Israel Police Commissioner: investigations won't take long
As the investigation into the Netanyahu-Mozes affair continues, Israel police commissioner believes investigations will be over soon; editor in chief of the pro-Netanyahu daily, Israel Hayom, has been called in for questioning by the Israel Police.
Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh spoke about Prime Minister Benjamin Netnayahu's investigation, saying "our job is to eliminate corruption and to protect the state treasury. There have been a lot of achievements (to this end) over the last few years. On this particular, issue, we have a very defined role."
The commissioner then noted that he "doesn't believe that the investigations will take very long. The decision ultimately lies with the attorney general. Sometimes the investigators wish some clarification on one issue or another, but we are conducting the investigations as quickly as possible. No one should be bothered by us working professionally."
He continued saying "when dealing with corruption amongst elected officials, our job isn't to collect information and then to expose it to the public. Information comes naturally in a democratic country. We need to be coordinated with the attorney general and the government, and follow orders."
He was speaking at a public gathering in the southern city of Rahat.
Meanwhile, Channel 2 News published more alleged quotes Monday night from the conversations of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon "Noni" Mozes. Among other subjects, the quotes seemed to include the two discussing the circulation numbers of free newspaper and Yedioth Ahronoth competitor Israel Hayom.
Mozes: "Let's think for a minute about the legal details. It starts at two-thirds."
Netanyahu: "We need to tell Sheldon."
Mozes: "We need to say a number, not two-thirds." (Channel 2 claimed that the numbers discussed are Israel Hayom's circulation numbers)
Netanyahu: "We need to explain what the number is. Not to go down completely. Don't to go down to three thirds. Go down to two thirds."
Mozes: "When we started talking about numbers, it was 275,000 copies and today it's 325,000 copies. Do you understand why each passing moment causes a problem? We're going back to a situation where we're postponing it more, making it more difficult to solve. I'm trying to think, this Friday it's 400,000 copies. I'm trying to think of a formula of several ad pages."
Netanyahu: "What, can you limit its number of ad pages?"
Mozes: "Is there a problem? What's the problem? It's that there are government ads here. Thirty, fifty, seventy percent of the ads the state gives money for. That's not proper. I'm telling you this as an aside, but you can't have everything all at once."
Netanyahu: "Alright, I wrote that down, too. We won't take care of that now."
Mozes: "I'll say a number of copies and X percent capacity. Capacity is a term in journalism. In a free newspaper, above a certain number of copies the percentage of ads can't be high, which limits the damage it causes by lowering the price. We're trying to find something together."
Netanyahu: "I think that something that sounds reasonable, I'm just thinking out loud… Far be it for me to …"
Mozes: "We're trying to find something together."
Mozes came in for investigation for the fourth time on Monday. Channel 10 has reported that Israel Hayom founder and owner Sheldon Adelson is due to give his own testimony over the next few days.
Arnon Mozes is the publisher and owner of Yedioth Ahronoth Group, which includes Ynet.
