How did massive submarine deal slip under the public radar?

When the names of all the people questioned under caution in the submarine affair—known as Case 3,000—are revealed, no one will be surprised. The involvement of three of them in the affair has already been reported in the media. The others are their intimate “shadow”—a wife, a secretary, an assistant, etc. The submarine affair is actually made up of a number of separate affairs involving 5-6 billion euros: The purchase of three additional submarines beyond the initial plan (a deal which was thwarted by then-Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, saving the State of Israel 2.5 billion euros); the purchase of two anti-submarine ships (another deal which Ya’alon intervened in and stopped, saving the state half a billion euros); an attempt to purchase the Navy shipyards, and alternatively build a seaport between Mikhmoret and Hadera; and the purchase of four corvettes to defend the gas fields. Previous reports about these affairs raised the names of three officials: Brigadier-General Avriel Bar-Yosef, attorney David Shimron and Miki Ganor, who represents German company ThyssenKrupp in Israel.

Prime Minister Netanyahu climbs out of the INS Rahav submarine in January, 2016. The police would like to know what he knew about the deals (Photo: Reuters)

Beyond the criminal aspect, these affairs have a public aspect which is as serious: All these deals slipped under the public radar. The taxpayer has no clue about massive deals signed by the defense establishment under the title of “state secrets.” It’s a system which makes decisions on purchases worth millions, without any real accountability to anyone. Ask the Defense Ministry, for example, why a secret committee decided to produce a cannon—which doesn’t exist yet—in a certain company without issuing a tender. The answer you’ll receive is: For no reason. The same applies to decisions to purchase helicopters for training purposes, to replace the engines of armored personnel carriers, etc. It’s no wonder that expert authorities from the inner circle are meddling and are not exposed. It’s all confidential, after all.

The submarine affair wouldn’t have been exposed had Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not insisted on appointing Bar-Yosef as head of the National Security Council. A concerned citizen filed a conflict of interest complaint against Bar-Yosef with the anti-corruption Ometz organization. In July 2016, Bar-Yosef announced that he withdrawing his candidacy for the position, and an investigation was launched against him in November. The conflict of interest over which he was questioned at the time had to do with his relations with a German businessman who has interests in the shipyard producing the four defense ships, which happens to be the mother company of the company that produces submarines for the Navy. From this point, the media put two and two together.

But what the police are investigating today began in 2009, when in cooperation with then-Navy chief Eli Marom, two of the suspects in the affair succeeded in terminating the employment of Thyssenkrupp’s representative in Israel, Shaike Bareket, and replace him with Ganor. At the exact same time, completely by chance, Bar-Yosef was appointed deputy head of the National Security Council, in the capacity of a CEO, following a recommendation from the prime minister. And the plot thickens. On May 22, 2016, the main barrier was removed: Ya’alon was fired from the position of defense minister following a deep rift with Netanyahu, which Ya’alon says was the result of the deals with Thyssenkrupp. On June 1, 2016, Shimron and Ganor sat down with Avi Nissankorn, secretary-general of the Histadrut labor federation, and with the chairman of the Navy shipyards’ workers union, to discuss the shipyards’ privatization—essentially, selling them to Thyssenkrupp. These are the shipyards that are supposed to handle the vessels that will be purchased from Thyssenkrupp. It’s the perfect deal: Both selling ships and handling them. Citizens are holding negotiations on the privatization of a military asset without the defense establishment knowing about it. Did the prime minister know? There’s no doubt that the police would like to know what he knew and what he didn’t know. According to Ya’alon, in 2014, when the Defense Ministry issued an international bid for the purchase of the four defense boats, Netanyahu tried to call it off so that the Germans would receive the order. At the same time, his private lawyer, Shimron, who represents Ganor as well, approached the Defense Ministry’s legal advisor, Ahaz Ben-Ari, to “inquire” whether the bidding process had been halted. To complete the story, Ganor approached the head of the ministry’s purchase administration on the same matter. The question the police will now have to find an answer to is: Will three people walk together, unless they have agreed to do so?

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