MK Omri Sharon, the Prime Minister's son, told Army Radio this morning that there has been no connection between the families in many years. "I knew Shimon Cohen many years ago, as a boy, but I did not know his daughter or [her husband] Elchanan or the connection between them. The Prime Minister also did not know this connection at all; I say this with certainty. He knew Cohen, for sure, but did not know that Tenenbaum was related to him. He could not have known, because he hasn't been in connection with him all these years, and he has met thousands of people over all these years..."
MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union), who attacked the Prime Minister sharply in the past and continues to insist that Sharon's disengagement plan is merely a cover for the Greek Island and Cyril Kern scandals in which Sharon was involved, played down today's story:
"If he has to resign - and he does - it's not over this. If the information published today is the sum total of the story, as opposed to some of the Knesset gossip I hear, then it's nothing. He was supposed to know whose daughter was married to whom from 25 years ago? I know personally that the matter of Jews in Arab captivity is something that is very close to Sharon's heart."
MK Ehud Yatom (Likud): "If he knew of the connection, he should have said so, for the sake of 'full disclosure.' In any event, the Knesset subcommittee on secret services will investigate every aspect of this story."
MK Ophir Pines (Labor): "Sharon should be checked by polygraph. To leave it like this is not reasonable, because it's impossible that in the course of three years he didn't once remember the connection."
MK Reshef Chen (Shinui): "If it turns out that he knew and concealed it, then this is very grave. But we need not rush to hasty conclusions."
MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union), who attacked the Prime Minister sharply in the past and continues to insist that Sharon's disengagement plan is merely a cover for the Greek Island and Cyril Kern scandals in which Sharon was involved, played down today's story:
"If he has to resign - and he does - it's not over this. If the information published today is the sum total of the story, as opposed to some of the Knesset gossip I hear, then it's nothing. He was supposed to know whose daughter was married to whom from 25 years ago? I know personally that the matter of Jews in Arab captivity is something that is very close to Sharon's heart."
MK Ehud Yatom (Likud): "If he knew of the connection, he should have said so, for the sake of 'full disclosure.' In any event, the Knesset subcommittee on secret services will investigate every aspect of this story."
MK Ophir Pines (Labor): "Sharon should be checked by polygraph. To leave it like this is not reasonable, because it's impossible that in the course of three years he didn't once remember the connection."
MK Reshef Chen (Shinui): "If it turns out that he knew and concealed it, then this is very grave. But we need not rush to hasty conclusions."