Defense Minister and alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz, has established a ministerial committee whose purpose is to investigate Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his role in procuring submarines and other naval vessels from Germany in manners that were not quite legal.

Gantz has asked former Tel Aviv District Court judge Amnon Strashnov, who previously served as an IDF chief military counsel, to head the committee. Other notable members include former navy commander Avraham Ben Shushan and former Defense Ministry acquisitions director Yael Grill.

The committee will not be able to force Netanyahu and those closest to him to come and testify and its powers will be limited. The committee, being appointed by the defense minister, can only work inside the Defense Ministry. In addition, the committee will only have four months to draft its report and present its findings.

Critics of the Prime Minister including the Movement for Quality Government complained in a letter to Gantz that a ministerial committee was not enough, and that a formal commission of inquiry with teeth was needed.

Previously, Gantz has stated that such a committee was unnecessary as Attorney General  Avichai Mandelblit said it was not needed and that he did not want to act as the opposition within the government.

Sources within the Likud responded to the move by saying that “the only thing that has changed since then is Blue and White sinking in the polls and looking to gain votes by targeting the prime minister with worthless maneuvers.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)