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Mossad Calls on Russia to Stop Social Media Campaign Affecting Israel

Mossad chief David Barnea (Getty)
Mossad chief David Barnea (Getty)
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Mossad Calls on Russia to Stop Social Media Campaign Affecting Israel

Mossad chief David Barnea (Getty)
Mossad chief David Barnea (Getty)

Israel's spy agency, Mossad, and other intelligence services in Tel Aviv asked their Russian counterparts to stop a social media campaign that aims to influence Israeli public opinion in favor of Russia.

The Israeli intelligence services said the Russian disinformation operation is harming Israel because it deepens internal differences.

Security sources in Tel Aviv said Russia’s cyber army runs campaigns in several countries to disseminate false information in the social networks to influence public opinion in favor of Moscow.

The sources said Israeli intelligence services are alarmed because Russia is now targeting Israel which holds 1.5 million Israelis who migrated from the Soviet Union and could speak Russian.

The sources said those Israelis are still linked to Russia through their relatives and friends, and they care about everything that comes from Moscow.

However, the Russian-speaking Israelis disagree over the war in Ukraine, as some support Russia, while the others back Ukraine.

Therefore, Russia’s plans to influence the Israeli public opinion will deepen those differences, which are already marked by the Israeli government's judicial overhaul plan and the massive protests against it.

“The Russian campaign adds fuel to the fire,” the security services said.

Meanwhile, a high-ranking security source told the Hebrew Ynet news agency that Russia’s campaign to disseminate false information through social networks includes opening thousands of fake accounts that spread propaganda for President Vladimir Putin.

Also, the source revealed that these cyber campaigns are no longer limited to Ukraine, but have lately started tackling internal Israeli issues.

The fake accounts are trying to widen the rift within Israeli society and are funded by the Kremlin, the source added.

This is the second time Israeli intelligence services send a similar message to their Russian counterparts.

The Israeli intelligence already warned its Russian counterpart about meddling in the Israeli legislative elections that took place in early November of 2022.

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France's Marine Le Pen Rejects Embezzlement Claims as Her Presidential Bid Hangs in Balance

FILE - French far-right leader Marine Le Pen answers reporters at the Elysee Palace after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Aug. 26, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla, File)
FILE - French far-right leader Marine Le Pen answers reporters at the Elysee Palace after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Aug. 26, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla, File)
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France's Marine Le Pen Rejects Embezzlement Claims as Her Presidential Bid Hangs in Balance

FILE - French far-right leader Marine Le Pen answers reporters at the Elysee Palace after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Aug. 26, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla, File)
FILE - French far-right leader Marine Le Pen answers reporters at the Elysee Palace after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Aug. 26, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla, File)

For weeks, Marine Le Pen has thrown all her energy into fighting what she calls unfair accusations that her party embezzled European Parliament funds. France’s leading far-right figure is now facing a crucial moment in a high-profile trial where her eligibility to run for president in 2027 is at stake, The Associated Press said.
Le Pen is anticipating a guilty verdict, as prosecutors wrap up their case Wednesday and lay out their proposed sentence. The trial is scheduled to finish Nov. 27, with a verdict at a later date.
The National Rally and 25 of its officials, including Le Pen, are accused of having used money intended for EU parliamentary aides instead to pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. The National Rally was called the National Front at the time.
As she was heading to the Paris courtroom last week, Le Pen wished Donald Trump “every success” in a message on X. The French far-right leader, who has vowed to run for president for the fourth time in 2027, may have in mind that Trump’s felony conviction earlier this year didn’t divert his path away from the White House.
From the outset of the long and complex trial, Le Pen has been a forceful presence, sitting in the front row, staying for long hours into the night and expressing her irritation at allegations she says are wrong.
A lawyer by training, she follows the proceedings with extreme attention, sometimes puffing her cheeks, making her disagreement known with forceful nods of the head and striding over to consult with her lawyers, her heels loudly clicking on the courtroom’s hard wooden floors.
If found guilty, Le Pen and her co-defendants could face up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to 1 million euros ($1.1 million) each. But in recent days, Le Pen's biggest concern focused on the court's ability to impose a period of ineligibility to run for office. A similar case involving a French centrist party ended up with fines and suspended prison sentences earlier this year.
She could be seen discussing with her lawyers the legal complexities of such a scenario that could hamper, or even destroy, her goal to mount another presidential bid. Le Pen was runner-up to President Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and her party's electoral support has grown in recent years.
Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom, Le Pen appeared to prepare the ground for a possible conviction with comments about a guilty verdict she described as foreseeable – yet she said there was no question of renouncing or lowering her political ambitions.
“I feel we didn’t succeed in convincing you,” Le Pen told the panel of three judges last week, as she detailed her arguments in a one-hour-and-a-half speech punctuated with political remarks seemingly meant to be heard by the many journalists in the courtroom.
Le Pen denied accusations she had been at the head of “a system” meant to siphon off EU parliament money to the benefit of her party, which she led from 2011 to 2021.
She instead argued the missions of the aides were to be adapted to the MEPs’ various activities, including some highly political missions related to the party.
Parliamentary aide “is a status,” she said. “It says nothing about the job, nothing about the work required, from the secretary to the speechwriter, from the lawyer to the graphic designer, from the bodyguard to the MEP's office employee.”
Le Pen’s co-defendants — most of whom owe her their political or professional career — testified under her close watch.
Some of the aides provided embarrassed and confused explanations, faced with the lack of evidence their work was in relation with the EU parliament.
Often, they could hear her bringing precisions or rectifications even when it wasn’t her turn to address the court. Sometimes, she would punctuate a point they made with a loud “voilà” (“that’s it”).
Le Pen insisted the party “never had the slightest remonstrance from the Parliament" until a 2015 alert raised by Martin Schulz, then-president of the European body, to French authorities about possible fraudulent use of EU funds by members of the National Front.
“Let’s go back in time. The rules either didn’t exist or were much more flexible,” she said.
Le Pen feared the court would draw wrong conclusions from the party’s ordinary practices she said were legitimate.
“It’s unfair,” she repeated. “When one is convinced that tomato means cocaine, the whole grocery list becomes suspicious!"
The president of the court, Bénédicte de Perthuis, said no matter what political issues may be at stake, the court was to stick to a legal reasoning.
“In the end, the only question that matters ... is to determine, based on the body of evidence, whether parliamentary aides worked for the MEP they were attached to or for the National Rally,” de Perthuis said.
Patrick Maisonneuve, lawyer for the European Parliament, said the cost of the suspected embezzlement is estimated to 4,5 million euros. “In the past few weeks, it has appeared very clearly that the fraud is, I think, largely established,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
Maisonneuve said some of the defendants seemed to have instructions “to give the same collective answers, as good soldiers, for the party and to save the boss.”
In her last hearing before prosecutors speak Wednesday, Le Pen called on the judges to see “evidence of (her) innocence.”
“The court can write that we’re messy, sometimes disorganized... It’s not a crime,” she said.