Despite the close ties between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this did not prevent the escalation of protests among the Israeli military elite over the sale of German submarines to Egypt.
Former military officials in Israel have demanded the reopening of the German submarines issue, and discussed the involvement of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Hebrew media.
The Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Sunday that 15 former military officials signed written affidavits to the Supreme Court (the highest judicial body) demanding that the government’s legal advisor direct the government to reopen the German submarines case, or form a government investigation committee.
Subs deal
The submarine deal or Case 3000 relates to the investigation of alleged commissions in a deal to buy submarines from the German company Thyssenkrupp, including agreeing to sell Germany two Dolphin submarines and two anti-submarine ships to Egypt.
Last December, the Israeli Public Prosecutor issued an indictment against those close to Netanyahu in the same case, but Netanyahu's name was not included on the list of suspects.
Yediot Aharonot published some of the statements of former military officials of the Supreme Court, including one of the intelligence leaders who demanded an investigation into granting approval by the Germans to sell offensive submarines to Egypt, without the knowledge of the navy chief, chief of staff, defense minister and intelligence officials, including the Mossad.
He added that it is clear that the arguments put forward by the Prime Minister regarding the approval to sell submarines to Egypt are clearly illogical.
He added that there is no secret in the world that could allow the Prime Minister to exclude senior officials in the defense establishment on an issue that lies at the heart of their professional responsibilities and powers, according to the same source.
A march for soldiers and officers
After revealing the statements of former military officials, soldiers and reservists in the Israeli navy announced organizing a protest march from Haifa (North) next Friday to Netanyahu's private home in the city of Qaysariya (North), to join the escalating weekly protests against him in front of his official headquarters in West Jerusalem .
Netanyahu responded
Netanyahu had previously announced that he had agreed to sell German submarines to Egypt as part of a contract signed between Cairo and Thyssenkrupp in 2014 for reasons related to Israel's security, describing them as "state secrets", without disclosing them.
Netanyahu and the government's attorney general, Avichai Mendelblit, will send their responses to the Supreme Court next Thursday for the court to decide whether to reopen the case.
Netanyahu was accused of 3 corruption cases, downplaying the significance of those statements, and said in a statement that there is talk of a recycled reporter investigating the lifting of old information that was fully researched by all law enforcement and the former attorney general, who decided that it contained nothing.