Barak mocks ‘suspect’ Netanyahu for trying to hide Adelson calls

Former prime minister Ehud Barak, a longstanding critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mocks the PM over his request that the High Court of Justice reconsider a ruling forcing him to reveal details about his conversations with the heads of the Israel Hayom newspaper over the years, including the paper’s owner, US casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.

“Insanity grips Balfour,” Barak says in a statement, referring to the prime minister’s Balfour Street residence in Jerusalem.

“What is the suspect so scared of? What, and from whom, is he trying to hide? The State Attorney’s Office, like the rest of us, already understands that Bibi [Netanyahu] was commissioning headlines from the Bibiton [a derogatory term for Israel Hayom]. Who else could it have been?”

Netanyahu is under investigation for possible criminal activities linked to conversations he had with Arnon Mozes, the publisher of Yedioth Aharonoth, during which he was recorded offering to act to limit the distribution of rival paper Israel Hayom in exchange for more favorable coverage from Mozes’s paper.

In his request Tuesday, Netanyahu asks the court to reconsider a ruling two weeks ago that he must hand over the dates and times of his conversations with Adelson and former Israel Hayom editor Amos Regev to Channel 10 and journalist Raviv Drucker. The court said the request from Channel 10 and Drucker were covered under the Freedom of Information Act.