Netanyahu confidant agrees to testify against him: reports
AFP/File / JACK GUEZIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticises the police investigation that led detectives to recommend his indictment for corruption, during a speech in Tel Aviv on February 14, 2018
One of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's closest confidants has agreed to testify against him in a graft probe, Israeli media reported Wednesday, in a fresh threat to his long tenure.
Two new corruption investigations announced this week, hot on the heels of a police recommendation that Netanyahu face charges in two other cases, have fuelled growing speculation he could be forced to step down or call an early election.
Shlomo Filber, a Netanyahu ally for more than 20 years and former director general of the communications ministry, is expected to agree to turn state witness in exchange for avoiding jail, according to reports across the Israeli press.
Police did not confirm any deal.
Filber was arrested on Sunday in connection with allegations that Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder of Israeli telecommunications giant Bezeq, gave Netanyahu positive coverage on his Walla! news site in exchange for policies benefiting the business.
Filber is suspected of mediating between Netanyahu and Elovitch and promoting regulatory changes worth millions to Bezeq.
Two senior Bezeq employees also detained on Sunday, CEO Stella Handler and Amikam Shorer, appeared Wednesday in court, where their remand was extended until February 26.
The prime minister himself has not been named as a suspect in the investigation.
In another case announced this week, two Netanyahu allies are alleged to have offered a judge promotion in exchange for dropping a case against the premier's wife.
The two men have been identified as Nir Hefetz and Eli Kamir, both former media advisers for the Netanyahu family.
Their alleged offer was to Hila Gerstel, a judge involved in a graft probe into Sara Netanyahu over alleged misuse of public funds.
Additionally last week police said there were grounds to indict the prime minister himself in two other cases for bribery, fraud and breach of public trust.
AFP / JACK GUEZStella Handler (L), CEO of the Israeli Bezeq telecommunication company, appears in the Israeli Justice Court in Tel Aviv on February 21, 2018
Netanyahu, 68, has rejected all the allegations, and released a new video on his Facebook page late Tuesday strongly denying any wrongdoing.
In an address to American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem late on Wednesday, an upbeat Netanyahu ignored his legal woes, expounding instead on Israel's success in diplomacy and technology while reiterating his position on the danger Iran posed to the Jewish state.
"We will never allow Iran to establish military bases in Syria to use against us (and) we will never allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons," he said.
While Netanyahu's coalition partners have so far said they will stand by him, they have remained largely silent since Sunday.
His right-wing Likud party, the largest in parliament, still remains supportive, but the opposition has repeatedly called for him to step aside.
Polls last week showed the Israeli public was split on the prime minister's future.
- 'End of an era' -
"If Shlomo (Momo) Filber indeed signed a state's witness agreement last night, it is the end of an era," Ben Caspit wrote in the Maariv newspaper Wednesday, calling him Netanyahu's "closest and most intimate covert operations officer".
"Always in the shadows, always loyal, efficient, secretive and ideological, Bibi (Netanyahu) knew that he could count on Momo. Until yesterday," said Caspit, the author of a recent book on the prime minister.
In his Facebook video Tuesday night, Netanyahu again accused the media and police of a witch-hunt.
Quoting a biblical phrase referring to the ancient Egyptians' treatment of the Jews, he said "the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread."
Filber is seen as one of the architects of Netanyahu's surprise 2015 election victory, after which he was appointed to head the communications ministry.
AFP/File / JACK GUEZIsraelis take part in a "March of Shame" against alleged corruption in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in Tel Aviv on December 23, 2017
The next election is not due until the end of 2019 but Israeli media speculated Netanyahu might call go the polls before the end of this year.
Under the headline "The smell of elections", the pro-Netanyahu newspaper Israel Hayom published a poll suggesting he might even increase his support in parliament despite the allegations hanging over him.
His Likud party currently holds 30 seats in the 120-seat parliament, but that could rise to 34 if an election were called today, according to the poll.
Florida students turn up heat on lawmakers for gun action
AFP / Olivier DoulieryHundreds of students from the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia staged walkouts and gathered in front of the Capitol in support of gun control
Student survivors of the Florida school shooting that saw 17 people killed in a hail of bullets last week descended on the state capital Wednesday to ramp up the pressure on lawmakers to enact tougher gun control measures.
Holding signs reading "Never Again" and "Be The Adults, Do Something," students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School rallied with thousands of supporters outside the imposing white stone-columned capitol building in Tallahassee.
"I am here to demand change from my government," student Lorenzo Prado told the crowd. "To let these victims lives be taken without any change in return is an act of treason to our great country."
"To let our fellow countrymen fall beside us without fighting back is to me equal to leaving a soldier to die in the battlefield."
Rallying in solidarity, students staged walkouts from other high schools in Florida and elsewhere vowing to make the tragedy a turning point in America's deadlocked debate on gun control.
In Washington, hundreds of local high school students gathered outside the White House chanting slogans against the National Rifle Association (NRA), the powerful gun lobby, and demanding action from President Donald Trump.
GETTY IMAGES/AFP / WIN MCNAMEEStudents from Montgomery Blair High School in Maryland march in support of gun reform legislation
Faced with the massive outpouring of grief and outrage over the Parkland, Florida shooting, Trump was to meet with parents, students and teachers at the White House on Wednesday to discuss school safety.
Trump -- who received strong backing from the NRA during his White House run -- is also showing a new-found willingness to take at least some steps on gun control.
The president threw his support on Tuesday behind moves to ban "bump stocks" -- an accessory that can turn a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic one.
Calls to ban bump stocks have been mounting since Stephen Paddock, a retired accountant, used them on several of his weapons to kill 58 concertgoers in Las Vegas in October 2017 in the deadliest mass shooting in recent US history.
Although the former student who shot dead 17 people in Florida last week did not have bump stocks on his gun, there has been a renewed focus on the devices because outlawing them is a rare point of agreement between Democrats, some Republicans and the NRA.
In Florida, more than 100 students from Stoneman Douglas travelled eight hours in buses on Tuesday to meet with state legislators and demand they action on gun laws.
- 'Things are going to change' -
"My classmates and I are probably the most determined group of people you will ever meet," said student Sofie Whitney.
"People are talking about how we aren't serious because we're children, but... we're serious."
The students' push for change hit a hurdle Tuesday when the Republican-dominated Florida House of Representatives declined to take up a debate on legislation that would have banned assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.
The US Congress is also deadlocked on the gun debate, accomplishing nothing since the shooting in Las Vegas.
"We must actually make a difference," Trump said Tuesday.
AFP/File / RHONA WISEA memorial for victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida
"We must move past cliches and tired debates and focus on evidence-based solutions and security measures that actually work," he said. "We must do more to protect our children."
"This includes implementing common sense security measures and addressing mental health issues," he said, "including better coordination between federal and state law enforcement to take swift action when there are warning signs."
Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz, 19, had a history of troubling behavior and a person close to him warned the FBI five weeks before the shooting that he was a threat -- but no action was taken.
Cruz legally bought the gun he used in the attack -- an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle -- and the White House said Tuesday it would consider raising the age for such purchases.
"I think that's certainly something that's on the table," spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.
Students are planning a march on Washington next month and on Tuesday, they earned two million dollars in pledges from Hollywood A-listers George Clooney and his human rights lawyer wife Amal, Oprah Winfrey, director Steven Spielberg and film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg.
The "March for Our Lives" is scheduled to take place on March 24, with sister rallies planned across the country.
Americans support stricter gun laws by a 66 to 31 percent margin, according to a poll released on Tuesday by Quinnipiac University.
It described the margin as "the highest level of support" for stricter gun control since it began surveys on the question in 2008.
copy https://www.afp.com/fr/
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário