FOLKS WHO BROUGHT YOU THE RABIN ASSASSINATION Friday, Jan. 3, 1996 saw the return of the Rabin conspirators to center stage. Most of the dramatic action took place on the state-run television's Weekend Magazine program. First, the Yediot Ahronot journalist Itamar Abramovitch, who was the first to reveal that Yigal Amir's pal Avishai Raviv was a Shabak agent, had some more startling news. It seems the attorney-general, Michael Ben Yair had been hiding a report in his desk for nine months which deeply implicates the Shabak in aiding and abetting the coverup of former Minister of the Interior Arye Deri's sundry crimes. It seems that Deri's co-defendant Moshe Weinberg was taped by a prosecution mole telling him that the Shabak was passing Deri information on which of his and his cronies' phones were tapped. According to Weinberg, the Shabak runs 300 bugging operations at a time from the phone company Bezek's switchboard and thirty were dedicated to Deri. Based on this tape, the ombudsman's office responsible for supervising the conduct of the intelligence services opened a commission of inquiry. It found strong evidence to suggest that the commander of police intelligence Avi Dotan passed the information on phone taps to the Shabak where it was relayed to Deri. And which Shabak agents were implicated in the scandal? Former head of the General Security Services (Shabak) Yaacov Perry's polygraph tests were "inconclusive." But Agent Aleph, head of the Jewish Unit, lied about his involvement in the affair. We will return to this episode shortly. After the latest Shabak scandal was exposed, the program presented an interview with Perry's successor as GSS chief, Carmi Gillon. He let loose some of the most vicious invective against religious Jews by another Jew in anyone's memory. After presenting Rabbi Kahane, Yigal Amir, Baruch Goldstein and Noam Freidman as examples, he concluded that religious Jewry had created a culture of murder. To those few who had studied the man or his motives, there was nothing surprising about his views. The surprise was a small item in Maariv on the same day announcing that Gillon had been appointed the chief negotiator with the Palestinians of David Levy's Foreign Ministry. Now let's put the puzzle together character by character: Arye Deri is the leader of the orthodox Shas Party whose supporters are overwhelmingly right wing. Yet, in 1990 he lead Shas out of the Shamir government because it refused to accept Secretary of State James Baker's demand that Jerusalem be put up for negotiations. On July 2, 1992, the FBI announced that it was opening a file on Deri on suspicion of his involvement in the murder of his mother-in-law, Esther Verdberger in New York. Four days later he led his party into the Labor coalition and the file was dropped. The next year, he provided the Knesset votes needed by Prime Minister Rabin to open the "peace" process with the PLO. Eli Barak is Agent Aleph or A. While serving as Office Manager for Shabak chief Yaacov Perry, Barak became involved in a number of extra-weird scandals involving wife swapping, stalking, drunkedness and more. He was known to be thrown out of control by jealousy and this led to his terrorizing of radio announcer Carmela Menashe and the most suspicious suicide of his wife swapping partner in New York. Despite being fully aware of his unstable personality, in 1995 Rabin appointed him head of a unit whose primary task was to play deadly, dirty tricks on the Jewish residents of the Administered Territories. One of the dirty tricksters under his command was Avishai Raviv, who successfully provoked Yigal Amir into shooting Yitzhak Rabin, most likely with a blank bullet, maybe two, with lots of help from fellow agents. Carmi Gillon, whhose vicious hatred of the settlers was exposed in his Haifa University Masters thesis, was conveniently out of the country at the time of the Rabin assassination. The Shamgar Commission investigating the murder slapped Gillon's wrist for running a really sloppy security service. So why is he now the Foreign Ministry's chief peace talks negotiator with the Palestinians? Why have none of the religious members of the governing coalition asked that question in light of his ugly attack on their way of life and beliefs? Clearly, Israel suffers a serious manpower shortage or how else can one explain Netanyahu's decision to revive the flagging career of Carmi Gillon? As for Eli Barak, we recall that the Shamgar Commission chose not to call him to testify in open court. Then the government protected him, and still it protects him by hiding the latest report of his secret activities. Why is this man immune to criminal prosecution? The answer lies at the core of an incredibly immoral "peace" process. Without Deri, Oslo would not have proceeded. Deri had to be protected in every way possible as the price of his support. It now appears likely that one of Barak's duties was to provide that protection. Deri and Barak have a lot in common. Both committed a long string of crimes that lead to suspicious deaths in New York. It can be assumed that they would both be very easy to compromise by withholding prosecution of their crimes or real investigations into the deaths. And since the deaths both occurred in New York, the American authorities had the ammunition to force these men to do their bidding. That is half the picture. The puzzle won't be complete until Gillon and Barak are forced to tell the truth about Avishai Raviv and Yigal Amir. The first step would be the honest, yes honest, prosecution of those involved with passing secret police information to Deri and his pals. However, it is not terribly likely that we will ever see the demise of the good folks who brought you the Rabin assassination. Barak continues on as head of the Shabak's Jewish Unit, while Gillon is the latest addition to the government's negotiating team with the Palestinians. Is there anyone asking why? DERI'S INCRIMINATING TAPE-Part One December 1996 saw three related incidents. Early in the month, the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, Shmuel Meir died in a suspicious car crash. On the eighteenth of the month, the American Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk visited the spiritual leader of the Shas Party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef to warn him of the consequences of expanding Israeli territorial settlements. And by the end of the month Arye Deri, Sha's leader, Rabbi Ovadia's protege and the Minister of the Interior between 1988-93 will conclude his defence in his trial for theft, fraud and embezzlement. Meir was hit head on by a Palestinian driving a UN truck. In December 1989, he and then-Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Arnon Yekuieli released a report which initiated the Deri scandal. The two municipal politicians accused Deri of blackmailing city councils in order for them to receive Interior Ministry allocations. In short, if they wanted the money, they'd have to kickback funds to Shas. One accusation stood out for me: Meir and Yekutieli accused then-Deputy Finance Minister Yossi Beilin of gathering incriminating evidence against Deri and using it for political purposes. In June, 1990, I interviewed Meir and he told me that Beilin and his boss Shimon Peres had allowed Deri to steal millions of dollars of public money, every shekel of which was recorded by the Finance Ministry. In March 1990, Peres laid down the law to Deri. Peres was planning to bring down the Shamir government with the help of Secretary of State James Baker. Baker had proposed a five point peace plan, one of whose points included negotiations over the status of Jerusalem. Shamir would naturally reject the program and his Finance Minister would make saying yes to Baker the issue in a vote of non-confidence. To the shock of the nation, Deri and Shas decided not to support Shamir and the government fell. No one understood why a supposedly right wing, Sephardic, orthodox religious party would fell the government over Baker's phoney peace initiative. Meir told me why. In June 1992, the Labor Party led by Yitzhak Rabin won the national elections, but barely. In order to secure a Jewish majority in the Knesset, Rabin invited Shas, six of whose Knesset members were being investigated for various crimes with one already imprisoned, to join his coalition. (This to the utter disgust of many in Labor and most in its left wing ally Meretz). The immoral upcoming coalition seemed to be have been short-circuited on July 3 when Haaretz and Maariv ran, as their lead stories, the fact that the FBI was opening an investigation of Deri for possible involvement in murder. That day Deri left the country, he claimed to Morocco. The Moroccan government gave lie to the claim, denying Deri had ever entered their country. Later, a religious member of the Knesset and a reporter for a religious newspaper told me Deri flew either to France or Belgium. In early 1996 that fact may have become significant. One of Deri's cronies, originally charged with bribery in the his police investigation, Aharon Weiner was arrested in Belgium for purchasing 650 kg. of cocaine. Deri returned home within 48 hours and on July 6, agreed to join the Rabin coalition. And the FBI story was never heard of again. Previously, however, the Feds apparently found enough evidence to link Deri to the murder, the previous June in New York of his wife's adoptive mother, Esther Verdberger. So did the Israel police. According to Michael Greivsky, writing earlier this year in Maariv, reported that in 1991 Uri Savir, then Director General of the Foreign Ministry and later Rabin's chief "peace" negotiator, "pressured Yoram Gonen, the police investigator assigned to the murder, to stop his investigation." As the talks with the PLO continued in Oslo, Rabin blatantly proved the widespread belief that Shas joined the coalition in exchange for protection against the prosecution of its members, when he passed a bill in the Knesset protecting Shas MK Rafael Pinchasi from standing trial for electoral fraud. Then in September, 1993, the protection of Shas paid dividends. Without Shas, the Declaration of Principles with the PLO would not have been ratified by a majority of Jewish Knesset members. Without Shas, Rabin would have been dependent on four Arab Knesset members for a parliamentary majority. Back then, he declared that without a Jewish majority, he would not have had the moral right to proceed with the "peace" process. Shas gave him that right, or shall we say, the blackmail of Shas provided the excuse to carry on. (A year later, when even Rabin could no longer protect Deri from prosecution, he led Shas out of the coalition but Rabin proceeded down the "peace" road without a Jewish majority in the Knesset.) Why did the FBI suddenly drop its investigation of Deri's possible involvement in a murder charge? The answer is most likely to give Rabin a mandate to conduct America's version of peace diplomacy. History is repeating itself. Martin Indyk is pressing Deri's corrupt mentor, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef to end the government's desire to expand settlement in disputed areas. If Shas with its ten seats walked out of the coalition, Netanyahu's government would fall. The timing is perfect for Indyk. Deri's attorneys are concluding their defence of him and then Israel's politically influenced judges will render verdict. One can skillfully guess that Shas's behaviour in parliament will play a decisive role in Deri's future, within or without prison. Months previously, the judges heard a tape that, if not incriminating Deri in the Esther Verdberger murder, certainly raises suspicions that he tried to force her to give false testimony on his behalf. It's not hard to suspect that her refusal to do so may have been very costly to her a month later. As a final aside, Moshe Reich, Deri's crony who allegedly drove Verdberger's car over her was arrested three months ago and charged with defrauding Bank Leumi's New York branch of $6 million. Let the transcript of the tape begin. DERI'S INCRIMINATING TAPE-Part Two If there is an air of political murder in Israel, Shas Party head Arieh Deri is certainly contributing to the atmosphere. He is currently on trial for acts of theft, fraud and bribery which allegedly took place when he was the Minister of Interior between 1988-91. Also on trial for similar charges are his cronies Moshe and Arie Weinberg. Deri was interrogated by Police Inspector Meir Gilboa in May, 1991 about the source of alleged bribes totalling $170,000. The police assumed the money was pilfered from the State Treasury but Deri insisted his wife's adoptive parents, Isar and Esther Verdberger of New York, had given the funds as gifts. And to prove the point, Deri said he had two tapes of conversations between Esther Verdberger and his friend Shmuel Weinberg, a New York attorney who is Moshe's brother and Arieh's son. Gilboa made a note of the tape's existence but quickly dismissed their significance. In April 1993, he reread his notes and subpoenaed the tapes. Deri handed over one but refused to relinquish the other. If he considered the tape he gave up safe, one can only imagine how incriminating the other must be. In March, 1990, Isar Verdberger died, naturally. In June, 1991, Esther Verdberger died suspiciously. She was run over by her own car when its brakes failed. Driving the vehicle was Moshe Reich, later charged with offering Deri a $100,000 bribe. The two purposes of Shmuel Weinberg's visit is to convince Esther Verdberger to sign a deposition to Israel Police stating that she gave Deri all the money he claimed she had and to make out a will leaving his family as her sole benefactor. Gilboa sent officers to New York to gather evidence from Verdberger. She agreed only if Shmuel Weinberg sat with her and approved her testimony. Gilboa refused and Weinberg's deposition was supposed to replace her personal appearance before police investigators. While Esther Verdberger could not be called as a witness to Deri's later trial due to her "accidental" death, her close friend Fay Sigfreid flew to Israel and testified that Isar Verdberger was a worker in a clothing factory and Esther a housewife. They gave what they could to the young Deri couple but could not possibly have afforded the kind of money Deri claimed he received from them. The court heard the following taped conversation between Weinberg and Esther Verdberger. Verdberger: "Who doesn't want to give evidence to the police? I didn't see them. You told me not to talk with them or let them in without you." Weinberg: "Sure, that's right. Do you want them to come or not?" Verdberger: "But you phoned me and told me not to speak with them without you." The subject is now switched to the matter of the will. Verdberger: "In regards to the will, you told me the words I should write for Yaffa (Deri's wife and her adoptive daughter). You told me to give everything to Yaffa and the children. I said I'd sign it but it was supposed to be a secret from everybody." Verdberger gets angrier and Weinberg calms her. Verdberger: "I'm nervous because I'm sick. And I'm going to be sicker because of all this. And you're trying to destroy me." Weinberg: "Why do you think that?" Verdberger: "That's what I see. Everything's already written into the will. Everything." Weinberg returns to the issue of a new deposition on Deri's behalf to the police. Verdberger is reluctant to sign it. Among the new declarations is that her late husband transferred a great deal of money to Shmuel Weinberg. Verdberger: "This isn't the same one. I don't know what this is. I'm going to another lawyer tomorrow to sign a different deposition. Weinberg (panicking): "What will you write? Do you know what to write? Do you know what you need to write?" Verdberger: "I'll write what you brought yesterday." Weinberg: "Do you think my whole life is Arieh Deri? Doing things for him all the time. Doing things and doing things. He asked me to do a favor. I came to you. If you want to sign, sign. If not, don't sign...If you don't want to cause him trouble, when you go to your lawyer tomorrow, don't write down any amounts. Never declare a figure. (Yelling). Never!" Verdberger: "Isar gave him (Deri). He gave him." Weinberg: "Don't declare ten thousand. Don't declare five thousand." Verdberger: "When Yaffa came once, I gave her." Weinberg now tries to coordinate her testimony with her new lawyer. Weinberg: "You don't have to write that. They'll ask you when you gave, how much. You don't know. Isar sent the money...Write as little as you can. It's healthier that way. If they ask you where he got the money, tell them I don't know where he got it or from whom. He never told me. He never talked. I don't know anything. I pay my taxes and everything was done right." Weinberg tries a new tack. He suggests that Verdberger sign her deposition with a lawyer of his choice. The name of the lawyer was deleted from the trial record. Weinberg: "If I were you, I'd get the best lawyer there is. (He suggests a name) Verdberger: "He's the best lawyer for crooks. That's who you want me to go to?" Weinberg: "He's the best for crooks and non-crooks." Verdberger: "He is the lawyer for mafia crooks. He works for the mafia." Weinberg: "He's not called a mafia lawyer. We could have got any old lawyer. I wanted the best. Verdberger. "He's the lawyer of crooks. (She suggests another lawyer, Priger from Manhattan)." Weinberg: "You're hiring Priger?" Verdberger: "When did I say I was hiring him? I said I was getting another lawyer, not necessarily him." Weinberg: "If you want, I'll find a big lawyer to defend you." Verdberger: "I don't need a lawyer to defend me. I need a lawyer to defend Isar's good name." Weinberg: "You treat me like I'm from the mafia, from the underworld. You make me into a liar. You turned me into the thief of Warsaw. You talk to me like I was one of the communists in Poland who harassed you. That's how you talk to me, like a spy, prying into your private papers." Verdberger: "All this is hurting my health. Nothing matters to me. I'm trying to do my best for Arieh but all I get in return are slaps on my face. Believe me, I don't deserve all this." The conversation becomes remorseful. Esther recalls that Isar did give Deri eight or nine thousand dollars for their wedding and adds, "You'd think Yaffa would remember that." Then she becomes bitter at Deri. "We told him not to become a minister. How did that help? He goes and builds a luxury home, dragging people into his affairs. He already had a nice home. Isar saw it, four rooms... He did it to himself. He didn't need a million dollar apartment." Weinberg: "Do you think Arieh is a thief?" Verdberger: "I don't think he's a thief. I don't think anything." Weinberg: "So where did he get the money?" Verdberger: "The papers say, the papers write...You can't get anything out of me. I can't go on anymore." Weinberg: "If I thought Arieh stole one dollar, not a million, I'd have nothing to do with him. But I know Arieh is as clean as pure gold. They're harassing him for nothing. He's my friend and I have to help him... Everyone else lives better than he does but he wears a kipah. That's the problem. He's a Jew in a land of anti-semites. They hate the religious in Israel. If a religious man makes money, everyone accuses him of being a thief..." Verdberger: "Do what you want. I'm not saying anything. I won't tell a lie...He wants to sacrifice me when I sign on the bottom. I'm sick and I'm not twenty anymore. And he wants me to sign this. I'm not signing anything more. Nothing. I'm a hundred years old from all this trouble. I don't want to live anymore. I wish I was dead. I wish I'd die today.... I'm not getting involved. I won't sign, I won't testify, I won't talk. Don't involve me anymore." A month after Esther Verdberger refused to sign Deri's deposition, she was killed in a "freak" car accident. The driver was later investigated for his involvement in Deri's bribery charges. Israel Police briefly considered investigating Reich for murder but dropped the case for lack of evidence.
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