What appeared a few months ago to be shaping up to be a landslide victory for the Likud and Ariel Sharon is now just a long series of question marks. The latest, and possibly most disruptive, bombshell is the revelation that the police are investigating Prime Minister Sharon and his sons regarding various monies the three received. The revelation has ramifications of a legal, political and media nature.
The legal issue involves a loan Gilad Sharon received from a South African millionaire, a long-time friend of the Prime Minister. The loan was for the purpose of paying back a sum that the State Comptroller ordered Ariel Sharon to return; his son paid it back in full and even paid tax on the profits. The suspicions are, however, that the low-interest loan may have been a form of a bribe, and that the loan was given by a company owned by the South African, thus that the Comptroller's order was never carried out.
The Prime Minister, commenting on the issue this afternoon for the first time, said, "This is a despicable political trick, and I will prove it to be untrue with documents and facts. Whoever disseminated this libel has only one goal: to depose a Prime Minister."
The millionaire in question, Cyril Kern, says that he cannot understand the "character assassination" being perpetrated upon Sharon. He said that he is a long-time friend of the Prime Minister from their fighting days together in the 1948 War of Independence, that he was happy to help him out with a loan, and that he has never had any business interests in Israel.
Political Science Prof. Avraham Diskin of Hebrew University, speaking with Arutz-7 today, said that according to the explanations he heard from the Sharon family lawyer, there might not be any legal problem at all:
"The Prime Minister was ordered to pay back a gift, and to do so, he received a loan from a friend. Everything was done openly, and taxes were even paid on the sum... It's no secret that 90% of the media in Israel probably vote for a left-leaning party, and it could very well be that this colors their choice of stories to publicize and the timing in which they do so."
Diskin said that public figures are permitted to receive loans, as long as no connection is shown to any form of bribery:
"The worst that can be said is that the giver may have wanted one day to collect something in return - or even that [there was intention to do so] - but in actuality, that did not happen, and so there is no indication of criminal activity."
The legal issue involves a loan Gilad Sharon received from a South African millionaire, a long-time friend of the Prime Minister. The loan was for the purpose of paying back a sum that the State Comptroller ordered Ariel Sharon to return; his son paid it back in full and even paid tax on the profits. The suspicions are, however, that the low-interest loan may have been a form of a bribe, and that the loan was given by a company owned by the South African, thus that the Comptroller's order was never carried out.
The Prime Minister, commenting on the issue this afternoon for the first time, said, "This is a despicable political trick, and I will prove it to be untrue with documents and facts. Whoever disseminated this libel has only one goal: to depose a Prime Minister."
The millionaire in question, Cyril Kern, says that he cannot understand the "character assassination" being perpetrated upon Sharon. He said that he is a long-time friend of the Prime Minister from their fighting days together in the 1948 War of Independence, that he was happy to help him out with a loan, and that he has never had any business interests in Israel.
Political Science Prof. Avraham Diskin of Hebrew University, speaking with Arutz-7 today, said that according to the explanations he heard from the Sharon family lawyer, there might not be any legal problem at all:
"The Prime Minister was ordered to pay back a gift, and to do so, he received a loan from a friend. Everything was done openly, and taxes were even paid on the sum... It's no secret that 90% of the media in Israel probably vote for a left-leaning party, and it could very well be that this colors their choice of stories to publicize and the timing in which they do so."
Diskin said that public figures are permitted to receive loans, as long as no connection is shown to any form of bribery:
"The worst that can be said is that the giver may have wanted one day to collect something in return - or even that [there was intention to do so] - but in actuality, that did not happen, and so there is no indication of criminal activity."