From newsmax.com:

Report: Corruption Spurs Israel's Expulsion of Jews

Rampant corruption in the Israeli government is behind the expulsion of Jews from occupied territory, a scathing new report charges.

Middle East analyst Rachel Neuwirth, reacting to a finding by Business Data Israel that named Israel's government as the second "most corrupt" among developed nations (after Italy), called the Israeli government "a cesspool of corruption and treason."

And she told the Jewish Voice and Opinion that corruption may explain "Israel's inanely self-destructive decision to expel the Jewish population of Gaza and part of Samaria, and to withdraw Israel's military outposts from these areas, which are essential for Israel's defense."

The Israeli Knesset Controls Committee recently revealed that Eival Giladi, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's appointee to administer the disengagement plan, is paid by Palestinian interests to help develop enterprises - including resorts, housing and casinos - that are planned to replace the evicted Jewish communities.

Giladi is also managing director of the British-owned Portland Trust, which has plans to raise $500 million to build 150,000 housing units for Arabs on land seized from Jewish farmers in Gaza.

Ozrad Lev, a former high-ranking Israeli intelligence officer, told the committee that Giladi's appointment represents "a built-in conflict of interest."

But Giladi is only "the tip of the iceberg of people who stand to reap personal benefit from the disengagement," said David Bedein, bureau chief of the Israel Resource News Agency.

Another is an old Army friend of Sharon, Cyril Kern, who is now a wealthy British businessman. He made headlines in Israel for lending Sharon money to pay a fine for illegally soliciting campaign contributions.

Accepting loans from a foreign national is illegal for public officials in Israel, but Sharon was never charged with a crime.

Kern is now an investor in a corporation formed to develop a gambling casino on the site of a Jewish settlement in Gaza, the Jewish Voice and Opinion reports.

Another close friend of Sharon, Austrian financier Martin Schlaf, has exclusive rights to operate other casinos in territories administered by the Palestinian Authority.

Neuwirth says that Dov Weisglass, Sharon's personal attorney, and Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres may have financial interests in the expulsion as well.

"Sharon appears to be personally and financially beholden to a circle of financial backers and campaign contributors who stand to make a killing from the Gaza disengagement," said Neuwirth.

Responding to the corruption charges, an editorial in the Jerusalem Post called for "a complete revision of who gets to govern and how."

Neuwirth added: "The apparent reality is that Israel's government is a cesspool of corruption and treason. Its prime minister appears willing to place his people in mortal peril by destroying their national security, unity and morale, for no better purpose than to confer financial benefits on his financial backers and political hangers-on."