Up ship creek

The last time former navy head Eliezer Marom and his vaguely racist nickname were splashed across front pages, it was because he had been caught at a seedy Tel Aviv strip club, besmirching the good reputation of sailors everywhere.

But that tawdry affair looks like a mere topless trifle compared to the sticky mess he found himself in Tuesday, hauled before police investigators and put under house arrest over suspicions he was bribed as part of a deal for Israel to purchase boats and submarines from a German firm.

Marom’s name and picture are branded on the front pages of Israel’s major newspapers with headlines like “General under house arrest” and “Suspicion: Chinee took bribes,” the latter being a case of Israel Hayom using that off-color nickname.

The arrest came a day after a gaggle of other people were rounded up over the case, including some close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but the focus is put on Marom, who is the most senior military official to ever be arrested, according to reports.

Unfortunately, unlike the full exposure of a nudie show, much of the story remains under wraps and there are large holes in what journalists know, what journalists think they know, and what journalists can tell the public, leading to a confusing stew of reports.

Yedioth Ahronoth writes that Marom was implicated after investigators stumbled upon a clause in an accounting document for Thyssenkorp with a line item for “useful expenses.”

“After an intensive check, police investigators were convinced that this was not an accounting term, but a clause they suspect was meant to account for payoffs to Israelis, including their agent in Israel, Miki Ganor, and the head of the navy Gen. Eliezer Marom,” the paper reports, adding that Marom was grilled for 12 hours.

While Yedioth also takes a trip down memory lane with a sidebar about its expose on Marom getting crunk in da club, Israel Hayom reaches into the archives for a quote from the general in which he could either be denying he worked for Ganor to seal the deal with Thyssenkrup, or making like Donald Trump Jr. and admitting Ganor had good reason to pay him off.

“I strongly opposed the purchase of a sixth submarine while Miki Ganor was the shipyards’ representative, and I even sent a letter opposing this purchase to the decision-makers. During all my time in service I did not make any decision to buy from the shipyard represented by Miki Ganor. The contrary is correct. All the rest of the claims are a ton of slander; security considerations were the only ones that I saw,” it reports

The paper also “reveals” that one of the other suspects in the case hauled in on Monday — and again on Tuesday — was Netanyahu’s personal lawyer David Shimron, though it predictably buries that information.

Haaretz on the other hand, which is not seen as all-but-run by the prime minister, plays up Shimron coming in, even running a picture of him — and not Marom — on its front page.

Columnist Amos Harel notes that as the scandal widens, other high-level people may also be implicated, though the affair has already reached nearly the highest heights, between Shimron, Marom, former deputy national security adviser Avriel Bar-Yosef and others.

“The flames are definitely licking at those close to [the prime minister], from his lawyer and confidant Shimron to Bar-Yosef, whom Netanyahu wanted to promote to head Israel’s National Security Council last year. Netanyahu and Shimron both claim that the premier had no idea his personal lawyer was also representing Ganor, who was an intermediary in the deals with German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp,” he writes. “This claim requires a great deal of faith in the sincerity and integrity of both men. Somehow, it seems that Netanyahu’s olfactory sense is not particularly sharp when it comes to picking his people; nor his awareness of their actions after he appoints them. In the past few years alone, his close associates Ari Harow, Perach Lerner, Natan Eshel and Gil Shefer have become embroiled in criminal or disciplinary investigations, and now Shimron and Bar-Yosef join that list.”

As noted, though, while the affair won’t look good, it likely won’t get Netanyahu booted out of office — yet. Excitement over the man who could replace him — new Labor leader Avi Gabbay — which ran rampant in Tuesday’s papers, is somewhat tempered a bit a day later.

Yedioth, under a picture of Gabbay with his mom and son that is essentially a political ad, also runs a piece alleging that the new head of the dovish party plagiarized parts of his victory speech from Obama’s “Yes we can” address. While the speeches worked off the same themes of hope, it’s hard to determine how much of it was inspired by the former president, and even Gabbay’s aides can’t say for sure.

“Sources involved in preparing the speech claimed they didn’t base it or copy it from Obama’s. They claim they prepared a speech shell and he changed it as he saw fit. ‘If Gabbay had in his head some impression of Obama’s speech, or if he remembered something of Obama’s style I don’t know,’ one of them said,” the paper reports.

Haaretz’s lead editorial has a more substantive criticism, warning Gabbay against becoming another opportunist politician willing to sell his ideology for votes, as a neophyte and “ideological riddle.”

“Winning must not become the be-all and end-all. If the goal is to replace Benjamin Netanyahu without posing a real alternative to his policies, the opposition already has Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid. We don’t need 50 shades of center-right,” the paper writes. “Therefore, Gabbay must present a substantive alternative to the current prime minister’s worldview. The Labor Party hasn’t just forgotten how to win elections, but also what it is. Gabbay would be wise to make it clear to the public where Labor is heading under his leadership and to sketch out the direction in which he wants to lead the country.”

As if to answer the question, Israel Hayom runs an interview with Gabbay in which he says he’s nothing like Lapid (“when I know his stances, I’ll tell you,” he quips), and claims he’ll turn Likud voters (i.e., Israel Hayom readers) into leftists.

“What I’ll try to do on the political front is take votes from Likud. That’s where the most seats are and that’s where I am aiming, but I don’t plan on swerving right,” he’s quoted saying. “Many Likud voters believe in the stances of the Labor party.”