Adelson expected to testify in Netanyahu probe — report
Police to ask Israel Hayom’s billionaire owner if he knew of PM’s alleged quid pro quo deal with publisher of competing daily
Raoul Wootliff is a former Times of Israel political correspondent and Daily Briefing podcast producer.
Jewish-American billionaire Sheldon Adelson is reportedly expected to give testimony to Israeli police in the coming days as part of the corruption investigation into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In leaked audio recordings from 2014, Netanyahu seems to promise to advance legislation designed to hobble Adelson’s free Israel Hayom daily in exchange for competing paper Yedioth Ahronoth giving the prime minster more favorable coverage.
According to a Channel 10 report Monday, investigators are expected to ask Adelson whether he was aware of the alleged quid pro quo deal the prime minister discussed with Yedioth publisher Arnon Mozes.
It is unclear if Adelson, who lives in the US, will come to Israel to speak with police or will provide written or video testimony.
Israel Hayom has long been viewed as a mouthpiece for Netanyahu, rarely printing anything but positive coverage of the prime minister. Because it is given out free, it has quickly developed the largest circulation in the country, damaging Yedioth’s circulation and revenues.
New excerpts of the transcripts of recorded conversations between Mozes and Netanyahu leaked to Channel 2 on Monday featured the pair discussing the specifics of how to curb Adelson’s pro-Netanyahu daily.
Mozes says they need to “think about the details” of proposed legislation that would restrict the distribution of free newspapers, while Netanyahu says that he’ll “have to tell Sheldon.”
Netanyahu’s late 2014 conversations with Mozes are at the heart of one of two corruption investigations into Netanyahu, both of which have seen the prime minister questioned three times under caution and Mozes questioned four times under caution.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, in a speech Monday, said police had collected considerable evidence abroad in recent months in the second investigation, that concerns alleged illicit benefits received for years by Netanyahu and his wife Sara from businessmen.
In the reported transcript, the men discuss reducing Israel Hayom to two-thirds of its circulation, but Mozes notes that the legislation’s wording will “have to cite a number (of copies), not ‘two-thirds’.”
Assents Netanyahu: “We have to explain the number… to take it down to two-thirds.”
Mozes notes that Israel Hayom’s circulation has been rising: “When we talked in the past about numbers, it used to be 275,000 copies; and today it’s 325,000,” he notes, explaining the increasingly detrimental impact on Yedioth, which is Israel’s best-selling tabloid but has fewer readers than the free Israel Hayom. “The more time that passes,” says Mozes, “it becomes (more of) a problem. We put it off and its gets harder to solve.” The Friday weekend edition of Israel Hayom, he adds, has a circulation of 400,000.
Mozes then notes that Israel Hayom enjoys considerable revenue from government advertising — “30, 50, 70 percent of the advertising pages” are government ads, he complains. Ideally, says Mozes, he’d like “a formula” regarding such pages.
Netanyahu asks: “What? Can you limit the number of advertising pages?”
Mozes decides to put the matter aside for now. “The state is giving them money. That’s not right,” he says. “But I’m mentioning this in passing. We can’t deal with everything all at once.”
Netanyahu agrees: “Okay, I’ve noted that; we won’t deal with that now.”
Leaks from the Netanyahu-Mozes conversations published on Friday showed Netanyahu hesitated in finalizing a deal with Mozes because he was worried about crossing Adelson, the US casino mogul, to whom he reportedly referred as “the gingy” (redhead) in the secret recordings.
Sources close to Netanyahu have alleged that he recorded the conversations because he feared Mozes was trying or would try to extort him.
In addition to the allegations that he tried to negotiate favorable media coverage with Mozes, the second investigation into Netanyahu is reviewing claims that he and his wife received thousands of shekels’ worth of luxury gifts from businessmen including an Israeli Hollywood-based film producer.
Police are checking whether Netanyahu and his wife Sara received some NIS 400,000-600,000 ($100,000-150,000) in gifts of cigars and fine wines from the producer, Arnon Milchan. The couple have reportedly insisted that the sums involved were far lower, and that the gifts were unremarkable, since the Milchans are their best friends.
Netanyahu, who has denied any wrongdoing in either case, on Monday termed the investigations against him “fake,” declaring them part of a “media conspiracy” of “unprecedented scope” geared to topple his government.
Analysts have said indictments are possible in both cases, and some have begun to see the twin scandals as heralding the possible end of Netanyahu’s nearly eight years in power.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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