Netanyahu awarded $18K after former PM called him ‘mentally ill’
JERUSALEM — Even by the often toxic standards of Israeli political discourse there are limits, a judge ruled Monday, awarding damages to the newly designated prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and members of his family in a defamation suit they brought against another former prime minister, Ehud Olmert, who had described them as being “mentally ill.”
The ruling brought an end to a lurid and at times circuslike courtroom drama during which Olmert brought witnesses to testify about disturbing goings-on in the Netanyahu household, including accusations of afflictions such as eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive behavior, narcissism and paranoia.
But, according to the judge, Amit Yariv, despite all the hours of testimony, Olmert failed to establish or produce any professional medical diagnosis to back up his assertions and had gone beyond the bounds of expressing an opinion in good faith that would be protected by the principles of free speech. The judge ruled that Olmert had defamed Netanyahu; Netanyahu’s wife, Sara; and their eldest son, Yair, in a television interview that Olmert gave around the time of a bitter and inconclusive election in the spring of 2021.
“Another mendacious plot against Prime Minister Netanyahu, his wife and family has been shattered,” Yossi Cohen, the Netanyahus’ lawyer, said in a statement after the ruling, which was broadcast live.
The Netanyahus had demanded about $250,000 in damages but were awarded $18,000 in total.
Olmert’s lawyer, Amir Tytunovich, tried to turn the loss into a win.
“The final result is that by serving the suit, the harsh statements made by Mr. Olmert received wide exposure and were brought to the attention of the entire public,” Tytunovich said in a statement.
The two sides have up to 60 days to appeal the outcome, though Olmert said he accepted the court’s ruling.
US military presence: The United States is seeking an expansion of its military presence in the Philippines under a 2014 defense pact, U.S. and Philippine officials said, one of the initiatives that Vice President Kamala Harris launched Monday during her visit to America’s oldest treaty ally in Asia.
Harris also reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to defend the Philippines under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty in talks with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the presidential palace in Manila.
The high-level assurance came a day after China’s coast guard seized Chinese rocket debris that Filipino navy personnel found and were towing to a Philippines-occupied island in the disputed South China Sea. China, the Philippines and four other governments are locked in increasingly tense territorial disputes in the strategic waterway.
“An armed attack on the Philippines armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the South China Sea would invoke U.S. Mutual Defense commitments,” Harris told Marcos. “And that is an unwavering commitment that we have to the Philippines.”
Marcos thanked Harris. He said that given the upheavals in the region and beyond, “this partnership becomes even more important.”
Social media posts: Two men who were arrested at New York’s Penn Station after authorities spotted social media posts about attacking a synagogue represented a real danger to the city’s Jewish community, Mayor Eric Adams said Monday.
“This was not an idle threat,” Adams said at a news conference where he was joined by officials from the FBI, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and other agencies involved in the arrests early Saturday of Christopher Brown, 21, and Matthew Mahrer, 22, on charges including criminal possession of a weapon.
“This was a real threat,” he said.
According to the criminal complaint against him, Brown made a series of threats on Twitter including, on Thursday, “Gonna ask a Priest if I should become a husband or shoot up a synagogue and die,” and then on Friday, “This time I’m really gonna do it.”
Authorities linked the
tweets to Brown, of Aquebogue, on Long Island, and identified Mahrer, of Manhattan, as an associate, said Michael Driscoll, head of the FBI’s New York office.
Greene reinstated: Elon Musk’s Twitter has reinstated the personal account of far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, banned in January for violating the platform’s COVID-19 misinformation policies at the time.
Greene’s reinstatement comes after Musk over the weekend reinstated the account of former President Donald Trump, who was banned in the aftermath of the deadly Jan. 6 riots on the Capitol in 2021. Twitter — at the time — feared there was a risk of further incitement to violence if Trump was allowed to remain on the platform.
Trump has said he won’t return to Twitter and as of Monday had not yet tweeted since the reinstatement, although he also hasn’t deleted his account.
Georgia appeals: Georgia is appealing a judge’s ruling that allows counties to offer early voting this Saturday in the U.S. Senate runoff election between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker.
Warnock’s campaign, along with the Democratic Party of Georgia and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, sued the state last week, arguing that early voting should be allowed that day.
They were challenging guidance from Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that said state law doesn’t allow early voting on a Saturday if there is a holiday on the Thursday or Friday preceding it.
Lawyers for the stateon Monday filed an appeal with the Georgia Court of Appeals. They asked the court to stay the lower court ruling.
Iraq corruption: Auditors in Iraq have uncovered a massive scheme in which a
network of businesses and officials embezzled some $2.5 billion from the country’s tax authority, despite layers of safeguards.
The scandal poses an early test for Iraq’s new government, formed late last month after a prolonged political crisis.
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has vowed to crack down on corruption, but few expect any senior officials or political leaders to be held accountable.
The scale of the embezzlement is remarkable, even for an oil-rich country where corruption has been rampant for decades. Transparency International, a global watchdog, rated Iraq 157th out of 180 countries on its 2021 index for clean governance.
The auditors’ report, obtained by The Associated Press and first reported by the Guardian, suggests the theft was orchestrated by a broad network of officials, civil servants and businessmen.