The Netanyahu trial

Who drank more champagne, the Netanyahu couple or Milchen?

This is not the question that will decide the 1000 case

Within 3 days, Adv. Hadad changed Hadas Klein's style of cross-examination: from intimidation and shouting that did not achieve anything, to polite and cautious inquiries. The champagne from Milchen everything seems simple

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21/07/2022

Thursday, 21 July 2022, 14:11 Updated: 18:14

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In the video: Hadas Klein, Milchin's assistant, on the witness stand (Walla system!)

On its first day, Hadas Klein's cross-examination was like a series of tedious promo broadcasts: "We will prove it," warned Adv. Amit Hadad, Netanyahu's defense attorney in the 1000 case, "We'll see," "We'll see," "We have a long way to go together," he tried to frighten Klein, as he exaggerated his voice in the courtroom. Hadad's biggest headache was in the discussions, and it is not for nothing that he repeatedly repeated his request from Klein not to tell "gossip stories" about Sarah Netanyahu.

"You have an opportunity now to tell the truth now," Haddad told Klein at the beginning of the cross-examination, "because the evidence we present here proves that your testimony is not true."

Three days will pass before Haddad finally understands that the tactic of intimidation and threats does not work, and that he should change phase in the spirit of Agnon's famous story, from "enemy to lover."

Thus, from the threats and intimidation that characterized the beginning of the cross-examination, Haddad moved on to polite, not to say flattering, appeals to the congregation on the podium.

Almost every question opened in the trailer: "I have no claim to you that you came here to lie, but ...", "Today we will not compete", etc.

Only a few days ago he slapped her that she was a liar, and now he is already offering her to "walk together in an alley."

It was so exciting that at that moment I felt like humming along with a group of Netanyahu supporters, who came to the hall, the song of Naomi Shemer:

The bad guys overreacted.

Adv. Haddad (Photo: Flash 90, Olbia Fitoussi)

Well, Klein's hand really was not in Haddad's hand, and yet on the fourth day of the cross - examination, Haddad began to record limited achievements (I will detail immediately).

The change was not due to Haddad's repeated flattery to Klein (perhaps that slightly reduced the number of stories about Ms. Netanyahu, it is), but to the abandonment of the line of defense that stood out in the early days of the cross-examination.

Abandonment or extraction, there is no knowing.

What is clear is that he stopped.

The purpose of the defense line of the first days was to substantiate as much as possible the argument that in the view of the Netanyahu couple, the Milchen couple and James Packer were their friends.

In order to substantiate this claim, Haddad presented, among other things, embarrassing messages between Sarah Netanyahu and Klein, in which the two showered licked compliments on each other.

Klein explained well: "This is my job."

This is indeed, among other things, her work.

She is "weird," meaning she knows how to talk to people her employer wants near, and they want near him.

She hugs Shimon Peres, Lieberman, Tony Blair or any other Hollywood actor as much because they are important to Milchen who employs her.

Therefore, she also flatters Ms. Netanyahu, and not because she is really her friend;

Not for nothing did she refuse to sign the ridiculous membership statement that Ms. Netanyahu asked her to sign.

More on Walla!

Hadas Klein: "When Milchen obsessively nods to Netanyahu about the visa - he takes care"

To the full article

But Haddad wanted to show the point of view of the Netanyahu couple, not of Milchen and Hadas - how the former prime minister and his wife understand this relationship.

After all, what is important in a criminal trial is the mental element of the defendant.

The puzzling thing is that the indictment explicitly states that the Milchen couple and the Netanyahu couple had a friendly relationship.

Not only is it not denied, it in many ways reinforces the story presented in the indictment.

Haddad wants to claim that all the actions resulted from this friendship?

great.

Where did he present it in the evidence?

In the meantime, he only talked about the friendship itself, which is not debated.

Still, one cannot help but ask: Is Netanyahu really a friend of Milchen and Packer?

What exactly are companies?

Against the background of what exactly did the friendship between them begin?

At a summer camp of the Masada tribe, did Packer and he wet a campfire with a Scout fire?

Maybe Milchen was the one who saved Netanyahu in that famous operation in the General Staff patrol and we did not know? Maybe Packer, Milchen and Netanyahu studied together in a dim student apartment for the MIT tough tests? No, these episodes did not really happen, and could not have happened, since Come on, this is not a real friendship, the fertilizers of the Milchen-Netanyahu relationship are power, money and power.

Knows how to talk to people her employer wants near them.

Klein (Photo: Flash 90, Olbia Fitoussi)

So let's jump to Haddad's Good Day, the fourth day of the cross - examination, which did bear fruit for defense - not a large, rich fruit tray, but certainly a few fruits that might sweeten the bitter taste of the three most significant criminal cases against Netanyahu.

To understand the proportions, some say: Netanyahu is accused of receiving cigars in the following distribution of sums: NIS 267,254 from Arnon Milchen, and NIS 145,577 from James Packer.

The amounts are based on the invoices that Hadas Klein had.

As for Milchen, Klein insists that 100% of the cigars bought from Milchen were for Netanyahu, for the reason that Milchen himself did not smoke them.

According to her, the only guest, apart from Netanyahu, who occasionally smoked cigars that were in bulk at Milchen, was the former head of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen.

According to her, all the ordered packages were bought at Netanyahu's request.

Her testimony will be supported by the additional witnesses who will be brought to testify, and especially by the driver Jonathan Hasson.

As for Packer, Klein was more careful and said that to the best of her recollection all the cigars were for Netanyahu, but still took into account that some might have been purchased for other guests she had forgotten about.

It therefore determined that 98% of the invoices were for Netanyahu.

Haddad's achievement - in the "pink" sector

In the cigar section, Hadad has not been able to challenge, for the time being, genuinely, Klein's testimony.

His so-called achievement was in the pink cut - the champagne cut.

The division in the indictment of the supply of champagne is as follows: Milchen purchased champagne for the Netanyahu couple for NIS 184,448, and Packer for NIS 85,597.

This calculation was made after Klein testified to the police that regarding Packer she has no doubt that all the champagne was purchased for the Netanyahu couple.

Her testimony is supported by Shani Cussex, Packer's Housekeeper in Caesarea.

As for the champagnes purchased by Milchen, she was more reluctant, saying the amount represents 65% of all Milchen-owned champagne invoices in her possession, and the rest (35%) document purchases for the Milchen couple themselves.

Haddad harassed, and rightly so for himself, Klein when asked how she arrived at this calculation of 65%, and presented her, for example, with her statement in the first investigation that the champagnes were intended primarily for the Milchen couple.

Klein well remembered that later in the testimony she said that "the majority went to Sarah," but she did confirm that 65% was her estimate and not an accurate quantification.

The story is not the quantities - but the awareness of the method.

The Netanyahu couple (Photo: Flash 90, Tomer Neuberg)

At this point, Judge Oded Shaham wanted to understand more clearly from the State Attorney's Office what exactly is the methodology according to which the amounts specified in the indictment were determined.

Prosecutor Alon Gildin confirmed to the judge that the quantification of the champagnes that came from Milchen is based solely on Klein's assessment and is not backed up by external evidence.

What is backed up, he stressed, is the method and not the quantification.

Is this a positive development of the defense?

Perhaps a little, in the sense that it would be difficult for the judges to firmly determine that the amount stated in the indictment for the champagnes that came from Milchen is accurate.

Maybe the judges will cut it, maybe they won’t address a specific amount.

However, it should be remembered that the whole issue of the champagne issue from Milchen is in 184,000 of the 700,000 attributed to Netanyahu in the indictment.

Suppose for the purpose of the hearing that the judges cut the 184,000 in half.

We will still be left with about 600,000 shekels of benefits that are still attributed to Netanyahu.

By the way, the prosecution in any case does not attribute to Netanyahu a mental awareness of every bottle of champagne his wife drank, but a clear awareness of the method of supplying the bottles.

More on Walla!

Hadas Klein: Netanyahu asked billionaire Packer to stop donating millions to the Peres Center

To the full article

It is not for nothing that I lingered at the beginning of the article on the unnecessary pompous opening of the cross-examination.

Amit Haddad is a young and talented lawyer that many of his peers can envy, but what to do, there are realities that cannot be obscured, and there are witnesses who, even if you put in a lot of effort, will not be able to turn them into devils.

That is, you might succeed among the screaming, shouting, fabricated, and distorted bands of journalists covering the trial.

This is not great wisdom, not what I meant.

Haddad realized a little late that Klein is not Shlomo Pilber, not Nir Hefetz, nor a state community.

She's just the woman who was there, and the woman who now wants to tell.

Haddad's attempts to infect her with foreign motives have so far yielded crumbling pottery.

The attempt to paint it politically (perhaps it was determined that a person with political opinions in Israel can not be a witness in a lawsuit against a politician. Startup), seems and sounds in a ridiculously pathetic hall.

Come on, these are not real companies.

Netanyahu and Milchen (Photo: Flash 90, official website)

Adv. Haddad, of course, has a lot more work to do after the court recess. Like Klein, and spot contradictions between different witnesses will be presented.The legal advice given by Advocate Weinroth will be repeated.

And yet, the big story of the 1000 case, Haddad, like any other defense attorney, will be very difficult to obscure.

He of course tried and will try to present this relationship between the two couples as a legally permissible relationship, an almost impossible challenge, but as Judge Haim Cohen said: "There is no limit to the defense's investigation."

One way or another, criminal or not, the big story, not really denied, the pig story about what happened there on the Caesarea-Balfour-Beit Yanai axis, even the most talented lawyer will not be able to hide.

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