Israeli Authorities Suspect Foreign Bribes Increased Arab Vote

Israel’s internal security services are investigating suspicions that bribes from abroad tainted the election by causing an unprecedented Arab turnout of more than 70 percent. The chairman of the central election committee, Noam Sohlberg, is calling on Shin Bet chief David Zini to investigate whether a foreign element attempted to sway the Tuesday election by bribing voters. Mr. Sohlberg’s request on Thursday came two days after Mr. Zini asked the country to trust the election’s integrity. The suspicion is that Bedouin voters in southern Israel and other Arab citizens were paid to vote for Arab parties. The scope of the suspected bribe is unclear, as is the size of the involved sums. According to some reports, cash was transferred from Qatar through Turkey to pay Arabs to go to polls and vote for two Arab parties, the United List and Ra’am.For now the scandal is highly unlikely to result in a repeat vote. “Suspicions are not proof,” a top official in the election oversight committee, Neal Livne, said. Mr. Sohlberg’s unprecedented letter urging an investigation followed complaints from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. Allegations that the Arab vote was tainted can hurt the prospect of an anti-Likud coalition government that would unite former army chief Gadi Eisenkot’s “change bloc” with Arab parties. The new allegations must be investigated thoroughly, but should not delay the swearing in of the new Knesset, Mr. Eisenkot wrote. A “change bloc” coalition with the Arab parties is already seen as problematic. Even before coalescing with Arabs to become prime minister, Mr. Eisenkot reportedly planned to rely on Arab parties to replace the Likud’s Knesset speaker, Amir Ohana. That way new legislation that was unavailable before the election could quickly be passed. Mr. Sohlberg’s letter is “a dramatic and unprecedented event,” One leader of the change bloc, Avigdor Liberman, wrote on X. Mr. Liberman already severed all contacts with the bloc’s other three parties, N12 television reported Wednesday. Mr. Liberman declined to answer Mr. Eisenkot phone calls, according to the report. The bribe allegations could further divide the change bloc. “Serious suspicions have been brought to my attention regarding improper influence on the elections, exerted through funding provided by foreign entities acting against Israeli interests,” Mr. Sohlberg wrote Thursday in a letter to the Shin Bet chief. “While I cannot attest to the substance of these suspicions, it is my view that, given they involve foreign entities, there is an obligation to investigate them thoroughly.”Even before the apolitical Mr. Sohlberg’s letter, Mr. Netanyahu claimed that the unusual turnout in Arab cities and towns was tainted. On Thursday the premier pointing a finger at the Arab Ra’am party, which was seen as the most likely faction to join Mr. Eisenkot in a vote to unseat the Knesset speaker. “The Ra’amgate affair is an earthquake,” Mr. Netanyahu wrote on X. “They stole the elections in Israel!” Alleging that “foreign entities” tried to capture the Knesset, Mr. Netanyahu wrote that “no Zionist party should cooperate with Ra’am and the Joint List, replace the Knesset Speaker through votes bought for cash, and form a government that is dangerous to Israel.”

Israeli Authorities Suspect Foreign Bribes Increased Arab Vote

Israeli Authorities Suspect Foreign Bribes Increased Arab Vote

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