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Ministers paid tribute to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on Sunday, who is set to leave the job this week after six years.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that Mandelblit has filled a “great and significant” role. “We all owe you a debt of gratitude. On behalf of the government of Israel, I would like to thank you, Avichai, for many dedicated years of service to the State of Israel.”
On Sunday, the cabinet voted to establish the commission of inquiry into the incident, which dates back to 2012 and has become known as “Case 3000.” The submarine deal has already led to a number of indictments against several close confidants of Netanyahu, who called for the procurement, though the ex-premier has not been named as a suspect.
In nearly every discussion these days about a possible plea bargain with the defendant Benjamin Netanyahu, supporters of a compromise repeat the same main argument: The deal with the former prime minister is necessary in order to undermine his attack on the justice system. This argument was made most prominently by former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak, who explained that he supported the deal because it would “take the sting out of the demolition of the court system.”
Former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is negotiating a plea deal to escape prison and end his corruption trial. According to a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice of Israel and two sources involved in the talks, court terms could be announced before the end of the month.
A court on Sunday accepted the prosecution’s request to extend the deadline due to corona protocols, delaying the next hearing until January 31.
With two weeks left to reach a plea deal, Israel’s attorney general will demand Netanyahu accept a finding of moral turpitude, suspending Israel’s once longest serving prime minister from political office
Asked at Yesh Atid’s faction meeting if he still thinks his rotation as prime minister would happen if Netanyahu signs a plea deal, Lapid said: „This government will last because it does not depend on Netanyahu. It depends on working together & national unity.“
Reports say Mr Netanyahu is, however, objecting to accepting a charge which would require him to leave politics.
Israel’s longest serving leader was unseated after elections last year.
The prosecution’s proposed plea bargain with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu contains an inherent contradiction: by insisting that the amended indictment still stresses the gravity of his misdeeds, it risks leading the court to reject the proposed sentence as too lenient.
(December 2, 2019)
By submitting his letter to parliament’s speaker, Mandelblit began an official 30-day window for Netanyahu to ask parliament for immunity. With only a minority in favor, Netanyahu’s odds of success appear slim.
But late Monday, the parliament’s legal adviser, Eyal Yinon, said that any request for immunity would have to be considered by the legislature’s “House Committee.”
The current caretaker government does not have such a committee, and it appears unlikely that it will appoint one before the Dec. 11 deadline.
That means that if Netanyahu submits an immunity request, it will likely be ruled upon only after new elections and formation of a new government that appoints a committee.
Since negotiations for a plea bargain were first made public, Mendelblit has been harshly criticized by Justice Ministry officials and the legal team that manages Netanyahu’s corruption cases, which will be required to negotiate with the former prime minister’s defense attorneys on the wording of the amended indictment. Sources close to the attorney general also believe that he will have a difficult time converting those who oppose the deal in the time he has left.
Talks on a possible plea deal for Netanyahu in his criminal trial have progressed in recent weeks, with a potential solution found to the major sticking point left between his team and state prosecutors, Hebrew-language media reports said over the weekend. Netanyahu has been resisting a deal primarily due to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit’s demand that his actions be designated as carrying “moral turpitude” — legally barring him from public service for seven years.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit is set to retire at the end of January. With with no permanent successor yet determined, it’s unclear if a new attorney general would offer the same deal if Netanyahu does not accept it within the next two weeks.
Mandelblit could see a plea bargain as favorable to end Netanyahu’s attacks on the justice system.
(7 December 2021)
Avichai Mandelblit said to tell associates privately that the ex-PM he put on trial hoped to appoint prosecutors and judges who would protect him; ‚democracy not guaranteed‘
(21.06.2021)
This isn’t the first time Gantz has tried to launch an inquiry into the submarines affair. In November, he appointed a governmental inquiry committee headed by retired Judge Amnon Straschnov. But Mendelblit ordered that panel to hold off on starting work because he said its mandate would overlap with the criminal investigation. Moreover, Straschnov resigned after less than a month after concluding that the committee’s work would be pointless due to limitations to its authority. Nevertheless, it’s impossible not to attribute the dissolution of this committee to the fact that Netanyahu and his power structure controlled Israel at the time.
Cohen was asked about his relationship with Packer following a Haaretz investigation, which revealed he had received a $20,000 gift for his daughter’s wedding, though the figure cited in ‚Uvda‘ was lower.
The recently retired Mossad chief, who is a close confidant of outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also asserted that „everything was done in consultation and with the approval of the attorney general“ and that Packer wanted to give „much more.“
The next head of Israel’s Mossad espionage agency will be David Barnea, whose appointment was cleared for publication Monday following consultations among Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit and the outgoing Mossad chief, Yossi Cohen.
Die israelische Justiz verschob angesichts der Unruhen eine wichtige Anhörung in dieser Angelegenheit: „In Anbetracht der Umstände und auf Antrag des Generalstaatsanwalts wird die morgige Anhörung abgesagt“, teilte das israelische Justizministerium mit. Der Termin vor dem Obersten Gerichtshof Israels solle binnen eines Monats nachgeholt werden.
„The Police Department for Internal Investigations will begin reviewing the events to see if there is any criminal culpability on the part of members of the police in the disaster,“ a spokesperson for Mandelblit said, adding that the police were instructed not to interview any of their members.
In their decision on Thursday, the judges sided with Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who earlier laid out conflict of interest rules regarding Netanyahu’s situation. Mandelblit insisted that the PM must be prevented from appointing officials who would have the power to influence the probe against him.
Our investigative department got hold of new evidence concerning the Submarines Affair (our efforts continue – the department still investigates the affair in full energy). In our petition to the High Court of Justice we requested the judges to order the following:
1. Criminal investigation of Netanyahu’s Steel Shares Affair. 2. Criminal investigation against Netanyahu in the Submarines Affair. 3. Establishing a State Inquiry Committee in order to finally investigate this severe affair.
(04.12.2019)
Several prominent U.S. billionaires are on the list of over 300 people who could potentially be called as witnesses at Prime Minister Benjamin’s Netanyahu’s upcoming corruption trial.
The opening of the premier’s trial last May followed years of investigations, deliberations and legal proceedings that eventually took place during the course of three election campaigns, capped by a last-minute delay due to the coronavirus.
The court rejected a demand from the prime minister’s lawyers to dismiss the indictment by reason of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit’s failure to formally file a written request for the probe of Netanyahu.
However, the court did condemn Mandelblit for the oversight, saying it was a „defect“ in the legal procedures.
„This is a matter of procedural defect which doesn’t concern the root of the matter,“ the court stated, as cited by Hamodia.
Die Anwälte des Regierungschefs hatten Berichten zufolge auf einen Termin nach dem für den 23. März geplanten Urnengang gedrängt. Es ist die vierte Abstimmung binnen zwei Jahren.
A year after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the three-fold crisis plaguing Israeli society threatens the basic contract between the state and its citizenry, and has led to a lack of trust in government leaders and institutions and an ‚unparalleled degree of polarization‘.
(20. April 1997)
Netanyahu told CNN’s Walter Rodgers he was „glad that the truth came out,“ and said the entire incident was „blown out of proportion and twisted out of shape.“
„It’s politics,“ he said in an interview shortly after the attorney general released his report. „Of course there were people out to get us. But this is going nowhere. It’s done. It’s finished.“
(14.02.2018)
The police announcement Tuesday – that the investigations into two cases involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been completed – came 13 months after Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit decided that a “preliminary examination” of the allegations, which itself took six months, should become full-fledged criminal investigations.
A year ago, Netanyahu waived his parliamentary immunity after he realized that in the Knesset elected in September 2019, he had no chance of receiving immunity. But the prime minister’s lawyers recently claimed in court that he never waived his right to parliamentary immunity, saying that the Knesset’s immunity proceedings were flawed.
(09.01.2021)
The order could potentially postpone the calling of witnesses to right before Election Day, or right after.
The order came less than 48 hours after the same court rejected Netanyahu’s request for postponing his January 13 hearing next week.
The moment of truth for our future is approaching. What we saw the other day on the steps of the Capitol and inside it is a warning sign. Netanyahu’s readiness to break every rule and law is obvious, and reached a peak at the start of his trial, with that scene in the courthouse that could have come right out of a gangster movie. And in fact, the prosecutor in his trial is already under guard day and night, just like the prosecutors in the trials of organized crime bosses, and for the same reasons.
The trial has begun, and so a new situation is before us.
The High Court, its president, Esther Hayut, the prosecution, Mendelblit, all have been subjected to brutal, ugly attacks. There’s no reason to envy them. But if there’s one thing they understand from their own life experience: Silence and capitulation is no way to stop a serial attacker.
If the High Court does not examine the Jewish nation-state law according to norms external to the Israeli system and in accordance with criteria derived from consensual universal and international norms and values, it will justify the existence of a regime of constitutionally-mandated segregation for every ethnic dominating group trying to grant itself exclusive supremacy in any country, not only the Jewish people in Israel.
It was unclear whether the High Court could ever strike down a quasi-constitutional basic law, he said. In any event, if it were possible, it would need to be a far more extreme law, implying something criminal or actively undermining democracy, he added.
Furthermore, Mandelblit rejected the notion that the coalition was abusing or ignoring the will of the voter by forming coalitions they had vowed not to form.
The commission’s first meeting, scheduled for Monday, has been postponed at Mendelblit’s request until the scope of its activity has been defined. The commission is expected to submit a final report in about four months.
Police say they arrested 18 with protesters claiming 23 have been detained as they demand Netanyahu be investigated for the so-called ’submarine affair‘
: Representatives of the ruling party (in the spirit of the commander, the commander’s wife and their son) long ago crossed the red line that separates the parliamentary freedom to criticize and exercise oversight of the branches of government, and sowing fear, stoking unbridled incitement and making explicit threats against those who displease them.
Zohar allgedly threatened Mendelblit in October, saying that if the attorney general did not resign from his position and drop the three pending corruption indictments against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, incriminating recordings of Mendelblit would be leaked to the public.
The police interrogation of Zohar was authorized by the state prosecutor’s office.
The opinion states that Netanyahu cannot make decisions regarding appointments to the legal system or law enforcment. Netanyahu must also be barred from making decisions regarding witnesses, other defendants or engaging in legislation that could affect the proceedings against him, Mendelblit wrote.
Furthermore, Netanyahu cannot interfere in several areas under the jurisdiction of the Communications Ministry.
It’s just like in the Mafia: The boss is surrounded by soldiers. By made men.
They’re the ones he sends into the streets to kneecap his enemies. They don’t ask questions. They carry out orders. Sorry, instructions. An explicit utterance isn’t always needed. A look or nod can suffice. They understand.
(14.10.2020)
Saying that there are incriminating tapes from a previous court case against Avichai Mendelblit that will be released, Miki Zohar demanded the attorney general drop Netanyahu’s charges and resign
Israeli television news on channels 11 and 13 reported Monday that Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit doesn’t plan to investigate allegations concerning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s financial ties to his cousin Nathan Milikowsky. If these reports are true, this decision lays the groundwork for corrupt norms to become entrenched in Israeli politics for many years to come.
It’s important to be precise: In practice, this legislation does not limit demonstrations, it bans them. The proposed restrictions are so draconian that they amount to a prohibition. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attempting, in the most cynical fashion, to exploit the coronavirus and the restrictions needed to fight its spread in order to undermine fundamental democratic rights and to suppress the dissent against him and his incorrigible government.
The AG did not specify how such a possibility may unfold or when a decision from his office would be made.
“It’s not math. I’m not rushing to anything, and I’m trying to be very considered and very calm.”
Mandelblit continued by stressing that the prime minister was not “doing me a favor” by agreeing to sign a binding conflict-of-interest deal as part of the arrangements for him to remain in office while on trial.
Netanyahu is pursuing two tracks simultaneously. The first is that of the attorney general. It involves ceaselessly attacking Avichai Mendelblit to get him to break and resign, thereby enabling Netanyahu to appoint an attorney general after his own heart who will cancel his trial due to “lack of public interest.”
The second track is the general lockdown he intends to impose later this month to stop the demonstrations outside his official residence on Jerusalem’s Balfour Street.
Senior police officers have been charged with sex crimes against their subordinates. They have consorted with famous rabbis, ministers and mafia bosses. One was offered a bribe that he did not report. Another served as a mole for a tycoon who was the target of a police intelligence operation.
One officer, considered a rising star, worked with a famous lawyer to trade sensitive information from undercover investigations for cash-filled envelopes. …
Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit is holding consultations on Wednesday whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be disqualified from serving as premier, because of what Mendelblit sees as Netanyahu’s use of the office for his personal benefit as a defendant in three corruption cases.
To understand what the crime syndicate that has taken over this country is after, one must first understand the goals of the man who leads it. The criminal defendant bunkered down in Balfour Street has three goals: to remain prime minister, to cancel his trial and to prevent the truth from coming out about the so-called steel shares and submarines affairs (which could result in charges that are much more serious than those in his current trial).
Netanyahu’s strategy is transparent. He doesn’t have a scrap of evidence that would support his claims about Mendelblit. If he did, he wouldn’t need the campaign of mudslinging and lies that he’s conducting.
All Netanyahu wants is to cast doubt on Mendelblit’s motives, strengthen the doubt and cultivate it, until it casts a pall on the integrity of the legal proceedings against him.
Earlier, Hebrew-language broadcaster Channel 13 reported that Justice Ministry officials slammed recent comments of Netanyahu and Likud ministers, saying “They continue the delegitimization campaign against law enforcement authorities when next up will be the judges.
“They [Netanyahu, Likud] repeat the same farcical mantras and lies, and knowingly lie to the public,” they added, according to Channel 13.
Since 1999 Netanyahu has managed to exhaust an entire political camp. His battles with the old elites was first and foremost a war of attrition. The noise that this compressor emits is only getting louder. It seems as if we haven’t been able to sleep properly for 20 years – it hasn’t given us a moment’s peace. This isn’t a compressor. This is a force of nature.
Another 10 years of Netanyahu in power is starting to look like a fairly realistic scenario.
Every day that passes provides more proof of the twisted state of Israeli democracy, in which a defendant under criminal indictment leads the government and is a candidate to form the next one.
The moment Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his plan to use “technological methods from the war on terror” to track coronavirus patients, it was clear that it would be impossible to take this candy away from the government’s eager hands. The term “dangerous precedent” was coined for just such situations, in which a tool created for extreme situations slowly makes its way into daily life.
The High Court’s ruling came after a group of lawyers petitioned the court, saying it was “unreasonable” for the justice minister to extend Eldad’s tenure during an interim government.
Nothing of the like has been seen before – not in Israel or in any other advanced democracy. This political agreement, fundamentally corrupt and rotten, emasculates the Knesset under cover of the coronavirus, undermines the foundations of our system of government and subordinates the Supreme Court to the government.
The obvious reason for its existence is neither the coronavirus nor the crisis, but immunity for the criminal defendant, Benjamin Netanyahu, in any situation and at any price.
(18.01.2019)
Police suspect Nave had sexual relations with the judge in exchange for her promotion as well as with the wife of another judge in exchange for his advancement.
Nave has been a dominant and influential figure on Israel’s legal scene since 2015, when he ousted the president of the Bar Association and took leadership of the professional organization that represents the country’s 59,000 attorneys.
(today)
Nave, who had an alliance with former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who was friends with Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit, who would routinely meet with senior politicians and dreamed of becoming a cabinet minister himself someday exploited his position of power to the hilt. Like a vote contractor for a ruling party, he took advantage of his role to gain sexual favors, connections and power. And yet, if there weren’t any people willing to dance to his corrupt tune, the public may have been spared such degradation.
(26.12.2019)
https://t.co/2opJERA3xe JPost
For a decade, Netanyahu dominated Israel like few others since founding prime minister David Ben-Gurion, leaving a huge imprint on every sphere: diplomatic, economic, military.
But in 2019 – Netanyahu’s own annus horribilis, as Queen Elizabeth II referred to her own “horrible year” in 1992 – his utter dominance began to fade.
if I may, I would like to apply pressure on the judges from the other end of the spectrum. Not from the side of Netanyahu’s devotees, but from the side of those who are devoted to an impartial process, the rule of law and the continued peaceful existence of our democracy.
Please, do not involve yourself in this matter. Looking out at the world through the windows of the halls of justice can obscure the bigger picture sometimes. Caring only for your close compatriots and friends could be dangerous.
Israel zeigt einmal mehr, dass es eine westliche Demokratie mit einem starken Rechtsstaat ist. Das ist manchmal anstrengend.
We’re in this situation because of the cowards – people like Mendelblit, who had no problem accepting a role as a gatekeeper without growing the requisite backbone. We’re here because for months after the recommendations by the police and the prosecution, the attorney general continued to drag his feet.
And after deciding to file indictments, he didn’t intervene as Netanyahu dragged us into yet another election while using all the power of his status to vilify the legal system that the attorney general is supposed to defend.
Das israelische Gesetz sieht vor, dass ein amtierender Premier selbst unter Anklage erst abtreten muss, wenn er rechtskräftig verurteilt wird. Allerdings besagt ein anderes Gesetz, dass ein Politiker, der unter Anklage steht, kein offizielles Amt übernehmen darf. Beide Gesetze mussten bislang noch nie in der Praxis „getestet“ werden.
Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit on Thursday sought to avoid offering his legal opinion on whether or not Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be tasked with forming a government with criminal charges hanging over him.
Mandelblit was earlier in the week requested by Israel’s High Court of Justice by the court to submit his opinion on the matter next week.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who earlier this year recommended to indict the long-serving prime minister on charges of bribery and fraud, has been ordered by the High Court to come up with a legal opinion on the matter 48 hours before the court assembles to debate it.
Israel’s Supreme Court on Monday urged the Attorney General to announce before December 18 on whether he intends to rule on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s eligibility to run for office.
The Supreme Court responded to a petition filed by a group of hi-tech officials and security members such as the former head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Carmi Gillon.
At least 8000 gather at Tel Aviv Museum of Art holding banners, slamming the attorney general and state prosecutors in a demonstration against Israel leader’s corruption charges; ‚Rule of law isn’t above the law,‘ says PM backer Miri Regev
„Whoever heads the executive branch cannot say that Mendelblit’s decision is an attempt of a legal coup. That’s not right, it’s not responsible,“ said Sa’ar in an interview with Channel 12 News.
„It’s not fixing the system, it’s smashing the system,“ he continued. „It is impossible to talk about the attorney general’s decision as a coup, we are creating an atmosphere of chaos in the country, and that I oppose,“ Sa’ar added.
Nach Angaben des Justizministeriums hat Generalstaatsanwalt Avichai Mandelblit die Anklagen bereits dem Parlamentspräsidenten vorgelegt.
For the first time in Israel’s history, a sitting prime minister is accused of bribery: Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit announced Thursday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be charged with bribery, fraud and breach in three corruption cases, dubbed Cases 4000, 2000 and 1000.
A third election isn’t the worst alternative among everything that could have happened if Netanyahu had formed a government. But a third election must be held only after Mendelblit announces his decision on the cases against Netanyahu. Mendelblit must decide before the next election.
(14.02.2018)
The police announcement Tuesday – that the investigations into two cases involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been completed – came 13 months after Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit decided that a “preliminary examination” of the allegations, which itself took six months, should become full-fledged criminal investigations.
State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan announced Sunday the postponement of a conference for senior prosecutors scheduled for Thursday. His office cited “scheduling constraints” and said a new date would be set for the gathering in Jerusalem.
As part of its efforts, Likud seeks to stage a joint demonstration with the right-wing Im Tirtzu NGO near Mendelblit’s Petah Tikva home on Monday evening to express support for the prime minister.
(14.02.2018)
The police announcement Tuesday – that the investigations into two cases involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been completed – came 13 months after Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit decided that a “preliminary examination” of the allegations, which itself took six months, should become full-fledged criminal investigations.
Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit will be holding talks in the coming week with aims to reach a decision at the end of November on whether or not to …
(02.10.2019)
The indecent acts committed as a result of the relationship between government, money and the media in Cases 2000 (the Yedioth quid-pro-quo affair) and Case 4000 (the Bezeq-Walla affair) are extremely serious. Even if proving criminality is stymied by “legal difficulties,” a term Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit loves to use to describe any complex matter, we’re talking about a complete undermining of the last remaining shred of public confidence in politicians and media outlets.
(14.02.2018)
The police announcement Tuesday – that the investigations into two cases involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been completed – came 13 months after Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit decided that a “preliminary examination” of the allegations, which itself took six months, should become full-fledged criminal investigations.
But that is what happened this week, as Netanyahu’s attorneys concluded four days of a pre-trial hearing before the Attorney General, Avichai Mandelblit, and around twenty state prosecutors—a team that had been involved, for three years, in three open criminal cases against the Prime Minister. In February, Mandelblit recommended that Netanyahu be charged with bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three major corruption cases—accusations that Netanyahu has denied. Now the decision of whether to indict Netanyahu and, if so, on what charge, is in Mandelblit’s hands—a decision that could take only a few weeks or drag on for months, ….
Even if he is indicted, Mr Netanyahu intends to stay on as prime minister. The law does not require him to step down until a final conviction.
The second day of the hearing process in the criminal cases against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ended Thursday night after long hours of discussion, with one of the prime minister’s attorneys continuing to express confidence that the charges against the premier would be withdrawn.
The hearing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the criminal cases against him will begin Wednesday, nearly three years after they were opened. (Cases 1000 and 2000 came first, followed later by Case 3000.) That is an unreasonable period of time, including in comparison to investigations of and legal steps taken against other public figures. Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit is responsible for this.
Avichai Mandelblit, who intends to indict the prime minister for bribery, fraud and breach of trust, approved the PM’s request made to hold the hearings over four days to ensure his lawyers would have sufficient time to present full arguments.
After being asked by the attorney general to submit the basis of his plea in advance of the hearings last week, Netanyahu sent Mendelblit one page void of explanations to back his statement that he is innocent.
„We regret that instead of complying with this directive, you have found it appropriate to submit a very short document with no actual content,“ Mendelblit’s office wrote in a letter published Thursday.
Less than a week after his impressive electoral achievement, the head of the largest Knesset faction, Kahol Lavan leader Benny Gantz, conceded his right to be the first to try and form a coalition government. The explanation given by “party sources” for this concession is that Gantz prefers to wait for Netanyahu to try first and fail.
Regrettably, this lame excuse is unconvincing. This move looks like a capitulation without a fight, an admission that the right wing’s long-standing tactic of delegitimizing parties representing Arab society succeeded.
Netanyahu getting a first nod from the president would land a harsh blow on the center-left’s morale, which could facilitate Netanyahu’s plan to divide the party from within. The nightmarish vision of Netanyahu settling back in the driver’s seat and recklessly pushing the gas pedal to reach his target would make a mockery of his clear-cut defeat in last Tuesday’s election. While Gantz and his colleagues rejoice over sucker Netanyahu supposedly falling into their well-laid trap, their supporters will see them as naive novices who could soon add insult to injury by reneging on their main pledge not to participate in his coalition.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) shakes hands with Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz (R) as President Reuven Rivlin looks on, at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, on September 23, 2019.
Quoting sources in the State Prosecutor’s Office, Channel 12 news reported Netanyahu’s hearing was not likely to be delayed due to the election results, which left no party with a clear path to forming a government.
It is widely believed that had Netanyahu won the election with a clear majority, he would have sought immunity from prosecution via a Knesset vote and then sought legislation to prevent the Supreme Court from overturning any such Knesset decision. I
Three Dolphin-class submarines and four Sa’ar 6-class corvette were purchased from the German company ThyssenKrupp by Israel. The suspicion in this case refers to swaying the deal in ThyssenKrup’s favor for the personal gain of several of the people involved. Netanyahu is not a suspect in Case 3000, though his cousin and personal lawyer David Shimron, who also represented the German company in Israel, is one of the main suspects.
(29.03.2019)
Blue and White party candidates have in recent days sent many messages to Mandelblit demanding that the case be reopened and that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s role in the affair be re-examined.
Mandelblit wrapped up his investigation in Case 3000 months ago, concluding that Netanyahu was not involved in influence peddling in the sale of submarines by the German company ThyssenKrupp to Israel.
Mr Netanyahu had sought a clear victory with his right-wing partners to secure immunity from three expected corruption trials.
(14.02.2018)
The police announcement Tuesday – that the investigations into two cases involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been completed – came 13 months after Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit decided that a “preliminary examination” of the allegations, which itself took six months, should become full-fledged criminal investigations.
The prime minister has branded all three cases a baseless “witch hunt.” and his attorneys accused Mandelblit of interfering with elections by announcing his intention to indict during a campaign season.
Netanyahu’s recent announcements, like a pledge to annex parts of the West Bank he made three days before the April 9th elections, have barely registered in the campaign of Blue and White, the centrist party co-led by Generals Benny Gantz, Moshe „Bogie“ Ya’alon, and Gabi Ashkenazi (all former chiefs of the Israeli Defense Forces) along with former finance minister Yair Lapid
As a young Israeli studying abroad, I recently came home for a visit eager to discuss the upcoming elections with family and friends – but found an atmosphere of utter apathy. So I decided to go find people who were actually getting involved, and that’s how I ended up meeting Elisheva and her fellow protestors.
(14.09.2019)
His victory hangs on the fates of racist Otzma and leftist Labor – and on right-wingers coming out in droves while leftists go to the beach
Another term would probably leave Israel’s democratic institutions, built through great work and years of care, in ruins. The damage Netanyahu will leave behind will be difficult to repair. On Tuesday, at the voting booths, the people must end his reign.
The above article is Haaretz’s lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.
„A talented man and a crybaby,“ Maariv publisher Eli Azur called Netanyahu, when he was called to testify in Case 2000. „It doesn’t end. At every meeting he cries and cries.“
Netanyahu himself complained in one of his interviews with the police: „The internet, television, radio, everything is left, left, left. Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth are ultra-left. The destructive leftist concentration in Israeli media is dangerous to democracy and to Israel’s future.“
Netanyahu has been in favor, since his earliest days as a politician over three decades ago, of a presidential system of governance – without insisting on a constitution to check and balance the president’s power, however. He sees the Israeli parliament as an unnecessary nuisance. In recent years, he has described every perfectly legal and legitimate attempt to replace him as a “coup.” As far as he’s concerned, the only purpose of an election is to confirm his personal mandate to rule.
Over the past few days, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intentions and modus operandi have been exposed. It once again turns out that he seeks to get rid of all the checks and balances that he views as impediments to his continued rule, and also to annex the settlements to Israel, including even the most isolated and extreme ones, under a new system of government he has invented – “Jewish sovereignty.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s frontal assault on Channel 12 television was in line with his permanent strategy: If you can’t silence them, incite against them. Plan A failed when the acting chairman of the Central Elections Committee rejected Likud’s request for an injunction that would bar Channel 12’s legal correspondent, Guy Peleg, from continuing to publish statements made by key prosecution witnesses in the cases against Netanyahu prior to the election. So Netanyahu turned to Plan B – libeling Channel 12 as anti-Semitic and urging the public to boycott the station.
After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu s shocking attack on Channel 12 television, it s clearer than ever who the good guys and the bad guys are, and the current election revolves around this choice.
PM claims Keshet Media Group, which produced the HBO series ‚Our Boys‘ that he blasted as anti-Semitic, is ‚committing a terror attack against democracy‘
We know what should be the fate of perpetrators. The man who more than two decades ago marched in front of a coffin (which he didn’t see, of course, a meter behind him) in a protest against Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and who incited from a balcony in Zion Square, with posters of Rabin in SS uniform below him (which he didn’t see either), has gone back to his evil ways. Or, as the verse says in another context, as a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly. He seeks chaos, violence and loss of restraint that will allow him to show off his “leadership” and take control of what’s happening.
Earlier the Central Elections Committee rejected a petition from Netanyahu’s Likud party to bar news outlets from publishing transcripts and documents from Netanyahu’s corruption investigations ahead of national elections next month.
Until now, we knew from Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit that the prime minister would likely be indicted, with the timing expected to be by December.
However, Netanyahu has a strong chance of getting Mandelblit to drop any indictment in Case 2000, the Yediot Ahronot-Yisrael Hayom Affair, probably has a 50/50 chance of beating the charges in Case 1000, the Illegal Gifts Affair, and has a series of real defenses even in Case 4000.
Such trepidations are valid for any caretaker government, all the more so regarding Netanyahu, who’s already suspected of subverting every value of governance to his personal interests. Someone who doesn’t loathe quashing the rule of law to be saved from the terror of the law, who doesn’t hesitate to shamelessly lie to preserve his rule, who isn’t deterred from overturning the parliamentary rules of the game to keep the charges against him from scrutiny seems destined to raise security tensions to distract public opinion from issues he isn’t comfortable with.
Protests have continued for over two years near Mandelblit’s home in Petah Tikva to pressure him to take a stronger stance in the various probes against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Any doubts about illicit deals between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and fallen telecom tycoon Shaul Elovitch in the police’s Case 4000 should be put to rest after the details of Shlomo Filber’s statements to police investigators were leaked this week.
This is the case where the police believe Netanyahu traded friendly coverage by Bezeq’s Walla news site in exchange for help with regulations for the company, Israel’s dominant telecom provider. Filber, who had been appointed director general of the Communications Ministry in 2015 shortly after Netanyahu took over the portfolio, was the point man for the alleged trade-offs.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit’s lengthy description of Netanyahu’s alleged illicit dealings with Elovitch, known as Case 4000, took up the majority of the 57-page document released in February in which Mandelblit set out the allegations that prompted him to announce a criminal indictment against the prime minister, pending a hearing.
Netanyahu is scheduled to attend his own pre-indictment hearing in the case on October 2-3,
One of the intermediaries described her as being close to Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit. “She knows how to influence him. She’s close to him. If she doesn’t control the Justice Ministry, obviously Bibi will go to jail,” he said.
Another of Shaked’s representatives suggested that “only she can get immunity for Bibi. She knows how to explain to the media why immunity is warranted. She has credibility.
(17.08.2019)
Anti-corruption activists have been holding regular protests near Mandelblit’s home for years, demanding he indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the corruption cases into his affairs.
In recent years, gender segregation and discrimination against women have been expanding into various aspects of public life. This is seen on army bases where women are marginalized; on academic campuses where female “modesty supervisors” check the length of skirts; in the civil service, which has cadet courses for men only; in funeral ceremonies, where women cannot mourn or stand with their families; in signposts forbidding women to walk on certain sidewalks, while men police their clothing, applying ever harsher modesty rules, occasionally with curses and spitting. Bus drivers refuse to let on a female passenger in shorts, or don’t allow women to board, claiming there’s “room for men only.”
This is merely a partial list. The struggle for woman’s place in public – and for Israeli society – is in full force.
(13.08.2019)
Ominous pre-election right-wing purges inspired by Trump’s brazenness have been met with apathy and impotence on the center-left
The Hayamin Hehadash and Union of Right-Wing Parties announced Monday they would run on a joint ticket in September’s election under the name United Right, following a meeting of party leaders Ayelet Shaked, Naftali Bennett, Rafi Peretz and Bezalel Smotrich.
The general election will take place on September 17, and Netanyahu’s pre-indictment hearing is set for October 2 and 3.
Peretz also characterized his joining forces last week with Orli Levi-Abekasis, chairwoman of the Gesher party, as “a chance to win,” otherwise Labor would suffer “sure defeat.”
(07.07.2019)
After months of playing defense against the never-ending stream of details regarding the contents of the prime minister’s pending indictment on corruption charges, one could practically feel the exhilaration in the Netanyahu camp at being able to finally go on the offensive — launching a full-throttle attack against Barak, leader of the new Democratic Israel party.
(08.07.2019)
Barak attacked Netanyahu again on Sunday evening, telling Channel 12 that the Submarine Affair was not being advanced, despite evidence implicating the prime minister. He said the police want to move the case forward but are being prevented by Mandelblit. He also accused Netanyahu of going overboard in designating his political rivals as leftists.
„Netanyahu pressed the button for the Knesset dissolution and there is no turning back,“ Gantz says in a statement to the media from Tel Aviv. „Netanyahu sees (election) polls and invents lies.“
Anyone speaking to people close to the prime minister and his ministers are hearing panic that stems not just from Benjamin Netanyahu’s vigorous attempt to stop the clock on the new election. On the agenda, they whisper, is a pending security crisis. The evil will come from the Persian Gulf, the Gaza Strip or the northern border, generated by Iran and its proxies. Then the military agenda will soon overwhelm the political one, overshadowing the political parties’ petty considerations.
TV survey projects center-left and Arab parties would win more seats than right-wing and Orthodox factions, though path to forming government far from clear
Speaking this morning with Army Radio, Yuli Edelstein said that Knesset members from many factions approached him to discuss the election. „All the conversation ended with the same line: ‚Wow, what a mistake we made.'“
(21.06.2019)
Hadash (The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality – Communist Party of Israel) and three political parties representing the Arab-Palestinian national minority in Israel, Ta’al, Ra’am and Balad, have announced they will reunite for the upcoming Knesset elections.
Sources in the Knesset said that the prime minister could push for a law cancelling the Knesset’s dispersal despite Yinon’s view, however the High Court of Justice would most likely block the move. Sources told Haaretz the chance of passing a law that would annul the dissolvement is practically zero.
Netanyahu and Blue and White party co-chairman Benny Gantz are reportedly not personally involved in any negotiations over a unity government.
Blue and White issued a statement reacting to the report, saying, “There is only one option for cancelling the elections: Netanyahu steps down to deal with his legal issues and Blue and White will lead a wide government.”
Yair Lapid, the co-chair of opposition party Kahol Lavan, said on Sunday that he believes a unity government headed by his outfit is the „right thing for Israel.“
Lapid said he would agree to form a coalition with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in response to comments made by former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Saturday.
Instead of holding his tongue, and thanking the good Lord and the exhausted, hesitant, merciful prosecution for the VIP criminal procedure it granted his wife, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chose the second option, the one close to his heart: Slandering law enforcement and baseless, ridiculous self-pity.
Netanyahu is currently trying to find additional lawyers, as the former head of his defense team, Navot Tel Zur, resigned. He recently approached several leading defense attorneys, but many have already turned him down due to concerns over payment.
Netanyahu has unpaid debts to his previous lawyers, because he refuses to pay his legal expenses out of his own pocket and has been unable to secure the permits committee’s approval to raise money from his wealthy businessmen friends.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s lawyer on Monday evening informed the attorney general that his client will attend a hearing on his three criminal cases set for October 2, after failing to convince Avichai Mandelblit to postpone it.
In a video posted online, Netanyahu’s lawyer Amit Hadad said, “We will come to the hearing, but it would have been right to reconsider the date and delay it.”
If Netanyahu refuses to confirm his attendance by today’s deadline, then the hearing will be canceled and a summary decision would be made that could lead to his indictment within days or weeks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Likud lawmaker Amir Ohana as justice minister on Wednesday. Political sources told Haaretz that Ohana was appointed because unlike other Likud members, he supports changes that would grant immunity from indictment to acting prime ministers, as Netanyahu is facing possible indictment in three cases of fraud, bribery and breach of trust.
Wittes attributes this dramatic possibility to Israel’s anomalous constitutional regime, which he characterizes as “super-weird.”
Asked to elaborate, he explains in a follow-up email that, beyond the fact that Israel lacks a written constitution (which is not in itself unique), it also has “the combination, on the one hand, of a system of parliamentary supremacy, and, on the other hand, a highly aggressive court that asserts broad authority of judicial review.” Ironically, however, anything the High Court does can be reversed by the legislature, “given that the court’s authority itself is a creature of the Knesset.”
TV report uncovers draft agreement between Likud and ultra-Orthodox parties to change law barring discriminatory separation between men and women in public
Israeli law does not prohibit an outgoing prime minister from appointing or dismissing ministers before an election nor does it require Knesset approval if the appointee is already a Knesset member.
Wenige Stunden zuvor hatte Bezalel Smotrich, Knesset-Abgeordneter der „Union der rechten Parteien“, die Einführung des Religionsrechts gefordert. Das Rechtssystem der Tora sei dem heutigen überlegen, sagte er am Montag in einem Rundfunkinterview. Er begründete damit auch seinen Wunsch, Justizminister in einer von Netanjahu geführten Regierung zu werden: „Wir wollen das Justizressort, weil wir das auf der Tora basierende Justizsystem wiederherstellen wolle.
The three were released without being questioned and without being informed whether they were suspected of anything. Israeli soldiers are not authorized to arrest Israeli civilians in the West Bank, but are entitled to detain them until the police arrive. The three said they never came in contact with the police.
The activists were members of the left-wing organizations Combatants for Peace and the Jordan Valley Coalition.
A moment before democracy was burned on the stake, Israel received a second chance. We must take full advantage of it.
Netanyahu may win the new election but it will be too late to push through the High Court override and the immunity from prosecution: Who will sign a coalition agreement with someone on his political deathbed?
Kahol Lavan, Labor and Meretz organized the protest, but the Arab parties were not invited. Several hours before the protest and following public pressure, Gantz invited Arab Israeli lawmaker Ayman Odeh, the chairman of Hadash, to speak.
Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in the central city of Tel Aviv Saturday, protesting proposed legislation granting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immunity from prosecution on a series of corruption charges.
The protesters outside the city’s Museum of Art also called for protecting Israel’s democratic identity against government overreach.
Nach Medienberichten bemüht sich Netanjahu um ein Gesetz, mit dem das Parlament Entscheidungen des Höchsten Gerichtes aushebeln könnte. Damit will er demnach einer Strafverfolgung in mehreren Korruptionsfällen entgehen.
MK Miki Zohar (Likud) submitted on Tuesday a draft for a new Immunity Law, that would prevent MKs from being brought to criminal trial.
(20. April 1997)
Netanyahu told CNN’s Walter Rodgers he was „glad that the truth came out,“ and said the entire incident was „blown out of proportion and twisted out of shape.“
„It’s politics,“ he said in an interview shortly after the attorney general released his report. „Of course there were people out to get us. But this is going nowhere. It’s done. It’s finished.“
Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit agreed on Wednesday to postpone Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s indictment hearing until October.
(28.03.2019)
Mendelblit, who returned Sunday from a trip to Japan, had asked the lawyers to hold the hearing by July 10, but is expected to agree to a hearing held by the end of September.
(20. April 1997)
Netanyahu told CNN’s Walter Rodgers he was „glad that the truth came out,“ and said the entire incident was „blown out of proportion and twisted out of shape.“
„It’s politics,“ he said in an interview shortly after the attorney general released his report. „Of course there were people out to get us. But this is going nowhere. It’s done. It’s finished.“
(29.03.2019)
Part of Ganor’s testimony involved allegations that Netanyahu gave his consent to the sale of advanced submarines by ThyssenKrupp to Egypt, and that the Prime Minister had misled investigators by telling them that he had shared with Mandelblit information on why the sale was necessary – even though he was unwilling to tell them, because it was a “state secret.” Blue and White candidates have in recent days accused Netanyahu of a coverup,
(16.05.2019)
Amid reports the PM will seek legislation that will protect him from prosecution in 3 criminal cases, ToI publishes in English for the first time the full interim charge sheet
If the new government now being formed is based on an agreement to enact an override clause that would let the Knesset annul court rulings that overturn legislation and decisions by government agencies, we must go to war to defend our homes. Not only, or even primarily, the Supreme Court’s home, but the home of each and every one of us.
We’ve already learned that a right-wing coalition will dance to the tune of the far-right, which Bezalel Smotrich, now reinforced by Itamar Ben-Gvir and Meir Kahane’s legacy will celebrate. Woe to us if our lives and rights are in their hands without anyone having the power to curb them.
(11.05.2019)
Likud has gathered a number of expert opinions regarding the legal systems of Canada and England, countries where the parliament can pass laws over the objection of the Supreme Court.
AG reportedly set to agree to several weeks’ deferral; Justice Ministry official: ‘No one is under any illusions: Netanyahu wants to buy time to arrange immunity for himself’
Of course, Mandelblit pointed out that he had signaled he would make a decision by February, before the Prime Minister declared early elections and dared the attorney-general to back-off.
Mandelblit, who slow-walked the investigations against Netanyahu for years, is no longer willing to play-ball.
(12.03.2019)
According to a statement by Israel’s Ministry of Justice yesterday, Mandelblit has “decided to accept the request of the prime minister’s attorneys to delay the delivery of investigation materials in the cases related to the prime minister until after the election date [on 9 April],” Haaretz reported.
The statement added that Netanyahu had made the request “out of concern that evidentiary material could leak to the media and potentially affect public sentiment” ahead of the election.
The looming indictments have made Netanyahu more amenable to pressure than ever
Israel’s Attorney General has told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that there will be no delay over his corruption indictment, despite his legal team’s attempts to stall the process.
In the past, pre-indictment hearings in cases of a similar scope have dragged on for more than a year.
Once Netanyahu’s hearing is over, Mendelblit will reconvene the approximately 20 prosecutors he has consulted on the case and make a final decision on whether to leave the indictment unchanged, soften the charges or scrap them altogether.
Justice Hanan Melcer cites testimonies by Likud officials based on hidden cameras; calls on Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit to launch an investigation
The new Netanyahu government will have two main goals: Get rid of the indictments looming in his future, and annex the settlements to Israel, in coordination with the Trump administration
If Benjamin Netanyahu manages to bribe his way to a ramshackle, immunity-from-prosecution coalition after his borderline showing in Tuesday’s election, we will all know one thing for sure: Israel has become a dictatorship.
You need look no further than his Election Day obscenities of voter fraud and voter suppression.
Aluf Avichai Mandelblit (Hebrew: אביחי מנדלבליט; born 29 June 1963) is an Israeli jurist who currently serves as the Attorney General of Israel. Mandelblit had a long career in the Israel Defense Forces legal system, eventually serving as the Chief Military Advocate General between 2004 and 2011. On April 2013 he was appointed Cabinet Secretary.[1] In February 2016, he was appointed Attorney General.
On February 28, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced his intentions to indict …
It’s impossible to overestimate the gravity of the so-called “French law” in its proposed Israeli version. It would mean the total disintegration, the absolute shattering of the rules of the game, a thuggish, Mafioso act, an obscenity against democracy. Personal, retroactive legislation (a decision to try Netanyahu, subject to a hearing, already exists) that would intervene in a legal procedure and turn the government of Israel into a sanctuary city for criminals.
A network of hundreds of social media accounts has been working to boost Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s re-election campaign and smear his opponents ahead of next week’s election, the New York Times and Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Monday, citing a report by a watchdog group.
Blue and White leader lashes out after report says fake Facebook, Twitter network operating to promote prime minister’s reelection on April 9; party says it has filed complaint with police
Aluf Avichai Mandelblit (Hebrew: אביחי מנדלבליט; born 29 June 1963) is an Israeli jurist who currently serves as the Attorney General of Israel. Mandelblit had a long career in the Israel Defense Forces legal system, eventually serving as the Chief Military Advocate General between 2004 and 2011. On April 2013 he was appointed Cabinet Secretary.[1] In February 2016, he was appointed Attorney General.
An Israeli watchdog group has found a network of hundreds of social media accounts, many of them fake, used to smear opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in next week’s election and to amplify the messages of his Likud party, according to a report to be released Monday.
The messages posted on the network’s Twitter and Facebook accounts are frequently reposted by prominent Likud campaign officials and by the prime minister’s son, Yair Netanyahu, the report says.
According to the findings of the Big Bots Project, this network has posted more than 130,000 times in Hebrew on Facebook and Twitter – posts that have had 2.5 million hits in Israel. These posts have the sole purpose of praising Netanyahu and spreading false information about his rivals, primarily his main challenger Benny Gantz, the former IDF chief who leads the Blue and White Party.
Yair Netanyahu, the son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called the police “Gestapo” when he was questioned as a suspect in the favorable-news-coverage affair last year, Israel’s Channel 13 News reported Monday.
In the affair, known as „Case 4000,“ Netanyahu allegedly took steps that benefited Shaul Elovitch, who controlled telecom giant Bezeq, in return for favorable coverage in Bezeq’s Walla News website.
(18.3.2019)
Even if Iran really turns out to be responsible, it does not amount to more than an embarrassment, Pardo said. „Anybody who understands anything about cyber security knows that if somebody wants to do harm – illegitimately and unethically – they can disseminate fake, fabricated information – and go prove that it’s wrong.“
(18.3.2019)
“He was supposed to protect his phone. That is his personal failure. If Gantz can’t protect his phone, how will he protect the country?” Netanyahu asked. “Second, Gantz and Lapid supported the dangerous nuclear deal with Iran, the deal that I fought and I am glad that I acted successfully to convince the president of the US to leave and to renew sanctions on Iran.”
Speaking at a joint press conference with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Netanyahu responded to the report about Gantz’s request that the Shin Bet investigate, saying,“They [Kahol Lavan] are trying to drag the Mossad, that magnificent organization that protects Israeli security, into the political discourse. That mustn’t be done, and I don’t plan to let it pass. The leaks about Gantz came from the headquarters of [Yesh Atid Chairman Yair] Lapid and Gantz, so I am calling on them to show responsibility, be statesmanlike, and leave the Mossad and the Shin Bet out of politics. We have enough things to fight about.”
Israelische Ermittlungen erreichen trotz Blockade der Bundesregierung Deutschland
“You can scream till you’re blue in the face that it’s the end of democracy, but until 2005 this was the law of the land,” Smotrich said. He’s not lying – a law provided immunity from prosecution to MKs, including the prime minister, with the lifting of such immunity requiring a Knesset majority. But he’s playing innocent.
(29.1.2019)
(29.3.2019)
Mandelblit wrapped up his investigation in Case 3000 months ago, concluding that Netanyahu was not involved in influence peddling in the sale of submarines by the German company ThyssenKrupp to Israel. Interest in the case was revived after state witness Miki Ganor last week recanted his testimony, that he had bribed several officials to agree to the purchase.
(24.3.2019)
The Jerusalem Post has also spoken to sources indicating that one reason Netanyahu might have gone along with the Egypt deal was that it was expected that Egypt would succeed in acquiring submarines. In that case, it was preferred that they acquire a design Israel was familiar with as opposed to a less familiar design from Japan, France, South Korea or others.
(14.1.2018)
Netanyahu allegedly accepted favors in corrupt deals with a series of people, while he promised and in some cases provided something in return. He cannot continue as prime minister of Israel for even one day beyond what’s required.
(19.1.2019)
Benny Gantz and the other leaders of the Blue and White party have already declared they will not join a government if Netanyahu heads it, because the attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, has declared his intent to indict Netanyahu.
Netanyahu said Saturday that he hadn’t informed the security establishment because there are ‚things that even the defense minister and the chief of staff don’t need to know‘ but claimed he has told the AG – who now denies it
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied any financial connection to the sale of German submarines to Egypt on Saturday evening and said his reasons for approving the sale are „state secrets.“ In addition, Netanyahu admitted that the decision was made without the involvement of the defense minister and the chief of staff.
The stench in the submarine affair is colossal. According to many former defense establishment officials, not necessarily among the leaders of Kahol Lavan, this is one of the biggest corruption cases in the country’s history. Netanyahu opened yet another Pandora’s box when in his request for funding, it turned out he made huge profits from an investment in shares, the approval of which raises big questions, to say the least.