Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren was called back to
Israel to take part in an emergency meeting convened this weekend by Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu so that Oren could pass on messages sent by the US administration and Congress
in the wake of tensions between the two countries.
The tensions and lightening visit stem from the US's outrage
at Israel's decision to back out of their commitment to a terror prosecution
involving a Chinese bank allegedly laundering monies for Hamas so that
Netanyahu and his family could embark on their State visit to the country last
May.
This weekend Nahum Barnea and Shimon Shiffer from Yedioth
Ahronoth broke the story and revealed that the Chinese government threatened to
cancel Netanyahu's visit if Israel refused to promise that senior Israeli
defense officials would refrain from testifying against the Bank of China in a
federal court trial currently underway in New York.
According to the report, China conditioned Netanyahu's visit
on the demand the officials retract their promise to testify in the trial being
led by the family of terror victim.
The case itself is a civil suit filed by Sheryl and Yekutiel
Wultz from Florida, whose son Daniel was killed in terror attack in Tel Aviv in
2006 when he was only 16 years old.
According to the suit, the money used by Hamas to undertake
the terror attack reached the terrorist group through a money laundering scheme
run the Chinese bank in which some $6 million were laundered through trade.
The story has invoked the rage of the White House, a number
of US congressmen and Jewish organizations active in the US who were
flabbergasted by the decision to back out of a legal battle against the funding
of international terror only in an attempt to prevent harm from coming to
Netanyahu's visit.
Mr. Terror
On Sunday, during the meeting called by Netanyahu, Oren was
meant to stress to the additional participants – among them ambassador
designate Ron Dermer – that the Americans view with severity Israel's decision
to cave into China's pressure and prevent testimonies which would legally link
Hamas and the Islamic Jihad to the Bank of China.
Oren was also to convey the American shock that Netanyahu,
who the Americans call "Mr. Terror" for his zero tolerance approach
to terror, would take such decision.
Congress, Oren was indented to say, sees the move as nothing
short of betrayal by Israel of the US, both in regards to the international war
on terror and in regards to the struggle for hegemonic control raging between
the West and the rising eastern powerhouse.
The crux of Oren's mission was to inform the Israel
administration of the US's intent on advancing legal procedures against the
Bank of China; to inform them that if the security officials fail to show up in
court they would be subpoenaed; and additional subpoenas would also be filed
against Oren, Dermer and National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror.
In addition to the suit filed by the Wultz family, the Bank
of China also faces a lawsuit by Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of the Shurat
HaDin Israel Law Center, representing 22 Israel families – the relatives of the
victims of the suicide bombing in an Eilat bakery as well the Mercaz Harav
shooting - that is being discussed instate courts throughout the US.
According to Darshan-Leitner, these cases are also
structured around the testimonies of security officials and could fail should
the officials fail to testify.
The Prime Minister's Office did not respond to the story
Sunday evening.
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