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From the Times of Israel:
What is the ‘Milchan Law’ that Netanyahu is accused of advancing for bribes?
Police say PM sought to accelerate amendment on tax exemptions for new immigrants; critics say law has helped turn Israel into a paradise for tax evaders and money launderers
By SIMONA WEINGLASS
Today, 1:18 am
Arnon Milchan, left, and Benjamin Netanyahu on March 28, 2005. (Flash90)For more than a year, it has been widely reported that police were investigating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in connection with gifts of cigars and champagne from businessmen Arnon Milchan and James Packer. But it was unclear — if the prime minister was to be charged with bribery — what exactly the police believed Netanyahu had offered in return.
But unveiling their long-anticipated recommendations for indicting Netanyahu, police on Tuesday finally revealed a key missing piece of information: The central favor they believe Netanyahu provided both Milchan and Packer, in exchange for gifts totaling NIS 1 million (NIS 750,000 shekels from Milchan and NIS 250,000 from Packer), was an attempt to alter a little-known tax exemption law known as Amendment 168 to the Tax Ordinance.
Ostensibly a piece of legislation meant to encourage aliyah (immigration to Israel) by Jews living abroad, Amendment 168 to the Income Tax Ordinance was signed into law in September 2008 by former prime minister Ehud Olmert.
However, the law flies in the face of international anti-money laundering standards and each year for the past several years the finance minister has tried to abrogate it. But each year the effort to cancel it is scuttled, putting Israel in danger of being placed on international sanctions lists.
Amendment 168 grants a 10-year tax exemption on income earned abroad to new immigrants as well as to returning residents who have lived abroad for at least 10 years. In addition, the amendment gives those eligible a 10-year exemption on reporting earnings abroad.
Police now believe, based on the testimony of former finance minister Yair Lapid, that Netanyahu sought unsuccessfully to extend the exemption to 20 years, on behalf of Milchan and Packer.
… Andrew Amolis, a South African economist who studies the migration patterns of the very wealthy for New World Wealth, a global market research group, told the Times of Israel that Israel has consistently been one of the world’s top destinations for millionaires for the past several years — many of them from France.
… But the law has attracted criminals as well.
Several thousand French new immigrants to Israel are said to be making their living working in boiler rooms and perpetrating various types of scams against victims abroad. More than ten thousand Israelis, many of them new immigrants, are employed in such fraud industries, which include fraudulent online gambling, binary options, CEO scams, forex, diamond scams, cryptocurrency scams, lead-generation scams and many others.
Arnon Milchan is a pretty interesting guy. From Wikipedia:
Arnon Milchan (Hebrew: ארנון מילצ’ן; December 6, 1944) is an Israeli billionaire businessman who has produced over 130 full-length motion pictures.[2] Milchan, the owner of New Regency Films, was an Israeli intelligence operative from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s.[3][4]
Milchan produced numerous critical and financial successes. He is the founder of Regency Enterprises. Regency’s film credits include Oscar winners and nominees, as well as popular financial hits, including 12 Years a Slave, L.A. Confidential, JFK, Heat, Fight Club, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and many more. He is an Israeli citizen and a resident of Israel.
…Speculation about Milchan’s involvement in arms dealing and intelligence activities was sparked after the indictment in 1985 of Dr. Richard Kelly Smyth, an [American] aerospace executive and scientist who had made illegal shipments of Krytrons (nuclear triggers) through one of Milchan’s companies. This remained largely in the category of rumor until biographers Meir Doron and Joseph Gelman wrote a controversial unauthorized biography of Milchan that was published in July 2011. The biography Confidential, which is largely sympathetic to Milchan, revealed in detail how he involved himself in espionage, big-ticket arms-dealing, and obtaining sensitive technology and materials for Israel’s nuclear weapons program. … Israeli President Shimon Peres stated:
“Arnon is a special man. It was I who recruited him…. When I was at the Ministry of Defense, Arnon was involved in numerous defense-related procurement activities and intelligence operations. His strength is in making connections at the highest levels…. His activities gave us a huge advantage, strategically, diplomatically and technologically.” …
Milchan claimed to have used connections to promote the apartheid regime in South Africa in exchange for it helping Israel acquire uranium for its nuclear program.[11]
So perhaps Netanyahu’s defense will include the argument that Milchan is a national hero for his clandestine operations and thus deserves a little financial rake-off?
By the way, I am getting the impression that the Israeli Right swings a lot of weight on the business side of the American entertainment industry …
This stuff about cigars puts me in mind of Art’s recent argument about lobbyists. While the apparent relationship might exist and the gifts might be proven one day, nobody does anything for a cigar, it had to be ideological sympathy.
cigars were a thing in the 80’s (way beyond… the 20’s). I just hope we are not all nuked in 2018 for guys trading a shit-ton of cigars and hookers, real estate in NZ, and private school entrances, and all…cool boats and airplanes….underground living spaces to ride stuff out.
He could have, you know, just not taken the bribes, but apparently he didn’t realize the old truism that you make your money after you’re out of office. Retirement income for the average head of state is a book deal, speeches, and getting appointed to corporate boards.
Can Kushners really know all the crooks in Israel? It looks like Israel is full of them.
Goyim are all anti-Semitics, didn't you know.
OT the elite have lost all capacity for irony
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/13/bill-gates-technology-can-empower-small-groups-to-cause-harm.html
Bill Gates: It’s ‘scary to me’ that technology can empower small groups to do great harm
Milchan produced this movie:
What is James Packer doing in Israel? I was unaware that there was any Jewish content in the Packer family.
Why are they so gung ho to bring down Netanyahu? He’s arguably the most effective leader Israel has ever had.
The best Arnon Milchan conspiracy is that he made Oliver Stone’s “JFK”, a movie which blamed the American Deep State for the Kennedy assassination, to distract attention away from the real culprits, the Israelis, who killed Kennedy because he was going to stop Israel getting the nuclear bomb.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/podcast/james-jesus-angleton-ghost/
The journalist Jefferson Morley has a new biography of Angleton out. Here is a interview of him by Lew Rockwell about it.
Does Bibi intend to retire ever?
Remember when I said that Netanyahu combines aspects of both Trump and Clinton? This is the Clinton part.
Was Olmert bribed too? Has that been investigated? Alleged, even?
$ 250 k in smokes, booze, and trinkets both sounds like a lot, and not much, for a bribe.
Perhaps some of the Israelis who frequent this site could comment on this with their opinions. What’s the deal? Is this an actual good-government sort of investigation, or is this just the other party trying to get the opposition leader?
Milchan was rumored-about like crazy at 4chan’s tv board and CDAN a few months ago, not because of this, but because of #MeToo. Supposedly he’s the big prize and the stories associated with him go further than potted plants.
Why are they so gung ho to bring down Netanyahu? He’s arguably the most effective leader Israel has ever had.
He hasn’t exercised the desired discretion regarding Israel’s designs on Palestine and the Palestinians.
Benjamin Netanyahu, despite his faults, appears to be one of the few allies that Trump has on the world stage. Netanyahu had a famously cool relationship with the Obama Administration.
Is it possible that the Obama elements in the Deep State want Netanyahu out of the way in order to undermine Trump? Might the fall of Netanyahu lead to an even more aggressive Israeli policy in Syria with a leadership that lacks a personal relationship with Trump or Putin?
Is it possible that Israeli Likud is one of few things propping up Trump against the American Deep State and the American Media? Maybe Netanyahu just really like cigars?
What’s really going on?
A Twitter correspondent of mine who works for a (Swiss-owned?) hedge fund in Israel wrote about binary option scams a couple of years ago. I vaguely remember hearing Israel’s securities regulator had cracked down on it since, but I asked her via Twitter if it did.
That’s true for core ideological issues. E.g, no amount of money from a lobbyist is going to get Nancy Pelosi to advocate banning abortion. But there’s a lot of big money at stake in arcane regulations and tax rules.
A cigar was a thing in the 90s also.
My favorite Milchan movie is of course Brazil by Terry Gilliam and Tom Stoppard.
Love that movie.
$ 250 k in smokes, booze, and trinkets both sounds like a lot, and not much, for a bribe.
Perhaps some of the Israelis who frequent this site could comment on this with their opinions. What's the deal? Is this an actual good-government sort of investigation, or is this just the other party trying to get the opposition leader?
An Israeli on 4chan responding to the news: “Whelp, I guess there’s going to be a war.”
Mugabe of Israel.
Just why does a woman who has given birth to five children become so obsessed with abortions being legal?
Second although abortion has been legal since 1973 and will always be legal, fighting off the anti abortionists is a key way to raise money and keep the loyalty and votes of liberals.
NOW and other key elements of the Democrats spend a lot of time fundraising to fight off anti and limited abortion laws. NOW and other democrat groups claim there are constant threats to outlaw abortion. The liberals donate vast amounts of money to keep abortion legal PACs and the money goes to democrat candidates
The Democrats will never admit that abortion is and always be legal. They raise hundreds of millions a year for their imaginary fight against the evil
conservatives who want to ban abortion.
It’s like telling blacks they are oppressed and deprived. It rallies the pro abortionists. But unlike the black base, the White pro abortion base has lots of money and gives millions a year to Democrats.
They do the same thing with all their grievance groups.
It’s all about the money.
Why are they so gung ho to bring down Netanyahu? He’s arguably the most effective leader Israel has ever had.
Packer was engaged to Mariah Carey and had plans to live with her in israel.
https://theuglytruth.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/294f5-zzarnon.jpg?w=620
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f1VaEDBbwEY
Oh no – now think of conspiracy theorists…when seeing that an airplane crashes in a skyscraper in a movie which was produced by – you already know – – who/THE JEW…
Uhu – huhu – – (…it’s dark inside/ ‘n’ outside my head…).
This is the real scandal, and the israeli Govt turns a blind eye.
OT:
There’s a Guardian op piece on James Thompson’a secret intelligence and Naziism conference written by an Angela Saini.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/22/eugenics-racism-mainstream-science
She’s a Brit of Indian extraction with an engineering degree, active as a writer and television commentator. Her last book was on how men and women are blank slates and identical:
Basically, the problem is that male scientists are biased, so we need more female scientists, she says.
Her next book is hinted at the end of the Guardian piece:
More here on it:
https://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/what-are-you
I predict that, if the book makes any waves at all in the U.S., it will backfire, as the Vox piece on Charles Murray kind of did, in that it’s very hard to take down intelligence and race “pseudoscience” without stepping on the toes of a lot of researchers in adjacent, “legitimate” fields, and delegitimizing their basic tools. They will take offense and push back, and suddenly you find yourself in a dust-up with real scientists that you can’t easily push into the pseudoscience category.
Why
? Peres was Left, and Netanyahu is Right, so it cuts both ways!
Israel has become the world capital for financial crimes in the past decade.
As for Israelis in the American film industry, the once Golan/Globus-owned Cannon Films deserve a special mention for sheer wackiness of its films.
https://twitter.com/JuliaSkripkaSer/status/756481585113886720
Binary Options is just one scam. Israel has been flooded by mafia types from the FSU and is now a gangster state.
you can have your Londonistan. i'll stay here - when i'm not visiting the Bluegrass Music Department at East Tennessee State UniversityHave you booked your purchase of a camel for the next Eid-al-Adha Qurban, Bob?
Unlike Netanyahu, Milchan never knocked up his second (and also 20-years younger, just like Sarah) wife, so Amanda didn't turn into a cow.I am reliably informed by gays-who-know... that unlike Sarah, Milchan's blonde wife has a carpet that matches the drapes.....
Interesting Milchan was connected to Israel’s nuke program. Angleton was the American official responsible for ensuring a blind eye to Israeli smuggling of nuclear materials from NUMEC Pennsylvania.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/podcast/james-jesus-angleton-ghost/
The journalist Jefferson Morley has a new biography of Angleton out. Here is a interview of him by Lew Rockwell about it.
Will Harvey Weinstein make that scene? He always said he was Israeli-First!
Sailer said exactly what I was going to say. Why do you think that Bibi ever plans on leaving office alive?
Unless it’s something that isn’t ideologically charged, like a tax break for a niche industry or getting someone’s brother appointed to a commission. Then people will do it for a cigar.
Maybe she regrets having two or three. Her kids can have fun figuring out which ones!
AND it was published by Victor Gollancz! How deep does the rabbit-hole go?
We also know that the Mossad (via “ex” Mossad operators) was protecting Harvey Weinstein by unethically harassing his victims. Is Hollywood an Israeli intelligence operation?
I see spy agencies heavily involved in Hollywood. Not only through straight lobbying by the CIA and FBI to have films made about them promoting them as the good guys and uber-competent geniuses, but also in the stories about Hollywood moguls and movers and shakers behind the scenes who just “happen” to have been spooks before getting into pictures.
It’s almost like spy agencies have heavy psy-ops and propaganda training and are using that to influence the public.
There is a theory that Israel was founded to provide a global safe haven for Jewish shysters and crooks. Isn’t it telling that a Jew can be guilty of whatever … but can escape punishment if he or she can quickly abscond to Israel where it’s against the law to extradite Jews facing judicial action from goyim.
Goyim are all anti-Semitics, didn’t you know.
$ 250 k in smokes, booze, and trinkets both sounds like a lot, and not much, for a bribe.
Perhaps some of the Israelis who frequent this site could comment on this with their opinions. What's the deal? Is this an actual good-government sort of investigation, or is this just the other party trying to get the opposition leader?
The latter. It is always the latter. Always.
The Israeli Left hates Bibi and sees special prosecutors as a way to remove him and install open borders types.
Israeli right in US entertainment us a tiny fraction. Netflix gave gay Ryan Murphy 330 million to do shows about people of color and gays trannies et .
First, abortion is one of the 10 commandments of liberalism.
Second although abortion has been legal since 1973 and will always be legal, fighting off the anti abortionists is a key way to raise money and keep the loyalty and votes of liberals.
NOW and other key elements of the Democrats spend a lot of time fundraising to fight off anti and limited abortion laws. NOW and other democrat groups claim there are constant threats to outlaw abortion. The liberals donate vast amounts of money to keep abortion legal PACs and the money goes to democrat candidates
The Democrats will never admit that abortion is and always be legal. They raise hundreds of millions a year for their imaginary fight against the evil
conservatives who want to ban abortion.
It’s like telling blacks they are oppressed and deprived. It rallies the pro abortionists. But unlike the black base, the White pro abortion base has lots of money and gives millions a year to Democrats.
They do the same thing with all their grievance groups.
It’s all about the money.
Are you being ironic? There were Israelis dancing in New Jersey on 911 — but obviously, only a conspiracy theorist would think that Israel would try to draw the US into a war with a false flag attack. I mean, except for the Lavon Affair, and whatever the USS Liberty was about.
But, the US would never be so stupid as to jump into a war on a false pretext, right? Except for Vietnam following the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, or the Gulf War on the false claim of babies being intentionally murdered, or WWI after heavily armament-laden Lusitania being thrown as chum to German U-Boats. And, who can forget weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?
Who would dare contemplate that a dual citizen like Milchan would betray the US? (Except for that documented incident where he did, of course)
No, you’re a crazy conspiracy nut tin-foil-hatter for even contemplating dot-connecting.
Other Israel news of interest to this blog.
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/justice-minister-israel-s-jewish-majority-trumps-than-human-rights-1.5811106
Second although abortion has been legal since 1973 and will always be legal, fighting off the anti abortionists is a key way to raise money and keep the loyalty and votes of liberals.
NOW and other key elements of the Democrats spend a lot of time fundraising to fight off anti and limited abortion laws. NOW and other democrat groups claim there are constant threats to outlaw abortion. The liberals donate vast amounts of money to keep abortion legal PACs and the money goes to democrat candidates
The Democrats will never admit that abortion is and always be legal. They raise hundreds of millions a year for their imaginary fight against the evil
conservatives who want to ban abortion.
It’s like telling blacks they are oppressed and deprived. It rallies the pro abortionists. But unlike the black base, the White pro abortion base has lots of money and gives millions a year to Democrats.
They do the same thing with all their grievance groups.
It’s all about the money.
Right. Every Dem in every school board race in the entire country proudly crows about zer’s commitment to “a woman’s right to choose”, as if their elected position had anything to do about it. But it works.
By the way, where did the “intelligence” showing that Iraq had WMDs come from? Could it have come from Israel itself? They do, after all, act as a very “valuable” intelligence sharing ally with the US. (Funny that this is virtually the only concrete thing American congressmen cite as Israel’s contribution to the American-Israeli special relationship)
The US government hasn’t revealed the source of its intelligence failure, and Judith Miller never revealed her source (or source’s source), so it’s hard to be certain. But, looking at the public record, there is at least good reason to believe that Israel knew Iraq didn’t have WMDs and happily let the US sleepwalk off the cliff. Such a great ally. In fact, here’s Netanyahu promising the US congress in 2002 that the Iraq war will have “enormous positive reverberations on the region.” Admittedly, from Israel’s perspective, it has.
You see, “great allies” lie or false flag their allies into wars which benefit themselves and hurt their “ally.”
Angela Saini can’t be that stupid can she?….Oh wait, we have Nikki Haley…
Milchan as a humble chauffeur. LOL.
But give credit where it’s due. He made Leone’s last film possible.
I fell victim to an Israeli financial scam when I was living in New York. It was reasonably sophisticated but it’s also true that I was fairly naive.
One thing I learned is that you never, ever mention anything about its having been Israeli when and if you discuss what happened.
That would mark you as a “racist” and you would start losing friends, family, jobs, what have you. You learn to keep silent about what happened.
Wow, Milchan has a hell of a filmography.
He’s like the producer version of a great character actor. He pops up every now and again, and you’re like, “Hey, it’s that guy, he’s cool,” but it’s not until you look at the bibliography that you realize how good he really is.
Relevant to Netanyahu: Zuma has resigned. I did not expect that, I would have bet on Zuma trying to hang on forever.
He's like the producer version of a great character actor. He pops up every now and again, and you're like, "Hey, it's that guy, he's cool," but it's not until you look at the bibliography that you realize how good he really is.
Yup.
Why are they so gung ho to bring down Netanyahu? He’s arguably the most effective leader Israel has ever had.
Small country politics, so a little different. But Netanyahu’s position is similar to Trump’s in the US – he has some support from the public, but most of the elites want to take him down (particularly the media).
That’s why they were identifying with Trump on that.
Goyim are all anti-Semitics, didn't you know.
It’s not true in the last several years – they now do a lot of criminal background checks, before approving an application for citizenship – and reject people who have any criminal records in their home countries.
But that’s something that changed in the last decade. They used to not check people properly – until after cases like Jack Teitel and after a lot of mafia moved into the country from the CIS states in the 1990s has led to some changes in the law.
$ 250 k in smokes, booze, and trinkets both sounds like a lot, and not much, for a bribe.
Perhaps some of the Israelis who frequent this site could comment on this with their opinions. What's the deal? Is this an actual good-government sort of investigation, or is this just the other party trying to get the opposition leader?
I think it’s good and legitimate investigation. It is possible that it could be interpreted as a kind of informal bribery (cigars and champagne in exchange for at least evidence of talking of favours).
But whether it should be able to take down the government is another matter. It will be decided by the chief prosecutor Avichai Mandelblit, not by the media, whether to indict him. As far as I read, it’s not clear yet what his decision will be.
https://twitter.com/JuliaSkripkaSer/status/756481585113886720
Selling binary options (also to foreign countries) got banned in Israel around August last year. The local scammers relocated to Cyprus, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Georgia, so the scam is still going on.
https://twitter.com/JuliaSkripkaSer/status/963672865341132807
28 LondonBob > and is now a gangster state
you can have your Londonistan. i’ll stay here – when i’m not visiting the Bluegrass Music Department at East Tennessee State University
Have you booked your purchase of a camel for the next Eid-al-Adha Qurban, Bob?
Unlike Netanyahu, Milchan never knocked up his second (and also 20-years younger, just like Sarah) wife, so Amanda didn’t turn into a cow.
I am reliably informed by gays-who-know… that unlike Sarah, Milchan’s blonde wife has a carpet that matches the drapes…..
That must have been the source of the Polanski film Frantic…..
Yeah, she said something similar.