Epstein scandal in Israel

[struggle4progress]

BY JULIE K. BROWN
JULY 14, 2019 10:07 AM
UPDATED 14 MINUTES AGO

Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest is reverberating in Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud party are calling for a criminal probe into former prime minister Ehud Barak’s personal and business ties with the accused sex trafficker, Israeli media is reporting.

Barak, 77, served as prime minister from 1999 to 2001. This month he formed a new party to run for prime minister against Netanyahu, who called for new elections in September. Once political allies, Barak and Netanyahu have been sparring on social media, with Netanyahu producing a video raising Barak’s relationship to the multimillionaire New York financier, and Ohio billionaire Les Wexner, who has given money to Barak, the Times of Israel reported.

Barak was a close friend and business partner with Epstein for years. Now some of those business partnerships are being scrutinized amid questions about Barak’s own source of wealth. The Times reported Saturday that Barak is exploring whether to sever business ties with Epstein, 66, who was charged last week with sex trafficking underage girls ...

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article232658477.html

[hlthe2b]

1. Maybe, but sounds more like Netanyahu is following Trump in going after his political foes...

As with all others, if the former PM is "guilty" of crimes, so be it, but this smacks of rather ugly overstep of authority and opportunism.

[LessAspin]

4. Par for the course with Bibi...

Gantz accuses Netanyahu of role in incitement ahead of Rabin murder

By TOI STAFF
31 March 2019, 5:26 am

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being involved in incitement that led to the 1995 assassination of leader Yitzhak Rabin and hinted at worries for his own safety Saturday night...

Asked by Channel 12 news about a reported recording in which he tells associates that Netanyahu could want to have him killed, he referenced heated rhetoric that has been blamed for the assassination of Rabin outside a Tel Aviv rally.

“Remember, things have already occurred in Israel, in which unfortunately, Mr. Netanyahu was on stage, and walking behind a coffin in another place,” he told the channel’s “Meet the Press” program. “We’ve seen how exaggerating things like this ends.”

Rabin was murdered on November 4, 1995, by Yigal Amir, an extremist Jew, who was opposed to the Oslo Accords and the handing over of control of parts of the West Bank to the Palestinians as a part of the landmark peace agreement.

In the weeks before the assassination, Netanyahu, then head of the opposition, and other senior Likud members attended a right-wing political rally in Jerusalem where protesters branded Rabin a “traitor,” “murderer” and “Nazi” for signing a peace agreement with the Palestinians earlier that year.

He also marched in a Ra’anana protest as demonstrators behind him carried a mock coffin...

https://www.timesofisrael.com/gantz-accuses-netanyahu-of-role-in-incitement-ahead-of-rabin-murder/

[Jeffersons Ghost]

2. K&R

[struggle4progress]

3. Layer upon layer to protect the boss

By AP
Posted Jul 14 2019 01:05PM PDT

... The linchpin of the operation described in the federal indictment against Epstein were the recruiters - some of them victims themselves - who targeted girls as young as 13. Epstein deemed his team so essential that he attempted to shield several of them from federal charges under the same nonprosecution agreement that allowed him to avoid a lengthy federal prison sentence and plead guilty in 2008 to lesser state charges in Florida ...

Epstein's former girlfriend, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, was described in accuser Sarah Ransome's 2017 lawsuit as the "highest-ranking employee" of Epstein's alleged sex-trafficking enterprise. She oversaw and trained recruiters, developed recruiting plans and helped conceal the activity from law enforcement, Ransome alleged ...

Epstein's personal assistant, Sarah Kellen, would call ahead to recruiters in Florida when Epstein was planning a trip to Palm Beach, the police reports say. Kellen, who Ransome said also recruited girls and made travel arrangements for them, "maintained Epstein's sex schedule in order to ensure that he was not without the sexual favors of young females for any extended period of time," according to Ransome's lawsuit ...

Alfredo Rodriguez, who worked as a butler and chauffeur and managed the Palm Beach residence, told detectives he was like a "human ATM machine" and had been told to maintain a minimum balance of $2,000 cash at all times to pay the girls ...

http://www.ktvu.com/news/inside-epstein-s-network-layer-upon-layer-to-protect-the-boss