Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented this afternoon for the first time on the affair of the deal to purchase submarines for the Israel Navy. A statement issued on the prime minister's behalf stated: "In the wake of the reports in the past few days, the prime minister seeks to make it unequivocally clear: the first time that the prime minister became aware that Adv David Shimron represents a commercial entity connected to the naval equipment project was on Tuesday, when Channel 10 requested a response."
Channel 10 television reported on Tuesday that Netanyahu had sought to promote the €1.5 billion procurement of submarines from a German company over the objections of defense establishment professionals.
The deal for the purchase of new submarines from Germany has set off a political storm because of claims that former minister of defense Moshe Ya'alon, who was removed from his position in May, opposed the deal. The story of the submarines turned from one about another defense deal into an affair that has shaken the political establishment when it emerged that Netanyahu's close associate, confidant and personal lawyer Adv. David Shimron represents the Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) shipyard in Kiel, part of the ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems group. This is the company building the Dolphin class submarines for the Israel Navy and that will also build the future submarines at the heart of the affair.
The statement on Netanyahu's behalf continues: "Adv. Shimron never spoke to the prime minister on the subject of submarines, ships or any other matter connected to his clients. Adv. Shimron has not spoken to the prime minister about this client or any other. All those surrounding the prime minister, and David Shimron among them, know very well that the prime minister absolutely forbids any approach to him about their business affairs. The only consideration in the prime minister's mind is improving Israel's strength with strategic naval vessels that are vital for ensuring our future. Any attempt to imply that other considerations entered into the decision to purchase submarines for the Israel Navy is mendacious and without any basis in reality."
A clarification released by the IDF spokesperson this morning is in line with the stance of the National Security Council in the Prime Minister's Office on the affair of the procurement of submarines for the Israel Navy from Germany: the navy was fully involved in the purchase of the new submarines (in addition to the six submarines already purchased from Germany from the 1990s onwards, the last of which will arrive in Israel only in 2019), and the procurement answers Israel's defense needs for the coming years.
In its announcement, the IDF spokesperson's office states, "This is future procurement, more than a decade ahead, of three submarines that will replace submarines that will have become obsolete. The need was presented by the IDF at a recent cabinet meeting, following the discussions at the various levels, among them discussions involving the prime minister, the minister of defense, the cabinet, and the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, that take place regularly on matters such as this."
In Ya'alon's circle, it has been claimed in the past few days that he forcefully opposed such procurement, and that furthermore he was not informed of it through official channels. One source claims that when he did become aware of the deal, a discussion took place between him and the prime minister that reached a high decibel level. According to sources familiar with the matter, in the background was the IDF's stance as expressed by a senior officer in a closed defense forum that Israel did not need more than five submarines, and that the sixth submarine due to be handed over to the Israel Navy in two years' time was probably one too many.
Sources familiar with the matter actually point to the logic of buying the new submarines: they will replace some of the submarines already in use by the Israel Navy and that by the second half of the next decade will be obsolete and will not meet the navy's operational requirements. By that time, at least three vessels in Israel's submarine fleet will be 25-30 years old. The sources say that although the deal could have been done less hastily, perhaps in another two-three years, it still seemed legitimate.
The whole move started to gather momentum, however, in the past six months, after Ya'alon was ousted from the defense portfolio. During his term as defense minister, no serious discussion on the matter took place. That began only after the appointment of Yisrael Beitenu chairman Avigdor Liberman to the post.
Adv. Shimron was the moving spirit behind the coalition negotiations that led to Netanyahu's fourth government, and he was also involved in the negotiations that brought the Yisrael Beitenu party into the coalition and the party's leader Avigdor Liberman to the defense portfolio at Moshe Ya'alon's expense.
Adv. Shimron too has issued a categorical denial that he was involved in any impropriety in connection with the purchase of submarines. "There is no basis whatsoever to the slanderous insinuations that any decision by the State of Israel concerning the submarines was taken in the light of Adv. Shimron's involvement, because there was no involvement by Adv. Shimron vis-a-vis state agencies regarding the submarines (or ships) deal, and the insinuations that Adv. Shimron tried on his clients' behalf to influence the prime minister's decisions on defense represent gross slander and are utterly baseless."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 17, 2016
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