Report: Netanyahu, Mossad Chief Exploited Mentally Disturbed Billionaire
WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his son Yair, wife Sara, and Yossi Cohen – the Netanyahu loyalist who became chief of the regime’s spy agency Mossad – befriended, manipulated, and emotionally abused Australian billionaire James Packer as the mentally troubled businessman worked to establish ties with the regime’s political elite, a deep-dive investigation by Haaretz citing court testimony and individuals familiar with the situation has said.
Police launched a corruption investigation into the Netanyahus in late 2016 on the basis of testimony of a personal assistant to Packer and Arnon Milchan – the billionaire Hollywood producer and arms dealer. The assistant said that Milchan, who knew his way around the regime’s political elite, introduced Packer to Netanyahu in 2013, and convinced him to shower the prime minister’s family with lavish gifts ranging from expensive cigars and cases of champagne to jewelry and other fashion accessories worth thousands of dollars to facilitate business.
Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara would allegedly go on to use a combination of smooth talking and psychological pressure to get Packer to buy controlling stakes in media outlets to portray Netanyahu in a positive light, even as some observers expressed concerns about the billionaire’s mental state.
"I thought he came to some of the meetings with Bibi drunk or high,” Ari Harow, a former Netanyahu chief of staff who resigned in 2015 and turned witness in a plea bargain amid the corruption probe, said in testimony. "One time when he came for a meeting he threw up.”
Politician Yair Lapid, whom Milchan had also introduced to Packer, similarly expressed concerns about the Australian billionaire’s state when they met, saying he "looked drugged.”
However, the Netanyahus allegedly overlooked these problems, or even sought to use them to their advantage, with Harow testifying that "it was clear that the relationship from [Netanyahu’s] point of view was in order to benefit from this friendship.”
The "friendship” would allegedly be fruitful for the Netanyahus, with Packer making a series of investments in the occupied territories – holding negotiations to try to buy the Walla news portal, allegedly at Netanyahu’s behest, and attempting to purchase of the Yedioth Ahronoth Group, publisher of a major daily of the same name known for investigating the prime minister and his family.
Police launched a corruption investigation into the Netanyahus in late 2016 on the basis of testimony of a personal assistant to Packer and Arnon Milchan – the billionaire Hollywood producer and arms dealer. The assistant said that Milchan, who knew his way around the regime’s political elite, introduced Packer to Netanyahu in 2013, and convinced him to shower the prime minister’s family with lavish gifts ranging from expensive cigars and cases of champagne to jewelry and other fashion accessories worth thousands of dollars to facilitate business.
Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara would allegedly go on to use a combination of smooth talking and psychological pressure to get Packer to buy controlling stakes in media outlets to portray Netanyahu in a positive light, even as some observers expressed concerns about the billionaire’s mental state.
"I thought he came to some of the meetings with Bibi drunk or high,” Ari Harow, a former Netanyahu chief of staff who resigned in 2015 and turned witness in a plea bargain amid the corruption probe, said in testimony. "One time when he came for a meeting he threw up.”
Politician Yair Lapid, whom Milchan had also introduced to Packer, similarly expressed concerns about the Australian billionaire’s state when they met, saying he "looked drugged.”
However, the Netanyahus allegedly overlooked these problems, or even sought to use them to their advantage, with Harow testifying that "it was clear that the relationship from [Netanyahu’s] point of view was in order to benefit from this friendship.”
The "friendship” would allegedly be fruitful for the Netanyahus, with Packer making a series of investments in the occupied territories – holding negotiations to try to buy the Walla news portal, allegedly at Netanyahu’s behest, and attempting to purchase of the Yedioth Ahronoth Group, publisher of a major daily of the same name known for investigating the prime minister and his family.