JERUSALEM, Sept 20: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was under fire on Tuesday over allegations that he violated campaign finance laws as he fought to remain Likud party leader and fend off challenger Binyamin Netanyahu.
Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz is to investigate complaints that Sharon allegedly took illegal donations for his Likud primaries campaign at a swish New York dinner hosted by a Jewish American heiress, judicial sources said.
The announcement that Mazuz will probe the complaints from MPs and a ‘good government’ group comes as Sharon has five days to persuade Likud power brokers not to call an early leadership vote in November.
Although Israel’s historic Gaza Strip pullout won massive support at home and abroad, it left Likud split between Sharon loyalists and the anti-disengagement right, provoking a leadership challenge from Netanyahu.
Netanyahu poses a major challenge to Sharon and if he wins, it will mark the first time a sitting premier has been unseated by his own party.
Sharon is also now embroiled over a Sunday night dinner party scandal provoked by his New York hostess who reportedly asked between 40 and 50 guests to pay 10,000 dollars a couple towards financing his campaign.
Under Israeli law, the maximum amount that can be collected from any couple is 7,800 dollars.
The Israeli press suggested that the allegations could spell death for Sharon’s campaign.
“One day, the prime minister might find himself in one contretemps too many, too late. It could be, incidentally, that that is where he is today,” wrote commentator Ben Caspit in the Maariv newspaper.
One nameless Sharon confidant was quoted by the daily as saying: “if the details are true and Sharon attended a dinner in which every couple contributed 10,000 dollars — that’s suicide”.
Sharon’s son Omri, himself an MP, was indicted by a court in August over a corruption probe involving funding for his father’s campaign for the Likud leadership in 1999.
For now the struggle is the date of the primary election. Both arch-rivals are to go head-to-head next Monday when the 3,000 members of the Likud central committee are to meet to rule on a date for the vote.
The New York dinner scandal was sparked when heiress Nina Rosesnwald invited guests to her swish Manhattan apartment, clearly stating in her invitation that they must cough up 10,000 dollars for Sharon’s campaign, Israeli media said.
“Sadly, Sharon does not enjoy the financial backing that Netanyahu has garnered over the last several decades from many leaders of the international financial community,” she was quoted as writing.
“Therefore, we are please asking if you might donate a fully tax-deductible contribution of 10,000 dollars per couple to a not-for-profit organization that ... has been particularly effective at bringing people to the polls”.—AFP
