The latest chapter in what appears to be a police-media-Labor Party plot to defeat the Likud was revealed today - but the electronic media are not emphasizing it. The item did not even appear on Voice of Israel's 8 AM news broadcast, for instance. The item, reported this morning in Yediot Acharonot, is that some two weeks ago, Labor Party Secretary-General MK Ophir Pines hinted strongly to several Likud supporters that damaging information about Ariel Sharon would soon be publicized. He was right, of course, as the police investigation of Sharon and his sons regarding the loan from Cyril Kern was leaked to the newspapers last week.
Education Minister Limor Livnat said this morning that this shows that Attorney-General Elyakim Rubenstein was right when he talked about the political motives of those who leaked the story. Pines, in his own defense, said that he merely talked of his "gut feeling" that Sharon would have to step down from the Prime Ministerial race, and that the source of the leak must be sought elsewhere.
Shiffer reported that Oded Shamir, director of a Jerusalem-based company, filed a complaint with Attorney-General Elyakim Rubenstein, asking that Pines be investigated in the framework of the investigation into the source of the leak. Shamir wrote that he was meeting with the Prime Minister's bureau director, Atty. Dov Weisglass, two weeks ago, when Pines approached them and hinted that within two weeks revelations of corruption involving Sharon and his sons would be revealed. Pines' exact quote, according to Shiffer: "We will cause Sharon to resign on the backdrop of his sons' corruption. Sharon will be forced to resign even before the elections, and his sons will go to jail."
Education Minister Limor Livnat said this morning that this shows that Attorney-General Elyakim Rubenstein was right when he talked about the political motives of those who leaked the story. Pines, in his own defense, said that he merely talked of his "gut feeling" that Sharon would have to step down from the Prime Ministerial race, and that the source of the leak must be sought elsewhere.
Shiffer reported that Oded Shamir, director of a Jerusalem-based company, filed a complaint with Attorney-General Elyakim Rubenstein, asking that Pines be investigated in the framework of the investigation into the source of the leak. Shamir wrote that he was meeting with the Prime Minister's bureau director, Atty. Dov Weisglass, two weeks ago, when Pines approached them and hinted that within two weeks revelations of corruption involving Sharon and his sons would be revealed. Pines' exact quote, according to Shiffer: "We will cause Sharon to resign on the backdrop of his sons' corruption. Sharon will be forced to resign even before the elections, and his sons will go to jail."