Candidate for Prime Minister Admits: Tal Zilberstein, wanted by Interpol, advises party on salary • In January, his party hired controversial advisers in the US
After trying to deny and later evade, new Tikva chairman Gideon Saar now admits that his associate, Tal Zilberstein, who is involved in crimes in several countries abroad and has even been issued an international arrest warrant by Interpol, serves as a paid adviser to the party's campaign.
Photo: Ran Shauli
It was also learned that despite the party's announcement of the possibility of terminating the contract with consultants from the Lincoln Project who served as Saar's consultants, and that the organization's founder is suspected of dozens of pedophilia acts in the US, consultants from the controversial project continued to advise Saar for several weeks.
Zilberstein is very close to Saar - his wedding with Geula Even took place in the yard of Zilberstein's house in Tel Aviv and the two have been in close contact for many years.
Despite this, whenever Saar's spokesmen were asked if Zilberstein held an official position in the party's campaign, they denied the allegations.
Even when News 11 reported that Zilberstein had been seen coming out of the party headquarters, spokesmen for New Hope continued on the evasive line, saying only that Zilberstein and Saar were close friends.
The reason for Zilberstein's employment is apparently due to the problematic nature of his employment in a senior position of a person suspected and convicted of crimes overseas.
In August 2017 he was arrested by police on suspicion of involvement in a huge scam, in which businessman Benny Steinmetz is also suspected.
In the 2017 Austrian elections, Zilberstein's name made headlines in the media, where it was reported that Zilberstein operated defamatory Facebook pages against the Austrian People's Party candidate, Sebastian Kurz.
This is not the only problematic appointment in Saar's hive.
As early as January, Saar hired the services of four consultants from the controversial U.S. organization that worked against Donald Trump, the "Lincoln Project": Steve Schmidt, Stuart Stevens, Reid Glenn and Rick Wilson. Shortly thereafter, this deal of New Hope became Project Consultants. Lincoln was even more problematic when it became clear that the organization's founder and CEO, John Weaver, was suspected of no less than 21 acts of pedophilia in the United States.
A new hope was announced: "Tal Zilberstein is a paid consultant for the campaign."
Regarding the "Lincoln Project," it was reported that "the campaign hired services from some of the consultants who were involved in the project."