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he was framed for trafficking drugs by
a group of senior police officials who
were conspiring to weaken the then-
national police superintendent, Herzl
Shafir, by blocking his appointment of
a close ally to a top position in the
northern police command.
The ally was a friend of Ohana. TO.
have Ohana convicted of selling drugs
would hurt the ally — and deny him
the post.
7
Ohana claims, moreover, that the
police officials blackmailed the judge
trying his case over an illicit affair the
judge had had with a minor.
The judge now holds a very senior
position in Israel's judicial system.
If he were compromised by Ohana's
allegations, the credibility of the entire
system could be dealt a massive blow.
The role of Ma'ariv in reporting
Ohana's charges has also become con-
troversial.
The paper's publisher, Ofer
Nimrodi, is currently serving a jail
term on charges of approving illegal
phone taps. Nimrodi, too, has long
claimed that he is a victim of the legal
system and that others — specifically
the publisher of the rival daily Yediot
Achronot — had gotten away with
similar wrongdoing.
The conspiracy theorists say Mdariv's
role in the Ohana affair is an extension
of its publisher's vendetta against the
judicial and legal establishments.
The paper's editors insist that they
were acting purely out of journalistic
motivations and that they spent four
months trying to corroborate Ohana's
charges before they published them.
Along a with going
b b to Mdariv, Ohana
also spoke with the chairman of the
Knesset Law Committee, Hanan Porat
of the National Religious Party.
Porat subsequently transmitted docu-
ments and evidence from Ohana to
Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein,
whom Porat urged to move for a retrial.
The conspiracy theorists point to
Orthodox legislators' frequent feuds
with the Supreme Court — which has
issued recent rulings that whittled away
at Orthodox control over religious life
in Israel — as being behind Porat's
decision to take up ()hands case.
Porat, however, maintains that his
position made him an obvious choice
for Ohana to approach.
Ohana and his defenders say his
17-year quest for justice can hardly
have been motivated by present-day
political considerations.
But the conspiracy theorists main-
tain that the quest — which, they
concede, may have intrinsic merit —
is now being exploited by political and
economic forces intent on undermin-
ing the legal and judicial systems.
Riven by ideological, religious,
ethnic and political divisions, Israel
has clung desperately to the last few
untainted institutions in its society
that are the bedrock of national soli-
darity: the army, the courts and a
legal system that ensures due process.
For the most part, these institu-
tions have been kept out of the polit-
ical fray. Their integrity and moral
authority have always been cited as
critical- to the well-being of Israeli
society.
But now, in the heat of a political
campaign, the Ohana affair threatens
to throw the courts and the police
into the political wringer.
As a result, the legal system may
emerge stripped of its prestige and
credibility — a development that
would surely weaken Israel. Fl
for Netanyahu alleged that the effort
was staged to smear the Likud Party.
"It looks like a cheap provocation by
our adversaries whose aim is to cast
false suspicions on the Likud," Likud
spokeswoman Ronit Eckstein told
United Press International. "They're
just poor-man's Watergate stories."
Washington media consultant Steve
Rabinowitz, who has also been advising
Barak on his campaign, said, "Stanley
Greenberg did not break into his own
office and then file a false police report."
Calling the latest incident "outrageous,"
Rabinowitz said that "even Watergate
wasn't burglarized twice."
The FBI and Washington police are
investigating both incidents. In last
week's break-in, burglars snatched
confidential files and petty cash from
Greenberg Quinlan Research Inc,
located only a few blocks from the
U.S. Capitol.
Greenberg, President Clinton's for-
mer pollster and a partner in the firm,
was recently hired as an adviser to
Barak, along with Democratic Party
consultant James Carville. Greenberg's
firm has provided no details about
what was stolen in either break-in,
saying only it believes its work on the
Israeli campaign has been targeted.
In Israel, police this week disclosed
that members of Barak's team had
reported a wave of break-ins in their
homes over the past four months. In
each of the incidents no personal pos-
sessions were stolen.
d
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1/22
1999
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