Ben-Eliezer emphasized that his acquaintance with the defendant was during his tenure as Minister of Infrastructures, and against the background of his request for assistance from the defendant in organizing meetings with Gazprom and Soker.
And this is from the testimony:
"... I knew him in completely different circumstances. My acquaintance with him was against the background of the fact that I was Minister of National Infrastructures, I took up my position as Minister of Infrastructures on October 1, 2005, I served two terms. The main issue I dealt with in those days was gas exploration for the State of Israel. To remind you – back then the gas flow, that is, the only gas pipeline we had was from the Tethys Sea of Teshuva, and I, during this first year, had already signed an agreement with the Egyptians, the famous agreement for the flow of gas to the State of Israel, with my colleague and in the presence of the President. Over the course of the year, it became clear to us that little by little the sea is depleting and the entire pipeline, the flow of gas from Egypt is becoming more and more limping, that is, not exactly what we signed is happening, not the quantities, not the schedule and not the qualities. So I looked for a way to reach and find other repositories. The natural thing was to go straight to Russia, to get to Gazprom... And then for the second time I met Avraham in Moscow, And he actually pushed the business. I had two destinations there and also in Azerbaijan. Both were the providers. As a result of this, I got to know him. He was dealing with this thing for two months, and I tried to evacuate, by the way, nothing came out of this deal... Apparently, the quantities demanded by the State of Israel were not exactly something attractive about them" (P/119, proofreading errors were corrected by noting the witness's words in the transcript – B.S.).
In the affidavit, Ben-Eliezer explicitly stated that The defendant's goal was to assist the State of Israel.