Netanyahu Interfered 230 Times With News Site Coverage

Israeli demonstrators gather for a demonstration against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside his official residence in Jerusalem, calling upon him to resign on Nov. 28, 2020. Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images.
Israeli demonstrators gather for a demonstration against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside his official residence in Jerusalem, calling upon him to resign on Nov. 28, 2020. Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images.
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Netanyahu Interfered 230 Times With News Site Coverage

Israeli demonstrators gather for a demonstration against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside his official residence in Jerusalem, calling upon him to resign on Nov. 28, 2020. Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images.
Israeli demonstrators gather for a demonstration against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside his official residence in Jerusalem, calling upon him to resign on Nov. 28, 2020. Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images.

An amended indictment against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu filed by the State Prosecutor’s Office on Sunday details 230 instances in which Netanyahu or members of his family sought to improve coverage of them on the Walla news website while he served as communications minister.

In the most serious of the three cases against him - known as Case 4000 - Netanyahu is accused of providing regulatory benefits to Bezeq, the country’s largest telecommunications group, in exchange for positive media coverage on its news site Walla.

The amended version of the so-called Case 4000 removed all language referring to Netanyahu's family, zeroing in on the premier alone.

In addition, the prosecution listed in the amended indictment 315 incidents in which various Netanyahu family members or other intermediaries of the prime minister demanded that the Walla website give them more positive coverage.

Last May, Attorney General Avichai Mandelbilt officially delivered the Israeli Prime Minister’s indictment to Knesset Speaker -- Netanyahu will stand trial for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three different corruption cases.

While his trial was scheduled back then, his lawyers obstructed the court’s activity. However, the Israel Judicial Authority announced a strict schedule that stipulates holding three sessions every week starting Jan 6.



Iranian Operatives Charged in the US with Hacking Donald Trump’s Presidential Campaign

Signage is seen at the United States Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, DC, US, August 29, 2020. (Reuters)
Signage is seen at the United States Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, DC, US, August 29, 2020. (Reuters)
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Iranian Operatives Charged in the US with Hacking Donald Trump’s Presidential Campaign

Signage is seen at the United States Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, DC, US, August 29, 2020. (Reuters)
Signage is seen at the United States Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, DC, US, August 29, 2020. (Reuters)

The Justice Department unsealed criminal charges Friday against three Iranian operatives suspected of hacking Donald Trump's presidential campaign and disseminating stolen information to media organizations.

The Trump campaign disclosed on Aug. 10 that it had been hacked and said Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents.

Multiple major news organizations that said they were leaked confidential information from inside the Trump campaign, including Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post, declined to publish it.

US intelligence officials subsequently linked Iran to a hack of the Trump campaign and to an attempted breach of the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris campaign.

They said the hack-and-dump operation was meant to sow discord, exploit divisions within American society and potentially influence the outcome of elections that Iran perceives to be “particularly consequential in terms of the impact they could have on its national security interests."

Last week, officials also revealed that the Iranians in late June and early July sent unsolicited emails containing excerpts of the hacked information to people associated with the Biden campaign. None of the recipients replied.

The Harris campaign said the emails resembled spam or a phishing attempt and condemned the outreach to the Iranians as “unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity.”

The indictment comes at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran as Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel escalate attacks against each other, raising concerns about the prospect of an all-out war, and as US officials say they continue to track physical threats by Iran against a number of officials including Trump.