ISRAELI DONALD TRUMP

Facing indictment, PM Netanyahu strikes back at left-wing 'blood libel'

By Ariel Kahana, Yehuda Shlezinger and Erez Linn

Israel Hayom
March 1, 2019

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Left of trying to unseat him through undemocratic means on Thursday, hours after Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit announced his decision to indict him for alleged corruption pending a hearing.

"The Left knows it cannot beat me through the ballot box and that is why it has engaged in political persecution against me for three years," he said. "This is an unprecedented witch hunt with only one goal – to topple a right-wing government," Netanyahu said in a televised speech.

"The Left applied extreme and inhumane pressure on the attorney general so that he would decide to go ahead with an indictment, even if it is pending a hearing, so long as he made this decision before the election and even though the Left knows full well that this house of cards will collapse after the election. What happened today is a major blow to democracy – for the first time in Israeli history, a pre-indictment hearing is announced during an election campaign."

Netanyahu has been investigated in three corruption cases over the past three years. In Case 1,000, one of the first cases to come to light, Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, were investigated for allegedly accepting illicit gifts from billionaire businessmen Arnon Milchan and James Packer.

In Case 2,000, in which Netanyahu is suspected of negotiating a deal with Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon "Noni" Mozes under which he would work to curtail the activity of Israel Hayom in exchange for Yedioth Ahronoth softening its harshly critical coverage of Netanyahu.

In Case 4,000, Netanyahu is suspected of having offered Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder in the Bezeq communications giant, regulatory benefits worth hundreds of millions of shekels in exchange for favorable coverage of Netanyahu and his family on the Bezeq-owned Walla news website.

Mendelblit informed Netanyahu's lawyers on Thursday that he has made a tentative decision to indict Netanyahu in all three cases, with a final decision depending on the outcome of pre-indictment hearing where Netanyahu would be able to counter the allegations.

According to Mendelblit, he plans to indict Netanyahu on fraud and breach of trust in all three cases, as well as on one count of accepting a bribe in Case 4,000.

Netanyahu said that the Left's alleged judicial campaign to bring about his political demise is nothing short "scandalous." I know that the media's power is limited but even through this limited power, it can affect enough people to make the Left win. Look at what is happening as we speak – in the television studios, in the live broadcasts, I can't remember the last time the Left was so gleeful – the Left is already measuring the drapes, everything is fair game when it comes to bringing me down, including my wife and son."

Netanyahu said that the only reason there are state's witnesses willing to testify against him is because of undue pressure by police. "They told them: Either you provide us with some lie on Netanyahu or you get locked up for a long time," Netanyahu said and vowed that "nothing will come out of this, this is just one big blood libel."

He then repeated his claim that he is "the first person in history who is accused of taking a bribe because of favorable coverage," saying that this standard was not applied to other politicians. "Why hasn't Yair Lapid [head of the Yesh Atid party] not being taken in for questioning over the torrent of favorable coverage from Yedioth Ahronoth?" he asked.

Meanwhile, in Vietnam, President Donald Trump praised Netanyahu just hours before Mendelblit's decision. Asked if he would like to comment on Netanyahu's legal woes, Trump said he was not familiar with the details, but said Netanyahu "has been a great prime minister. … He's done a great job as prime minister. He's tough, he's smart, he's strong."