Segev’s Knesset colleagues want him to get life in prison

“He was a paranoid megalomaniac who went from being the party’s most right-wing MK to selling out Israel.”

Former MKs Pini Badash (L) and Gonen Segev (R) (photo credit: KNESSET)
Former MKs Pini Badash (L) and Gonen Segev (R)
(photo credit: KNESSET)
Former Knesset members who served together with alleged Iranian spy Gonen Segev expressed hope on Tuesday that Segev will never again see the light of day.
Segev was given the number two slot on Tzomet’s slate for the 1992 election behind betrayed his colleagues in the right-wing faction by breaking off with two other MKs, joining then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s government, and enabling the passage of the second Oslo Accord with the Palestinian Authority.
“He was a paranoid megalomaniac who went from being the party’s most right-wing MK to selling out Israel for the bribe of a seat in Rabin’s cabinet,” former MK Pini Badash told The Jerusalem Post. “We sat next to each other in the plenum, but we were never friends. He always looked down on us. He was a hedonist who was hungry for money, and it was clear he could be bought.”
Badash recalled that at one point Eitan sent him a note saying he had never before understood how anyone could kill anyone until he met Segev, who constantly made Eitan suffer.
He said he was not surprised in any way that Segev could spy for Iran.
“He wanted to screw the state,” Badash said. “It’s amazing that Oslo passed because of bribing him. This shows how illegitimate Oslo was. I hope he stays in jail for the rest of his life.
This is so sad.”
Former Tzomet MK Moshe Peled said that if Segev indeed spied for Iran, it would be one of many betrayals by Segev. He said the worst betrayal was Oslo, because “his votes caused disaster.”
Former Tzomet MK Ether Salmowitz said Segev was always self-destructive, but journalists who knew of his tendencies decided not to print them, because they wanted the peace process moved forward.
Current MKs also spoke out against Segev. Likud MK Oren Hazan said that “after helping the Left steal the Oslo Accords, no one should be surprised that he could sell state secrets to Iran.”
When Meretz MK Mossi Raz wrote on Twitter that Segev cannot be considered a leftist because he voted against the first Oslo Accord, Likud MK Yehudah Glick responded that it was the second Oslo Accord that gave the Palestinian Authority 10,000 guns and control over West Bank cities resulting in many deaths.
Zionist Union MK Itzik Shmuli responded to Glick that it was ridiculous to connect Segev’s votes on the Oslo Accords to his alleged betrayal of Israel to Iran.
“Gonen Segev is neither Right nor Left but twisted,” Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni said.