Speaking with Voice of Israel Radio, Eitan said,

"I have been dealing for many years, ever since I entered the Knesset in '84, with many issues of corruption, and today's story about Peres reminds me of stories I dealt with from those years as well, in which Peres starred. These include transfers of money involving Ballas, and money transfers to Peres from the stock exchange mediated by [his lawyer] Caspi, and notably, a very interesting story of an American oil pipeline between Aqaba and Iraq. This was a major scandal in the U.S. at the time, but it also involved an Israeli connection - and all those who think that these millionaires contribute because they care about Israel, should hear those stories.



"The story is that this Bruce Rappaport, who is mentioned in today's accusations as being one of the contributors to Peres, was involved in this giant pipeline project. The builders wanted a promise that Israel wouldn't bomb it - and Rappaport said he could get the guarantee in two days. He went to Peres' home at night, waking him up in his pajamas, and Peres - who was Prime Minister at the time - wrote him some kind of Israeli commitment that the line wouldn't be bombed. The U.S. couldn't believe that this was how things worked in Israel."



Rappaport wrote at the time to then-U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese, who was involved in the story, that a portion - as high as $700 million over ten years - of the profits that Rappaport would earn would go directly to Israel's Labor Party, headed by Peres.



MK Eitan then mentioned another one of the three men mentioned in today's allegations as having contributed to Peres' campaign: "Chaim Saban owes some explaining to the public as to why he keeps violating the campaign funding law time after time, contributing tremendous sums to politicians from all sorts of places - and he has just purchased 30% of Bezeq [Israel's phone company]. And there are many more stories..."



Voice of Israel Radio interviewer Anat Davidoff asked,

"The candidates know it's forbidden, yet they continue to do it, and are willing to take the risk - why is this? The parties receive two types of funding - both regular funding and campaign funding; it appears that something is wrong with the law."



Eitan responded,

"The law is 1000% fine - but the problem is in how it's enforced. First of all, I would like to praise the Comptroller, and give him a great yasher koach (kudos). He should not fear; they are trying to silence him and saying that he just wants headlines, but the fact is that without headlines, he won't be able to achieve a thing! This is a much better way of working than writing a few-hundred page report every four years, which attracts interest for only one day and is then forgotten -



Davidoff: "Yes, but no Comptroller ever ran to the press for every story -"



Eitan: "Very good! Very good! It's very good that he does this. This is the only way to fight corruption, by the light of day, and to publicize the stories. Things should not be hidden, but should rather be exposed. This is the way to fight corruption."



Eitan was asked about the closing of the investigations and dropping of all charges against ex-Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Labor Party minister Yitzchak Herzog and others in the case known as the "Barak campaign scandals." The charges involved the illegal raising of campaign funds via non-profit charity organizations whose sole purpose was to funnel monies into the campaign. In 2003, the police advised the Prosecution to file charges against Herzog, Barak's campaign advisor Tal Silberstein, then-MK Weizmann Shiri, and Atty. Doron Cohen (Barak's brother-in-law). No charges were ever filed, however.



Eitan said:

"They can sue me for libel if they want, but I say clearly: Barak and Herzog and the 14 who claimed the right to remain silent broke the law. The judicial system failed miserably in this case. The Tel Aviv office and the prosecutors there simply did not want to indict them, and did everything they could not to indict them.



Davidoff: "Why is that?"



Eitan: "... Because the 'reigning spirit' was that these people should not be prosecuted. The feeling is that with Peres, we might as well not tangle with him, but with [Likuds MKs Naomi] Blumental and [Yechiel] Chazan [who were recently convicted], it's OK to sock it to them. There is no equality in these things.



"Regarding the Barak case, the spirit was not to indict them. There was no prosecutor that wanted to prosecute them. The prosecution made a decision to close all the cases... The previous Attorney General [Elyakim Rubenstein] decided that Tal Silberstein... should be indicted; there was more than plenty of evidence against [him]. Nothing happened for years, and now when everything is quiet, they all of a sudden decide that the cases should be closed.



"I asked the current Attorney General to allow me to see the relevant material, and we will review it and we will see what happens... But note this phenomenon: Herzog remained silent, and his case was closed - not for lack of guilt, but for lack of evidence - and now he is the candidate for nothing less than Justice Minister! Justice Minister!"



Eitan said that he founded this week a new faction in the Likud, entitled New Horizon, that he hopes "will bring a new spirit into Israeli politics, and will show that we can bring political change without violating the law - and will gain us points in the Israeli public for such."