Jerusalem – Martin Schlaff, a Jewish Austrian Billionaire, was involved in the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas this week, Channel 2 News reported.
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According to the report, Schlaff, who is a close associate and friend of soon-to-be-former Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, served as a mediator in the negotiations which resulted in the ceasefire and led to Liberman’s resignation a day later. Channel 2 said that Schlaff’s involvement was denied by Liberman’s office.
The reaction from the prime ministers office said that they would not comment on mediators in the deal.
Schlaff is a well-known personality in Israel and abroad for having been involved in shady business deals. Most notorious was a Casino he opened in Jericho, partially owned by Yasser Arafat, in 1998.
Liberman had several corruption lawsuits leveled at him at the end of last decade for allegedly receiving millions of shekels from businessmen while serving as a member of Knesset. One of those businessmen was Schlaff.
From the report it was not clear in what way Schlaff contributed to the ceasefire deal or in what capacity he served as a mediator.
Nothing to be proud of. I am not for war, but Israel does not need to stop the attacks before it gives a good blow to Hamas in a way that sends them years back in armaments…