Israel’s attorney General will press charges against Prime Minister Netanyahu. This has yet to be a hearing confirmed, but it could have an impact on the election in April. Tania Krämer, Jerusalem.
For two years, investigators have determined in the context of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for corruption. There was, therefore, not necessarily surprising for most Israelis, as the attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on Thursday its intention fact, Netanyahu, in three corruption cases, to indict. Embezzlement, fraud and bribery is the charge subject to change.
Details about the cases were already read previously in the press – but now, six weeks before the early elections, was also the time political. For now the question of whether the tribal voters Netanyahu’s letting it affect.
A whole Armada of legal experts in the office of the attorney General had gone in the past few months, again, the investigation files to verify the recommendations of the police. Had tested for two years, facts and witnesses interrogated, and charged with three corruption cases, recommended. The Federal Prosecutor General Mandelblit came to the conclusion, Netanyahu for bribery in the so-called “case of 4000” to indict.
Attorney General Mandelblit: “embezzlement, fraud and bribery,”
It is a question of alleged collusion between Shaul Elovitch, a Shareholder of telecommunications giant Bezeq, which, in turn, positive reporting to the company’s own Internet news portal “Walla” is. Netanyahu also communications Minister was at the time.
In two other suspected cases of the Premier should be charged with embezzlement and fraud – because of the acceptance of luxurious gifts from businessmen and another case of influence on the more “positive” reporting in the case of one of Israel’s largest daily Newspapers.
Difficult time due to election date
The decision is provisional: According to Israeli law, the Suspect has the right to a hearing. Until it happens, but can take several months. This is also why Netanyahu criticized the approach. The Premier speaks of a conspiracy of the “Left” to want the government to take over and an attempt to influence the election. The Prosecutor General’s office had given in to pressure from the media, Netanyahu said, and pointed all the blame.
“From a legal standpoint, the attorney General had communicated to no other choice as his decision now, and that was a few days before the election, but for several weeks,” says Guy Lurie, a researcher at the “Israel Democracy Institute”. This is due to the professionalism of the office. Mandelblit explained also in an unusually transparent manner, the positions of decision-making, which were published in a multi page document.
Expert Lurie: “the attorney General had no other choice”
Benjamin Netanyahu had decided in December, originally scheduled for November 2019 planned choice is preferable. At the time, he has all the chances to be with his national-religious right Alliance once again Prime Minister.
After all, 42 percent of Israelis believe that the time of the announcement by the attorney General as problematic, so the latest polls. A third of respondents, however, would see again, like the immediate resignation of Netanyahu. Also among passers-by in Jerusalem, the mood is mixed: “of Course it was important, that made the attorney General his decision before the election,” says, for example, Simona Biron. “Why should I choose someone who is corrupt. I hope the election brings us something New.”
Another Passerby who prefers to remain anonymous, says Avichai Mandelblit would have been better until after the elections to wait, since it is already so little trust in the judicial rule, and this could be seen as interference in the policy. The decision to have influenced his opinion but nevertheless, He had supported “Netanyahu, but now probably not so strong,” he says.
Prime Minister Netanyahu: “conspiracy of the Left”
Also tourist guide, Moshe finds the date of publication is problematic, but ultimately due to the fact that Netanyahu had pushed for the early elections. “It could affect the people were quite sure to choose the Likud and tend to be now more of Gantz and Lapid,” he says. Moshe finds that Netanyahu is a good Prime Minister, but there were apparently problems. “I think it is never good when a Person and a government are in Power for too long, which is good for a democracy.”
Survey hits deep Likud
First impact on the results of the election were already seen on Friday night in the evening news: For the question, for whom is Israeli, your voice would make, if today, elections would be lost to Netanyahu’s Likud party between six and seven seats.
To date, stand for the right Block, so in fact, the merger of Likud with the ultra-right, national-religious and Orthodox parties, never in question, even in the event of a loss of a comfortable majority of 61 of the 120 Knesset seats. But too many voices must not lose sight of Netanyahu. At the end of the Israeli electoral system is a matter of who has the best chance to form a coalition government. It is also questionable whether, with increasing political pressure Netanyahu’s coalition partners for him to actually hold all the Faithful.
Of these votes, the new center-right Alliance benefits, according to the survey, “Blue-White” of the former Army chief Benny Gantz. The had already achieved in the past few weeks, high poll numbers and, together with its Alliance partner, Yair Lapid of the future of the party as the most promising Challenger to Netanyahu’s established.
Netanyahu Challenger Gantz and Lapid: “A sad day for Israel”
With the words “Israel deserves Better” was Gantz, who has long served under Netanyahu as the chief of the General staff, is responding to the notice. It was a “sad day for Israel” and Netanyahu should be in office to rest, at least until his guilt or innocence was resolved. Yet, it is also unclear whether the blue-and-white Alliance gets enough seats in the Knesset to form a coalition.
According to Israeli law, Netanyahu can remain in spite of the proceedings against him to continue in office and re-run. The case of Netanyahu for the Israeli justice, is a precedent, because for the first time a Prime Minister is under indictment intention, is still in office. As the former head of government Ehud Olmert in 2008 under suspicion of corruption, it was kicked back before the indictment announcement – the political pressure was to become too large.