After three years of investigations by Israeli state police and prosecutors, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced on Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be charged with breach of trust, bribery, and fraud arising from three separate cases.
It’s a dog’s breakfast of allegations, among them that Hollywood producer Aaron Milchan provided Netanyahu with the finest Cohiba cigars and pink champagne, delivered to their various homes on a regular basis in return for regulatory and legal “accommodations.” Mandelblit also alleged that Netanyahu colluded with media magnates to ensure favorable coverage even while arranging for new regulations that would hamper the media competition.
It is icky stuff, far beneath the stature of any public servant, and particularly someone with the intelligence and ability of Netanyahu. Power tends to corrupt, and if these allegations are proven in court, Netanyahu’s demise will stand out as particularly tragic self-immolation.
He and his acolytes in Likud have denigrated the police and “the left” for conspiring to ensure his downfall. There is no love lost between Likud and pretty much everyone else (except for the ultra-orthodox) involved in Israeli political life, but such conspiracy theories push the bounds of hysteria and credibility.
Israelis go to the polls on April 9. Likud made a last-ditch attempt on Thursday to block any indictment before that date, but it was rejected by the court. Netanyahu’s counsel argued that indictments would undermine the legitimacy of election results. Mandelblit shot back with a blistering retort: “You have hurt the image of public service and public faith in it. You acted in a conflict of interest, you abused your authority while taking into account other considerations that relate to your personal interests and the interests of your family. You corrupted public servants working under you.”
Likud responded with worn repetitions of its consistent position: This is a leftist plot to bring down the government, being aided and abetted by a weak AG who capitulated to the unrelenting pressure put upon him.
Upon learning of the imminent indictments, former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, now leading the centrist bloc “Blue and White” party and the main challenger to Likud in the elections, stated he would not join a coalition government in which Netanyahu sat.
One of Netanyahu’s most bellicose and loyal supporters, Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev, responded to the bombshell by helping a woman advance her claim that Gantz exposed himself to her while they were both teenagers. Jacobs’s trauma was triggered only recently when she learned that Gantz had a shot at becoming the next PM. Apparently, Gantz’s promotion to Chief of the IDF years ago did nothing to ruffle her sensitivities.
Israeli politics is a notoriously murky cesspool, but this episode seems a little dirtier, uglier, more pungent. It involves hundreds of individuals, more than a handful of ruined lives and careers, and a lot of collateral damage.
Most worrisome is how it further sullies public office and the very noble and important work that so many fine people do in these positions. We tend to remember the scandal, tumbles from grace, corruption. We forget quiet competence.
Should Netanyahu be indicted and found guilty of one or more charges, it will also mark the downfall of a man of towering intellect, ability and, I believe, boundless devotion to the well-being of the state of Israel—a man who lost his way.
