News anchor’s testimony in Liberman case opens former deputy FM up to attacks
Geula Even’s account of a November television interview with Danny Ayalon raises questions about the ousted politician’s motives for incriminating his old boss
Adiv Sterman is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Israel TV Channel 1 News anchor Geula Even testified Wednesday in the ongoing corruption trial of former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman, casting serious doubts over the seemingly incriminating testimony given by Liberman’s former deputy Danny Ayalon.
Even was summoned to testify at the Jerusalem Magistrate Court by Liberman’s lawyers, in their effort to undermine Ayalon’s claims that Liberman pressured him to reward a diplomat with an ambassadorship. Ayalon had addressed the issue in a November interview with Even in which he denied any pressure had been placed on him, a move he later explained as an act of political expediency.
In her testimony, Even firmly denied Ayalon’s claim that, prior to the interview, the two reached an agreement not to address the Liberman case; she asserted that such an agreement would be a violation of journalistic ethics.
“No interviewee is handed a list of questions or an agreement not to be asked something,” Even stressed. “If someone decides to come in, then there are only two possibilities — either he responds or he chooses not to answer.”
The said interview — in which Ayalon defended his then boss — was conducted a week before Liberman unexpectedly ousted Ayalon from Yisrael Beytenu’s Knesset slate ahead of January’s elections. During the interview, Ayalon was repeatedly asked whether Liberman intervened to appoint Ze’ev Ben Aryeh to the post of ambassador in Latvia, to which Ayalon answered that he could not recall any such intervention.
However, during a police investigation which took place the following month — after his departure from the party — Ayalon contradicted this previous televised assertion, and claimed that Liberman had in fact approached him to request that Ben Aryeh be appointed ambassador. The former deputy minister’s sudden change of recollection has led sources close to Liberman to accuse Ayalon of being motivated by personal revenge rather than integrity.
Ayalon responded to the accusations about his evidential turnaround in the courtroom last month, explaining that, if years in the foreign service had taught him anything, it was that “you do not incriminate a foreign minister on live television.”
In an interview with Channel 2 on Wednesday, Ayalon said he “could not have responded any differently” to Even’s questions at the time because anything but a flat denial would “create suspicion” that he was being untruthful. He noted that he tried to evade the topic three times.
“With all due respect to Mrs. Even, it was not a police investigation, it is not a court, the public has a right to know, but it is not always the public’s right to know right away when the information can be harmful.”
Ayalon confirmed that he and Even had not discussed the matter of which questions he would be asked directly, but said that his spokesperson had settled the matter with the show’s producers.
In Wednesday’s interview, Ayalon went so far as to offer to undergo a lie detector test to prove he was telling the truth about Liberman.
“This is a matter of public perception for two public officials,” said Ayalon. “It is important that Israelis know who is telling the truth.”
Even’s assertive stance regarding Ayalon’s claims was reinforced by equally strong statements made by her show’s producer, Shay Czerniak, who was also summoned Wednesday to the witness stand.
“Once an interviewee requests not to be asked a particular question, we tell him that the choice to answer or not to answer is in his hands,” said Czerniak.
“Surprisingly, after not being in touch for a few months, Ayalon’s spokeswoman called me late one night [after the TV interview] and tried to reconstruct the agreement,” Czerniak continued. “I reiterated my claim that no such agreement had been made.”
Czerniak added that he had an “unpleasant feeling” that the spokeswoman was trying to record him.
Liberman, who was indicted in December on charges of fraud and breach of trust, is accused of illegally using his clout to promote Ben Aryeh, who investigators believe tipped Liberman off in a private meeting in 2008 about details of major corruption allegations that were being leveled against him. That corruption case was eventually closed for lack of evidence.
Liberman said he never discussed Ben Aryeh’s appointment with Ayalon, claiming his former deputy was never his confidant.
His relations with Ayalon while the two worked together were “correct,” Liberman said. But he didn’t trust Ayalon. “It was clear that he was an obsessive media chaser,” Liberman said. “I gave an instruction not to allow him access to secret material.”
Before Wednesday’s hearing, a smiling Liberman did his best to appear unfazed. ‘If you wake up in the morning, and there is no sign of any problems, you must be dead,” he quipped to reporters.
Liberman stepped down as foreign minister on December 14, after the state attorney announced his intention to file an indictment against him over what then appeared to be relatively minor allegations of breach of trust and fraud in the Ben Aryeh affair. On December 30, Liberman was indicted on somewhat sharpened charges.
Matti Friedman and Stuart Winer contributed to this report
