Israel’s attorney general on Thursday formally charged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a series of corruption cases, throwing the country’s paralyzed political system into further disarray and threatening the long-time leader’s grip on power.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit charged Netanyahu with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three different scandals. It is the first time a sitting Israeli prime minister has been charged with a crime. Mandelblit was set to issue a formal statement later Thursday.
Allegations against Netanyahu include suspicions he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars of champagne and cigars from billionaire friends, offered to trade favors with a newspaper publisher and used his influence to help a wealthy telecom magnate in exchange for favorable coverage on a popular news site.
READ THE FULL INDICTMENT IN HEBREW HERE
Netanyahu scheduled a press conference at 8:30 p.m., an hour after Mandelblit’s expected announcement.
The indictment does not require Netanyahu to resign but is expected to raise pressure on him to step down.
Netanyahu has called the allegations part of a witch hunt, lashing out against the media, police, prosecutors and the justice system.
Netanyahu was scheduled to issue a statement later Thursday.
The decision comes at a tumultuous time for the country. After an inconclusive election in September, both Netanyahu and his chief rival, Benny Gantz, have failed to form a majority coalition in parliament. It is the first time in the nation’s history that that has happened.
The country now enters an unprecedented 21-day period in which any member of parliament can try to rally a 61-member majority to become prime minister. If that fails, new elections would be triggered.
President Reuven Rivlin formally informed parliament of the deadlock on Thursday, a day after Gantz’s window for forming a government expired. He called it a “miserable political situation” and pleaded with lawmakers to find a compromise.
Netanyahu is desperate to remain in office. Under Israeli law, a sitting prime minister is not required to resign if charged with a crime. All other public officials must immediately step down.
Likud leaders have so far remained solidly behind him.
Gideon Saar, a former senior Cabinet minister, said he supports the establishment of a unity government with Gantz’s Blue and White Party to avert another election. He said he would be a better fit than Netanyahu.
“If we go to new elections, it will not be reasonable to think that the prime minister will be successful in forming a government after the third elections,” he said at the Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference in Jerusalem. “I think I will be able to form a government, and I think I will be able to unite the country and the nation.”
Opinion polls are already predicting a very similar deadlock, signaling additional months of horse-trading and uncertainty.
The only plausible way out of a third election — and the prolonged political paralysis that has gripped Israel for the past year — would be a unity government.
Blue and White edged Likud by one seat in the previous election and together they could control a parliamentary majority. Both Netanyahu and Gantz have expressed an overall openness to the concept but during weeks of talks they could not agree on the terms of a power-sharing agreement, including who would serve first as prime minister.
Netanyahu has refused to drop his alliance with smaller nationalist and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties, which was a non-starter for kingmaker politician Avigdor Lieberman.
But the main sticking point has revolved around Netanyahu himself.
The long-time Israeli leader is desperate to remain in office as he prepares for the expected indictment. Gantz’s Blue and White refuses to sit under Netanyahu while he faces such serious legal problems but has said it has no problem with Likud if he is removed from the equation.
The emergence of Saar as an heir could reshuffle the deck, but challenging Netanyahu in Likud is a risky maneuver in a party that fiercely values loyalty and has had only four leaders in its 70-plus-year history.
A former lawyer and journalist, Saar was first brought into politics 20 years ago by Netanyahu, who made him his Cabinet secretary during his first term in office. Saar then established himself as a staunch nationalist who opposed Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and resisted the prospect of a Palestinian state. He quickly rose in the Likud ranks, twice finishing first in internal elections for its parliamentary list and enjoying successful stints as education minister and interior minister after Netanyahu returned to power in 2009.
But as with others in Likud who saw their popularity rise, he too began to be perceived by Netanyahu as a threat. He quit politics in 2014 to spend more time with his new wife, Israeli TV anchor Geula Even, and their young children, before making his comeback this year.
Despite his hard-line positions, Saar is liked and respected across the political spectrum and could prove a far more comfortable partner for unity with Gantz if elected head of Likud.
(AP)
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8 Responses
The Deep State must have “something” very damaging against the AG.
This is a one-time opportunity for Saar and Ganz to join hands and reach out to the religious parties with some reasonable proposal for alternative national service and invite them to join in a national unity coalition government. If they refuse, they can sit on the outside with Lieberman and become irrelevant to EY’s national future. Hopefully, there is some room for compromise, but if not, its worth trying.
including who would serve first as prime minister. So both of them go together to President Reuven Rivlin, and ask him to toss/flip a coin, and agree to be bound by the way the coin lands.
As for Mandelblit:- Shame on you! You are worse than Lieberman, and you are triggering a 3rd election, with your stupid witch hunt. Remove your Kippa, since you have no respect nor Hakoras-Tov whatsoever, for our most outstanding Prime-Minister.
For those in doubt, follow the advice of the Trumkopf, READ THE INDICTMENT.
This is not an “indictment”, since there is no review of the charges by a neutral finder of fact. Israel doesn’t have such a thing. The prosecutor simply decides to charge someone and that’s it, they’re charged.
AG Mandelblit once worked in Bibi’s cabinet. Are we supposed to believe he’s clean? This is a man who’s afraid of losing his job.
> Dovid from Modiin
Hardly necessary to have anything damaging against the AG. As example, simple threats of “accidents” against himself or hi sloved ones is more than enough motivation.
Leftist progressivism is a religion. It has no nationalty, borders, country, ethnicity or language. It is modern day Baal Peor whose adherents worship it by defacating on anything and anybody they deem deplorable. To achieve their destructive ends they’ve adopted Goebells propaganda tactics to hammer lies till blood flows. More current, they are satanic children of the arch villain Saul Alinsky…meharsayich u’machrivei’ich memeich yeitzeiu.