_____
Former IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and former IDF Spokesman Avi Benayahu in 2010 - key figures in the Harpaz document affair.
_____
OccupyTLV, September 10 - on September 2, the Israel Police completed its investigation into the Harpaz document affair and forwarded its recommendations, including the indictment of former IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, to Attorney General Yehudah Weinstein for final determination regarding criminal prosecutions, if any. [
i,
ii] Upon taking office, Ashkenazi's successor, current Chief of Staff Staff Benny Gantz stated that the Harpaz document affair had left the "odor of a rotting corpse in the IDF General Command". [
iii]
The affair was described by Israeli media as a "coup attempt", where top military brass tried to undermine the civilian authority over the military and subvert then Minister of Defense Ehud Barak. It originated in 2010 in the forgery of a document and its distribution by the entourage of then IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi. The case was further compounded by later attempts of the suspects to obstruct the investigation.
The leading characters include former IDF Chief of Staff Ashkenazi, his Bureau Head Erez Winner, former IDF Spokesman Avi Benayahu, then IDF Chief Prosecutor (currently Cabinet Secretary) Avihai Mandelblit, and current Head of Internal Security in the Ministry of Defense (Malmab - particularly charged with security of information regarding nuclear matters) Amir Kain.
On September 4th, Hebrew print media reported that Kain had announced his resignation in the wake of the police report, which implicated him in leaking information about the investigation to the suspects - obstruction of criminal investigation and breach of loyalty. [
iv] In contrast, calls for the suspension of Cabinet Secretary Mandelblit have so far been ignored by PM Netanyahu. [
v]
One of the most interesting leaks from the final Israel Police investigation, reported by Hebrew print media was a line from a 2010 recording, where with escalating tensions between IDF top brass and the civilian authorities, then IDF Chief of Staff Bureau Head Erez Winner calmed Boaz Harpaz, author of the forged document, "Shin-Bet is with us". [
vi] Indeed, one had to be naive to assume that any of this could have ever happened absent collusion or acquiescence by the Shin-Bet. The involvement of then former Mossad Deputy Chief Tamir Pardo (today Mossad Chief) in the affair had already been previously published. [
vii]
Therefore, an alternative view of the Harpaz document affair is a sting operation, targeting IDF Chief of Staff Ashkenazi, whose popularity was a growing concern, and who was seen as a natural leader for the opposition to Netanyahu on the left-wing . [
viii] Such conduct by the Shin-Bet should not be considered unthinkable. After all, in 1984 the Shin-Bet had attempted to frame a top IDF officer for murder in the Kav 300 affairr (see below).
Perhaps typical of the entire spectacle, are the following two contrasting views:
- The September 3, 2014 Opinion headline in the Hebrew daily Israel Hayom (Sheldon Adelson's propaganda organ for Netanyahu), referring to the police investigation, states: "Police Investigation with no fear and no bias". [ix]
- The July 5, 2014 News headline in the Hebrew daily Haaretz states: "During his visit to New York Police Chief met Benyahu, suspect in Harpaz affair". [x] The meeting was discovered followin Israeli media probe into the MIA status of Israel Police Chief Yohanan Danino in the days following the kidnapping-murder of three Israeli youths near Hebron (which led to the latest round of violence in Gaza). As it turned out, while Danino was initially reported to be attending a police chiefs conference in San Francisco, he in fact secretly met with key suspect Benayahu and his attorney in New York. The meeting and its location remain inexplicable. Any such meeting during a criminal investigation would be considered highly unusual, and requires special procedures, which were apparently not followed in this case. And any travel abroad of a State officer of such rank as Police Chief is under total surveillance by the Shin-Bet and Mossad. Demands for investigation of the Danino-Benayahu meeting have so far been ignored. [xi]
Overall, the alarmist calls by Israeli media over the Harpaz document affair, "Israel's democracy at stake", [
xii] should be viewed as too much protestation. Israel has been far from a "democracy" for years. Its current form of government can be viewed as a " Shin-Bet judiciary gang ". [
xiii]
Landmarks along the transformation of the Israeli regime over recent decades include:
1) 1984 -
Kav 300 affair - then Attorney General Yitzhak Zamir unsuccessfully attempted to impose the rule of law on the Shin-Bet, and both he and then Shin-Bet Head Avraham Shalom ended up resigning. [
xiv]
2) 1995 - PM Rabin assassination - the deep involvement of the Shin-Bet in the assassination was effectively covered up by the judiciary. [
xv]
3) 2002 - Discharge of the Shin-Bet from security of the Supreme Court's IT systems - opening the way for unchecked judicial corruption.
[
xvi]
The latter event is probably the least recognized, although its lasting significance is no lesser than the former two. The Human Rights Alert (NGO) submission for the 2013 Periodic Review of Human Rights in Israel by the Human Rights Council of the United Nations detailed evidence of a major transformation in the Israeli justice system in March 2002. The servers of the Supreme Court were removed from the custody of the Clerk of the Court to the custody of a corporation (IBM), and a period of unprecedented corruption of of the Israeli courts has commenced, including massive forgery and falsification of Supreme Court records. [
xvii] The submission was incorporated into the UN Professional Staff Report (2013) with the note, "lack of integrity in the elecronic record systems of the Supreme Court, the district courts and the detainees' courts in Israel".
In the latest development in the matter, this author filed on June 4, 2014, a "Notice" with Chief Justice Asher Grunis and Shin-Bet Head Yoram Cohen, regarding the ongoing fraud in the IT systems of the Supreme Court. The Notice addressed these two State officers as the ones, who should have held direct responsibility over the safeguard and integrity of the IT systems of the Supreme Court: [
xviii] The responsibility of the Chief Justice is self-evident, and as is the case in other nations, the secret service - here the Shin-Bet - has a special division that is charged with the safeguard of State IT systems.
Surprisingly, response was received from the Prime Minister's office, holding direct authority over the Shin-Bet. The response informed this author that the Shin-Bet held no responsibility over the security of the Supreme Court's IT systems. [
xix]
The overall plausible explanation for the events from 1984 to the present, is that the judiciary and the Shin-Bet settled their power struggle and turf war with an arrangement, where the judiciary gave up any authority over the Shin-Bet, and the Shin-Bet gave up any authority over the courts' IT systems...
The outcome of such arrangement is massive corruption of government in Israel, including unchecked conduct of the Shin-Bet, particularly vis a vis Palestinians and Arab Israelis - the primary turf of the Shin-Bet, and unchecked corruption of courts, particularly in matters pertaining to corporations and financial institutions (enormous haircuts, bankruptcy cases) - the primary turf of the judiciary. In the process both Israelis and Palestinians are impoverished [
xx] and abused. Obviously, such conduct vis a vis Israelis and Palestinians is incomparable, although the underlying corruption, permitting such conduct is the same.
In this context one should recall the 2009 report, authored by US Ambassador to Israel James Cunningham and exposed by Wikileaks, "Israel: Promised Land for organized crime?" [
xxi] The report described a process of cooperation or merger of State authorities and organized crime.
The key role of IBM in corruption of the IT systems of the courts of the State of Israel should come as a surprise either. IBM has been implicated in similar conduct in nations around the world. [
xxii]
What is surprising in view of all of the above, or maybe not, is the almost universal adoration of the award-winning, Oscar-nominated documentary "The Gate Keepers", [
xxiii] which depicted a series of former Shin-Bet heads as educated, enlightened, civil-society and peace oriented individuals... [
xxiv] These are the same individuals, who successively controlled an organization that carries out the ruthless oppression of the Palestinian people, suppression of authentic Palestinian leadership, and total surveillance of both Israelis and Palestinians, which makes the NSA look amateurish. With the passage of time, this documentary will no doubt be remembered as a unique propaganda achievement. Perhaps, like the current investigation of the IDF "coup attempt", it is the culmination of deception as an art-form...
LINKS:
viii 2014-09-08 "Publication permitted: Transcripts of recordings",
Haaretz [Hebrew]
ix2014-09-03 Itzik Saban, "Police investigation with no fear and no bias",
Israel Hayom
x2014-07-05 "During his visit to New York Police Chief met Benyahu, suspect in Harpaz affair",
Haartez
xi2014-07-06 "NGO calls on Comptroller to investigate Danino-Benayahu meeting",
JPost
xii 2012-01-12 Ari Shavit, "Israel's democracy at stake in Harpaz affair",
Haaretz
xiii 2013-10-26 Joseph Zernik, "ISRAEL: Nation hijacked by a Shin-Bet Judiciary Gang", OpEdNews.com
xiv Gidi Weitz, "New testimonies on Bus 300 Affair reveal how lies protected Israel's secret service",
Haaretz
xv2012-08-01 "Hagai Amir questions Rabin assassination",
JPost
xvi 2012-05-10 "Integrity, or lack thereof, in the electronic record systems of the courts of the State of Israel",
Human Rights Alert (NGO)
xvii 2012-05-10 "Integrity, or lack thereof, in the electronic record systems of the courts of the State of Israel",
Human Rights Alert (NGO)
xviii 2014-06-04 "Letter to Israeli Supreme Court Presiding Justice Grunis and Shin-Bet Head Cohen, in re: Fraud in Israeli Supreme Court IT systems",
Human Rights Alert (NGO)
xx 2014-04-17 Jonathan Ferziger and David Wainer, "Startup Israel Suffering Most OECD Poverty as Poor Surge",
Bloomberg
xxi Viewing cable 09TELAVIV1098, "ISRAEL: A PROMISED LAND FOR ORGANIZED CRIME? ",
Wikileaks
xxii Reports implicating IBM in corruption of governments and IT systems worldwide: Argentina, Bangladesh, China, India, Poland, South Korea, Ukraine
2014-03-24 IBM India Battles Fraud Amid Scramble To Save Its $2.5B Airtel Contract_Techcrunch.com
http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/24/ibm-india-battles-fraud-amid-scramble-to-save-its-2-5b-airtel-contract/
2013-05-03 IBM Says Justice Department Probing Bribery Allegations_Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-02/ibm-says-justice-department-has-started-bribery-probe-correct-.html
2013-03-20 Cash, Cars and Contracts: IBM, HP and Oracle in the Crosshairs of Overseas Corruption Investigation
http://www.propublica.org/article/cash-cars-and-contract-ibm-hp-and-oracle-in-the-crosshairs-of-overseas-corr
2013-07-25 US judge approves IBM's foreign bribery case settlement with SEC
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/25/us-ibm-sec-idUSBRE96O1FB20130725
1995-98 Corruption in Argentina: IBM Corruption Scancal_Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_Argentina#IBM_scandal_.281995-98.29
2012-05-21 IBM and HP had a "bribe fund" in Poland_International anti-corruption Committee
http://www.iacc.info/index.php/en/news/137-ibm-hp-vzyatki
2012-07-02 White Collar Crime - Poland
http://www.internationallawoffice.com/newsletters/detail.aspx?g=a1b82d7d-6999-456c-8c54-63b8f270a473
2011-03-18 IBM Pays $10 Million Over Alleged Bribes In China, S Korea_WSJ Blogs
http://blogs.wsj.com/corruption-currents/2011/03/18/ibm-pays-10-million-over-alleged-bribes-in-china-korea/
2011-03-18 IBM to pay $10m in SEC bribery case in China, South Korea_FT.com
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/63265324-51ad-11e0-888e-00144feab49a.html#axzz38yZRZbiZ
2006-02-10 IBM officials jailed in Korean corruption scandal_Information Age
http://www.information-age.com/industry/uk-industry/290141/ibm-officials-jailed-in-korean-corruption-scandal
xxiii The Gatekeepers (2012) - IMDb
xxiv 2012-11-29 "The Gatekeepers",
The New Yorker
