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Netanyahu rival invokes ‘treason’ in submarine case involving PM

Blue and White party candidate Moshe Ya’alon claimed that a corruption case implicating Netanyahu involves conduct of interest that could rise to the level of “treason.”

By World Israel News Staff

Moshe Ya’alon, who once served as defense minister under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had harsh words for his former superior related to an ongoing corruption case surrounding the 2016 multibillion-shekel planned purchase of Dolphin-class submarines and Sa’ar 6-class corvettes from Germany’s Thyssenkrupp corporation.

The matter, entitled Case 3000, involves Netanyahu’s close associates, but not the prime minister himself, and centers on allegations that the suspects received illicit remuneration related to the sale.

On Wednesday, Ya’alon stated that Netanyahu’s role in the case could rise to the level “treason.”

Ya’alon is currently involved in a heated election campaign as part of the Blue and White party, which hopes to garner more votes than Netanyahu’s Likud party and ultimately form the next Israeli government in the Knesset, thereby blocking a fifth term for Netanyahu as prime minister.

Ya’alon’s comments arrive on the heels of a Channel 13 news report last week announcing that the State Comptroller’s Office discovered that the prime minister was a shareholder in the SeaDrift company, which was acquired by a concern called GrafTech that is one of Thyssenkrupp’s suppliers.

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Following the report, Netanyahu’s Blue and White rivals referred to Case 3000 as the “greatest security-related corruption case in the history of the State of Israel.”

Netanyahu has dismissed the accusations as “contrived slander,” claiming the prosecution and the attorney general “stated unequivocally that I am not suspected of anything.”

The Likud party also issued a response to Ya’alon’s “treason” comment, announcing, “[L]aw enforcement authorities have already determined that Prime Minister Netanyahu isn’t connected to the submarine affair. That doesn’t stop Lapid and Gantz from continuing with the blood libel.”

Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz are co-leaders of the Blue and White party.

The Likud statement also suggested that invoking the submarine case was a tactic to deflect from news that Blue and White party head Benny Gantz’s cellphone was allegedly hacked by Iran, potentially providing the Islamic Republic with compromising information about the former IDF general who is seeking the office of prime minister.