Taking it to the bank (statements)

Once again, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his French alleged fraudster friend are in the top headlines of the papers on Wednesday after Arnaud Mimran backtracked on his claim that he gave the prime minister a heaping load of cash, which Netanyahu denied. The episode is starting to take on the trappings of a soap opera, with both sides accusing the other of fabricating and exaggerating.

Mimran backtracked on his statement that he gave Netanyahu €170,000 in 2001, which Netanyahu denied. Furthermore he said that there was no illegal activity committed by Netanyahu. For Israel Hayom, this is a vindication of the prime minister and proof enough that Netanyahu was right all along. It leads with Netanyahu’s quote that the whole affairs was “making a mountain out of a molehill, and barely a molehill at that.”

Yedioth Ahronoth also quotes Mimran’s lawyer saying that he paid for Netanyahu and his family’s vacations in Monaco and the Alps 16 years ago to the tune of €170,000.

The paper remains skeptical despite the fact that Mimran has said he goofed and that Netanyahu was right all along. Neither party, Yedioth Ahronoth reports, has come forward with bank documents showing the transactions between the two to clarify this whole he-said-he-said nonsense. Tax authority officials refuse to comment on the issue, but the paper quotes senior personnel saying that they don’t remember getting a report about Netanyahu receiving tens of thousands of dollars from Mimran, as the two have admitted.

Haaretz keeps on the case and reports that the public affairs fund that Mimran donated to had funded political polls ahead of Netanyahu’s return to politics. Netanyahu claimed that the fund was for “media appearances and international diplomatic activities for the sake of the State of Israel.”

Needless to say, the Mimran affair remains the talk of the town, and the battle lines are clearly drawn, with Israel Hayom defending the prime minister and Yedioth Ahronoth and Haaretz’s pundits voicing skepticism.

“In the legal world, stories that change repeatedly are suspicious,” Haaretz’s Yossi Verter writes. “They may indicate the influence of outside considerations or the intervention of a third party seeking help of some sort.”

“Ostensibly, Mimran’s revised story helps Netanyahu. But on the other hand, just a few days ago, Netanyahu’s people were calling Mimran a cheat and a liar; if so, why believe him now? And which Mimran should we believe – the man who testified in court, the one who was interviewed by Channel 10 Monday night, or the one whose memory was jogged on Tuesday?” he says.

Verter states the obvious: so long as neither side produces bank statements, the matter will be subject to speculation. Either way, he says, taking a very thinly veiled jab at Israel Hayom, “With the exception of one Israeli newspaper, no media outlet worthy of the name will neglect this story until it becomes clear whether it’s a molehill, a mountain, or something in between.”

That one Israeli newspaper, Israel Hayom, again runs an op-ed by Haim Shine taking to the defense of Netanyahu and attacking the Israeli media for fabricating the whole scandal. “Who will inform the troubled minds of Israeli pundits that all their talent is wasted in a futile effort to replace the Netanyahu government and the right wing without having to go to the polls,” he says.

“What else needs to happen for the Israeli left and its representatives in the media to internalize that in a democracy you vote for a change in regime at the ballot box, not through ugly and baseless manipulations of reality?” he writes.

He says the media’s demand that Netanyahu proffer 15-year-old documents is “a clear expression” of the degree to which the Israeli media selectively scrutinizes Netanyahu.

“Instead of taking stock, the media continues to chew the wretched material in its mouth. All from an attempt to make Netanyahu loathsome in the eyes of the public. The attempt won’t succeed because lies have no legs and Jews have a head.”

With Netanyahu in Russia talking coordination between the two countries in Syria, his new Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman took his first tour of the northern border. At the same time, Syrian media reported that Israeli planes struck an arms depot for the first time since Liberman took the position.

“We have no other plan than keeping the quiet,” Yedioth Ahronoth quotes Liberman said on the border tour. “I hope that everyone understands this well, also our friends, and in any event I don’t advise anyone to try and test us.”

Haaretz leads instead with Putin’s comment to Netanyahu that he supports Israel’s attempt at detente with Turkey.