Scandal-Ridden Submarine Deal Reportedly Frozen, But Principals Refuse to Confirm

Jerusalem, 18 July, 2017 (TPS) -- Spokespeople for the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Committee Chairman Avi Dichter, the Ministry of Defense, the German embassy in Tel Aviv and German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp all refused to confirm, deny or comment on media reports Tuesday that a $1.5 billion deal for the Defense Ministry to purchase three Dolphin-class submarines for the Israel Navy has been frozen.

However, one spokesman, representing a senior minister in the Israeli government, said “on background” that the sale of three Dolphin-class submarines to Israel has been suspended pending the completion of a police investigation into corruption allegations surrounding the sale. The spokesman would not elaborate.

The deal has been mired in corruption allegations since last November, when charges surfaced that sources with ties to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu pushed the Defense Ministry to purchase the submarines over the objections of the IDF.

Several Netanyahu confidants, including his personal attorney (and second cousin) David Shimon, former deputy head of the National Security Council, Avriel Bar-Yosef, whom Netanyahu appointed to head the NSC in February 2016 (Bar-Yosef declined to accept the position after being arrested on suspicion of taking bribes from a German businessman with a vested interest in Israel’s natural gas reserves while serving on a committee formulating policy on exports of those reserves) and former Israel Navy commander Lt. Col. Eliezer Marom have been questioned in connection with the scandal.