Why are the Netanyahu probes taking so long?

There is standard practice in Israel. It’s weak, but it definitely exists: Criminal investigations against a prime minister are completed quickly.

That’s what happened in the “Bar-On Hebron” scandal in 1997. The affair was first revealed by journalist Ayala Hasson on Channel 1 in late January, and by late April the attorney general and the state attorney had already decided to close the case. They invented the term “a public report.”

The investigation into former Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s party-funding affair took much longer, but at no stage was there a recommendation to indict Barak, and he stepped down in any event in early 2001.

Netanyahu (L) doesn’t want and isn’t demanding a quick decision in his cases; Mandelblit, it seems, isn’t interested in making a quick decision (Photo: Marc Israel Sellem)

In October 2003, in the Greek island affair involving Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his son Gilad, police recommended against an indictment. State Attorney Edna Arbel was in favor of an indictment, but Attorney General Menachem Mazuz closed the case in April 2004.

In the cash envelopes and Rishon Tours affairs, which led to Ehud Olmert’s resignation, Mazuz made a decision to indict the prime minister within four to 10 months, respectively.

It’s acceptable to say, and this is what the current attorney general’s associates are saying, that in this kind of investigations you have to “check every lead,” “leave no stone unturned,” and other clichés. In reality, this is what is happening: Cases 1000 and 2000 have been going on for more than a year. The “examination” processes ahead of the decision to launch an investigation took a long time; Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit was looking into the recordings of the prime minister and the Yedioth Ahronoth publisher for months without doing a thing.

Now that the investigations have been completed, we are being told that further probes will be needed, and then there will be a gradual process at the State Attorney’s Office and at the attorney general’s office, which may take nine to 12 months. Considering the fact that every investigation activity in these cases is supervised by representatives from the State Attorney’s Office, and that some activities require the attorney general’s approval, why does it have to take so long?

This is a major question. In my opinion, there is no factual basis to the harsh accusations that Mandelblit isn’t being loyal to his job. But one thing is certain: Both he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have a clear tactic of avoiding quick decisions. Netanyahu doesn’t want and isn’t demanding (and he knows how to demand) a quick decision in his cases; and Mandelblit, it seems, isn’t interested in making a quick decision. There is time, and permission is granted.

In the affairs that led to Ehud Olmert’s resignation, then-Attorney General Mazuz made a decision to indict the prime minister within four to 10 months (Photo: AP)

Well, there is no time. Israel is being plunged into strong whirlpools that are undermining the public’s faith in its institutions, diverting the attention from genuinely important matters (like the military preparations in the north) and, most importantly, splitting the Israeli society. The dynamic, in which the head of the system is subject to several criminal investigations, is leading Israel to a dangerous swamp. If the prime minister is convicted, he is expected to receive a jail sentence; a state can’t be run reasonably this way.

Years ago, even before the police recommended indicting Olmert, I wrote that even if he is capable of bringing about a peace agreement—he must resign in light of corruption suspicions. Netanyahu should have resigned too, but unlike Olmert, he enjoys significant public support, as well as the support of many spineless and scared politicians. They like criticizing him off the record, but won’t voice their criticism in public.

Netanyahu is the first person who should have stood up and demanded a decision in his investigations, but he is playing for time. There is an unfunny joke about a veterinarian who is forced to cut off a dog’s tail. Don’t worry, he tells the dog’s owner, we’ll try to make it painless—we’ll remove one piece every month over the course of a year.

The attorney general must restore the healthy and necessary practice of avoiding foot-dragging, and make a quick and efficient decision on whether to indict the prime minister or not. Not within a year, and not within six months. Israel can’t afford the current madness.

Nadav Eyal is Channel 10's chief international correspondent.

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Just another dangerous chapter in the ongoing Syrian tragedy

Many people had their hopes pinned on the eradication of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria, assuming that once the goal is reached, the war in the country would come to an end.

But the Syrian reality points to an opposite trend: old rivalries between the players that enlisted to fight ISIS—the United States, Russia, Iran, the Assad regime, Turkey and the Kurds—are taking center stage again.

The process for an agreement in Syria was promoted on three different diplomatic channels: in Astana—led by Russia, Iran and Turkey—in Geneva—led by the United Nations—and in Sochi—led by Russia—and neither bore any fruit.

Seeing that the military and diplomatic agreement is stuck, the Syrian regime is brutally bombing areas held by the opposition. President Bashar Assad and his partners keep carrying out horrific acts even more intensely against rival organizations, particularly within a civil population—this time in the Ghouta area, east of Damascus.

Destruction in Ghouta. Sadly, the world has gotten used to this situation (Photo: AFP)

Sadly, the world has gotten used to this situation and chooses to stand aloof, turn its head away and accept the violation of Security Council resolutions about a ceasefire.

Developments are now on the regional and international levels. In the past month, countries and world powers have been going head-to-head, waging direct battles. So instead of the conflict dying down and being regulated, we are witnessing an escalation with the potential of expanding into a direct international conflict—rather than merely a proxy war—while igniting some old-new fronts:

US-Russia: In a clash between American forces and Assad regime forces, which tried to cross the Euphrates River in the east, Americans killed some 300 enemy combatants, including Russian “mercenaries.” The incident was denied and silenced in Russia, but the argument that the US presence in Syria is no longer legitimate after ISIS’s defeat made a huge impact.

The report about the deployment of Russia’s modern stealth aircraft in Syria is also advancing a clear agenda against the US presence there. Moreover, it is challenging other armies in the region, particularly the IDF, and raising questions about the prospect of preventing an Israeli-Russian clash in Syrian skies.

Another cause of tension between Washington and Moscow is the American declarations about a future response following the Assad regime’s chemical weapon attacks.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley votes for a ceasefire resolution in Syria (Photo: EPA)

Turkey-Russia: Turkey has been involved in Syria since the beginning of the fighting in the country, mostly indirectly. Ankara’s demand to dismiss Assad was rejected both by Tehran and by Moscow. The establishment of an autonomous Kurdish district in Afrin—an area controlled by PYD, a Kurdish organization affiliated with the Turkish-Kurd PKK party, which is listed as a terror organization in Turkey—was seen as a red line by the Turks, who invaded Syria in early February as part of Operation Olive Branch.

An interesting turn of events took place when the Kurds received assistance from Assad regime forces, their bitter rivals throughout years of fighting. Now, they are protecting Syrian territory together against the Turkish invasion.

US-Turkey: A potential conflict between two NATO members. a Kurdish-Arab army led the victory over ISIS, with US help, in the Kurdish district east of the Euphrates River. Here, too, the Turks are concerned about the establishment of a Kurdish autonomous region on their southern border. They are threatening to invade it and are expected to clash with the American forces that have remained in the area to support the region’s reconstruction.

Israel-Iran: The day of fighting on February 10 demonstrated the potential for an Israeli-Iranian clash in the northern arena, involving Syria and Hezbollah. Iran’s determination to keep entrenching itself in Syria, and Israel’s determination to stop it, are dangerously explosive, especially once the Assad forces and Tehran begin to restore their rule in the southern Syrian Golan Heights, and of course if the Iranians fulfill their intention to build an industry of precision-guided ballistic missiles in Syria and in Lebanon.

All the forces of power in Syria—both the internal and the external ones—have proved recently that they are willing to get to the verge and go way beyond it: To use military force, to ignore UN resolutions and mediation and stabilization efforts and to keep trying to promote their interests.

In a battle with so many players who are willing to act directly against their rivals, 2018 doesn’t mark the end of the war in Syria. It’s the beginning of another dangerous chapter in the tragedy taking place on our northern border.

Major-General (res.) Amos Yadlin is the director of Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) and served as head of the IDF's Military Intelligence Directorate.

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We need a clear answer from Mandelblit

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Op-ed: The attorney general must reveal whether he was asked for his opinion on the Sara Netanyahu case by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or anyone on his behalf before being appointed; if it turns out he failed to report such an appeal, he must resign immediately. We need a clear answer from Mandelblit : http://ift.tt/2Cruqqs

Something is rotten in the kingdom of justice

It’s one of the gravest stories that has ever been revealed about the legal system. Perhaps the gravest. No one received money from anyone. There were no envelopes. There were no benefits. But the coordination, between a judge and an investigator handling an affair on behalf of the Israel Securities Authority (ISA), is a punch in the face of anyone who cares about the rule of law.

 

The courts system added insult to injury by trying to cover up the severity of the matter. Why? Are we all stupid? Isn’t it clear that this kind of coordination crosses every red line? Wouldn’t it have been simpler and more appropriate to say that something serious had happened and that an investigation was being launched?

Judge Ronit Poznanski-Katz. Nothing should be taken for granted anymore (Photo: Yariv Katz)

And what else don’t we know? Up until now, we wanted to believe that the judicial system was a stronghold of integrity and decency with absolutely no prejudice. Granted, there have been requests to disqualify judges in the past. Granted, there is some serious and profound criticism—sometimes justified—against rulings. But coordination between the judge and one of the sides?

“Perhaps the plan we thought about is not so far from reality,” the judge writes to the attorney. Excuse me? What plan? What exactly did they agree on? What’s going on here?

Last week, following reports that former judge Hila Gerstel got a proposal to nix cases and failed to report it, and that Judge Esther Hayut—who went on to become the Supreme Court chief justice—was informed about the incident but kept quiet, and that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit may have also received a corrupt proposal and failed to report it, I wrote an article about our suspicions being exaggerated. I wrote that we are talking about honest people and that there is no need to attribute certain offenses to them because of some media advisor who raised an immature idea, and nothing came out of it.

On Sunday evening I shelved the article, as it seems I may have been wrong. Something is rotten in the kingdom of justice. When the legal system tries to cover up the new affair, as the correspondence lies before our eyes, it raises concerns that there have been other affairs and other cover ups.

And the following question sneaks in: If Gerstel was so shocked by the proposal she received, why didn’t she complaint to the police in real time? Why did she keep silent? Why did she only tell her friend Hayut and Channel 10 CEO Golan Yochpaz?

If former Judge Hila Gerstel (L) was so shocked by the proposal she received, why did she only tell her friend, Judge Esther Hayut, instead of complaining to the police? (Photo: Yair Sagi)

In light of “the plan we thought about,” in a correspondence between a senior attorney and a remand judge, in addition to the legal system’s amazing response, the suspicions against Gerstel, Hayut and Mandelblit suddenly take on a whole new dimension.

Admittedly, there have been rumors among lawyers about allegedly troubling ties between attorneys and judges. And not just rumors. Judges attend lawyers’ events, they exchange secrets and jokes. After all, it’s hard to let go of past relations. Friendly relations develop even as part of routine work. It’s human. But one can be confidant that judges won’t rule in favor of one of the sides because they are acquainted with the lawyer. At least that’s what we wanted to believe. But nothing should be taken for granted anymore.

There is no need to make generalizations. We can and should assume that the absolute majority of judges do their job faithfully. But Judge Ronit Poznanski-Katz and the system’s response managed to undermine the public’s faith in the legal system more than all efforts undertaken by the enemies of the rule of law. From now on, all judges will be considered suspects.

Channel 10’s amazing revelation has nothing to do with the suspicions in Case 4000. Nothing. But the revelation itself raises questions. How did the correspondence reach Channel 10 News? Are the people involved in the affair being followed? And what else will be revealed in the coming days?

That was in the bad days, before the really bad days, poet Natan Zach once wrote. We are clearly in the bad days. Let’s pray that the really bad days don’t arrive.

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Trump and Netanyahu: You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours

WASHINGTON—US President Donald Trump’s decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem and give Israel a gift for its 70th birthday put an end to the United States’ ability to serve as a decent mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

 

The crisis between Washington and Ramallah is deeper than ever, and while the Arab world may not be sacrificing itself for the Palestinians, it sees the US protecting the Israeli interest, as a world power which has lost its ability to lead the world.

The “deal of the century”—peace between Israel and the Palestinians and a general reconciliation between Israel and Arab states—won’t happen.

As far as Trump and Netanyahu are concerned, the investigations they are embroiled in are the result of envy, political scores and a failure to understand that they are God’s gift to the nation (Photo: Reuters)

The embassy won’t really move to Jerusalem in May. An office facility will be prepared for the ambassador and his small team. But this symbolism is seen as giving Israel a big cuddle while giving the entire world the finger. And that’s a bad thing for Israel.

Jerusalem is Israel’s capital even without a designated office for the US ambassador. United Jerusalem is also the most explosive issue between the sides. There is a reason they decided over the decades to make it the final issue of the negotiations.

Jerusalem isn’t just a “technical” capital. It’s a historic city which evokes emotions, a heavenly and earthly city, a city of spirit and sacredness and of a serious political dispute.

In his decision to strike Jerusalem first, Trump dealt a final blow to any future agreement. He likely understands that, yet his actions aren’t directed at the world but at his political base—the evangelicals and the right-wing voters who see the embassy move as coming full circle and as proof that he is indeed the man who will fix things after Barack Obama.

Trump doesn’t have Jerusalem in mind, however, but rather the upcoming Congressional elections. As far as he’s concerned, it means more votes for the Republican candidates.

The American Consulate in Jerusalem. Both Trump and Netanyahu are appealing to their political base with the embassy move (Photo: Atta Awisat)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet Trump in Washington next week. It will be a show of mutual affection and sugar-coated praise.

Trump is not the only one appealing to his political base on the Jerusalem issue. It’s mainly Netanyahu, who has now received a very precious gift. Now, he can convey an even stronger message to his voters: I am the only leader who has scored such a diplomatic achievement for Israel. All the investigations are a diversion from the important stuff. At this time, you have no better statesman than me.

Never before have we had a situation in which an Israeli prime minister and an American president looked like conjoined twins at the same point in time: Trump is up to his neck in the Russiagate investigations, as the number of state’s witnesses against him is growing and the suspicions are closing in on him, just like in Netanyahu's case.

Just last weekend, Trump’s former campaign adviser signed an agreement with the FBI, and to save his skin he will testify about what took place in Trump’s election campaign. Another indictment has been filed against the former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, with multiple charges. If he is convicted, he is expected to spend many years in jail. The investigators are trying to turn him into a state’s witness too.

Both Trump and Netanyahu are downplaying the offenses and the corruption, using the exact same words: A witch hunt, hostile media. Neither of them is a lame duck by definition, as their time in power isn’t limited: Netanyahu isn’t even considering resigning or taking a leave of absence, and neither is Trump. But they both definitely look like ducks on a string, swinging in the winds of the investigation, each with his own investigations. And if they aren’t subdued by the multiple suspicions, they are both planning another term in office.

Trump isn’t as smart as Netanyahu. He is much more vulgar than him, and mainly ignorant. But right now, they look like twin leaders: As far as they’re concerned, the investigations they are embroiled in are the result of envy, jealousy, political scores and the investigators’ failure to understand that they are outstanding leaders, God’s gift to the nation.

They are both being persecuted to the same extent, and they will both try to make the most of their joint performance in Washington for their own political and personal purposes. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours, with a wink.

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Text messages won’t erase the evidence

The judge and the attorney are finished. They can’t keep their jobs, not for a single minute.

In light of the tempestuous and sensitive public atmosphere, the disappointment caused by the childish behavior of Judge Ronit Poznanski-Katz and the Israel Securities Authority investigator cannot be downplayed. In addition to polluting the investigation, they seriously damaged the integrity of the law enforcement system and the justice system.

Judge Ronit Poznanski-Katz (L) and attorney Eran Shacham-Shavit. Can't keep their jobs (Photo: Motti Kimchi, Yariv Katz)

But the spin is as big as the flop. The politicians and their sycophants are eagerly grasping this story, hoping it will lead to the eradication of all investigations in the different cases plaguing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Because of an exchange of text messages—as foolish and as faulty as it may be—they are trying to erase mountains of testimonies, documents and evidence about millions of shekels that were moved from here to there.

Well, we should put things back in proportion and pull the handbrake, before the train of investigations disintegrates into a dark abyss of populism and lies. All the comments we heard from politicians Sunday night, which sprung up like mushrooms after the rain to undermine the legitimacy of all investigators and all judges, are one big spin. A concise message box saying: Destroy Case 4000.

Indeed, this affair fell into their hands like ripe fruit, and they are mercilessly sinking their teeth into it. And if, while doing so, they are intentionally increasing the lack of faith in all of the kingdom’s institutions—so be it. No matter how much it costs.

So let’s pour cold water on this instigation and simply say that there is one truth under the veil of folly exposed Sunday evening: Police investigators and ISA investigators have collected mountains of evidence, documents, recordings, testimonies and one state’s witness, which are standing firm on their own and have nothing to do with the investigator and judge’s display of stupidity.

No matter how many lies they try to tell the public, Case 4000 is by all standards one of the biggest corruption affairs in the history of the State of Israel. The Walla! CEO’s recordings have nothing to do with the judge, and neither does state witness Shlomo Filber’s purifying testimony.

The judge’s conduct is troubling and outrageous, but it’s sadder and much worse to see the eagerness of deceptive politicians to destroy the entire legal system to rescue a few corrupt people from the hands of justice. Allegedly, of course. Allegedly.

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Israel’s entire legal system has been polluted

The blow brought upon the legal system Sunday evening is bigger, and more painful, than the identity of the judge who will determine the fate of the detainees in Case 4000. It isn’t just one case that was polluted—it’s the entire system.

 

There is no law, there is no justice in a system where a judge lets the state representative guide her on the number of days she should keep suspects in custody. There is no law, there is no justice in a system where a judge exchanges messages with a representative of one side of a legal proceeding, receives classified information from him and agrees to act surprised upon receiving the information in court.

Judge Poznanski-Katz (L) and attorney Shacham-Shavit. Scored an own goal (Photo: Motti Kimchi, Yariv Katz)

On Sunday evening, after the correspondence was revealed by Channel 10 News, Judge Ronit Poznanski-Katz and her WhatsApp partner, attorney Eran Shacham-Shavit, were both removed from Case 4000. Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut and Justice Ministry Ayelet Shaked announced they would file a complaint with the Ombudsman for Complaints against Judges. The judge was placed on leave until a clarification of the matter. The state attorney put Shacham-Shavit on leave too. Eventually, there will be no escape from a police investigation.

The system should be given credit for its quick response. On the other hand, one can’t help but wonder who are these people and how could such a scandal occur.

Allegedly—and I stress, allegedly—the WhatsApp chat between Poznanski-Katz and Shacham-Shavit can be seen as an offense according to two articles of the Penal Law: Obstruction of legal proceedings and improper influence on judicial decision-making.

This is how the law describes obstruction of justice: If a person does anything with the intention to prevent or foil a judicial proceeding or to cause a miscarriage of justice, then he is liable to three to seven years imprisonment. This is how the law describes improper influence: If a person endeavors to influence the result of a judicial proceeding in an improper manner, by inducements or by a request addressed to a judge or Court officer, he is liable to one year imprisonment.

Allegedly, the exchange of text messages between the judge and the attorney is doing just that: Foiling a judicial proceeding, causing a miscarriage of justice, addressing a judge in an attempt to influence her.

My suggestion is that instead of thinking about Shaul Elovitch the tycoon, who is seen as public enemy, we each think about ourselves, about our acquaintances, about our relatives. Anyone could find himself in court, either as an accuser or as a culprit, as a plaintiff or as a defendant. If the public reaches the conclusion that it’s all fixed, we will no longer have a legal system, because without faith there is no law.

Shaul Elovitch in court. Detention can’t serve as an alternative to a proper legal proceeding (Photo: Yaron Brener)

In Israel, there is extra leniency towards the denial of suspects’ freedom. Remand judges sometimes act like rubber stamps: The State Attorney’s Office and the police file a request, and the judge accepts it.

People are detained not only because they may be a threat to others, or because they may conceal evidence, but also to get them to break down. That’s wrong. It’s wrong even if the suspect is guilty of every single suspected offense. Detention can’t serve as an alternative to a proper legal proceeding.

The ongoing detentions in Case 4000 caused discomfort even before Shacham-Shavit and Poznanski-Katz's text messages were revealed. Even if the detainees’ complaints about having fleas in their beds or being denied a shower were somewhat exaggerated, the arrests themselves were enough to raise questions. There are no good explanations for why one person is arrested for many days, while another person is only detained for questioning or is questioned under comfortable conditions. The only positive outcome of the text messages’ exposure is that the detainees will likely be released.

Up until Sunday evening, it was pretty clear who are the sons of light and who are the sons of darkness in this story. Today, it’s not as clear. In sports terms, the judge and the attorney scored an own goal in a decisive match, when the game was tied, at the very last minute.

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Ahed Tamimi case is all about cowardice and defeatism

What should we do with Ahed Tamimi? If I had to write an essay on “how to make Israel foolishly lose a PR war against the entire world in order to gain a few votes in the next elections,” this is what I would write about.

I would describe what our politicians did with the slap and the kick a 16-year-old blonde girl gave an IDF officer who entered her house’s backyard in the village of Nabi Salih about two months ago.

As an IDF officer in regular and reserve service, I was often in charge of soldiers who had to disperse protests or deal with hostile residents in the villages and cities of Judea and Samaria. After seeing the video if the slap, and as someone who knows what kind of delusional scenarios can be created within minutes under these conditions, I can tell you that the officer and the non-commissioned officer who was with him acted commendably. They did exactly what I would expect IDF fighters to do.

Ahed Tamimi in court (Photo: Reuters)

Because an IDF officer doesn’t just have to be an officer, dear politicians; he has to be a gentleman too. And a gentleman must be able to take a slap from a girl, and even a kick, without responding. That’s the way it is. What a shame that our fiery defense minister, who was discharged from the IDF with the rank of corporal after fearlessly serving in the army as a quartermaster (sorry, I couldn’t help myself), doesn’t know what a captain and a staff sergeant in the IDF know.

So for the information of Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who is very fond of the death sentence, and for the information of the prosecutors and judges at the Ofer Military Court, here’s what I think we should do with Ahed Tamimi, who is being held by us in custody until the completion of the legal proceedings:

She should be taken without any delay to the home of the parents of the officer she slapped and should be seated on the sofa in the living room. His mother should offer her coffee and cake and make sure she finishes everything on her plate. Then, they should show her the family albums, with pictures of the young officer as a child and as a youth her age. And then she should be sent home. That’s it.

I know, this is a minority opinion. Here are seven reasons why I think this is the right thing to do, instead of all the nonsense we have already done, and are set to do, with Ahed Tamimi.

1. A country which panics and rages and is irritated by a slap and a kick is a country with a glass jaw. Israel is a nuclear power (according to foreign reports), and it’s incapable of dealing with a slap and a kick? If we get so stressed out by such a viral video, what will we do when we have missiles flying over our heads, possibly very soon, some even hitting their targets occasionally?

2. More than 1.7 million people from all around the world, mostly women, have signed a petition in the Avaaz website calling on Israel to free Ahed Tamimi immediately. Each of these signatures is another achievement for those who are not only undermining the occupation, but also Israel’s right to exist as an independent state in the Middle East. And we are foolishly playing into their hands.

Tamimi and her mother preparing for a protest in 2012 (Photo: AFP)

3. We have no chance—and I say this as a psychoanalyst who knows a thing or two about communications—of winning a PR battle against a pretty blonde girl. That’s just the way it is. There are battles which must not be fought, and this is one of them. A clever English saying advises us to “choose your battles wisely.” You have to know where and when to fight, and where and when not to. It’s what the IDF has done, and is still doing, on the northern front. It’s a shame that when it comes to the Ahed Tamimi issue, our defense minister and prime minister are only looking at the coming elections rather than at the national PR effort.

4. And what exactly did you want Tamimi to do? To throw rice at our soldiers? To offer them cardamom coffee, together with her mother? After all, they entered their home and settled in their yard, uninvited. That’s why I think there is only one proper Zionist response to what she did—to bring her to the officer and gentleman’s house, have her sit down in the living room and show her once and for all what it means to have a Jewish mother, and what happens to someone who gets into trouble with her. Because for her sake, she better eat up that cake till the very last crumb.

5. And seriously, our panic around the Tamimi affair is blurring the difference between a murder and a protest, and that’s not only foolish but also dangerous. Since Tamimi’s slap, Rabbi Raziel Shevah has been shot to death and Rabbi Itamar Ben Gal has been stabbed to death in Judea and Samaria. But judging from the traffic on the internet and on social media, Tamimi’s act was much worse. And not just on the web. The graffiti “Death penalty for Ahed Tamimi,” which was sprayed in her village in the middle of the night, point not only to cruelty but also to real stupidity in the extreme right-wing camp. It’s no longer just a moral problem, but a cognitive problem as well. Dear settler brothers, it’s time for some self-examination. Some of your children have gone off the rails.

5. I can’t say it any more gently: We have made fools of ourselves in the Tamimi affair. It’s pathetic. An entire country without a sense of humor. Because Ahed Tamimi is neither Anne Frank nor Joan of Arc. Anne Frank was murdered, Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake, and Ahed Tamimi knew very well she was in no danger whatsoever. She wouldn’t dare do what she did to Hamas or ISIS fighters. But the fact that we raided her village in the middle of the night to arrest this dangerous terrorist in a widely-covered operation doesn’t point to national pride but rather to cowardice and defeatism. I’m pretty sure (without knowing if it’s true) that the idea to arrest her didn’t come from the chief of staff or from the Shin Bet director, but from the petrified and hysterical politicians running this state.

7. The bottom line is that hatred cannot be defeated with hatred. Hatred can only be defeated with love. When there is no choice, and there is an imminent life-threatening situation, you shoot quickly and accurately, you shoot to kill. When there is no choice, you use force. In all other cases, you must think very carefully, and only then act. And you mustn’t act from your gut, but from your mind and from your heart. How could we have forgotten that?

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With leader gone, future of struggle against enlistment unclear

Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, the leader of the extremist Jerusalem Faction of the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox sect, left a void in his passing Saturday which many either hope, or fear, may impair the group's struggle against army conscription.

The Faction has been waging their uncompromising war against the draft since the High Court of Justice (HCJ) canceled in September an amendment ratified by the Knesset in 2015 to the Conscription Law, which lowered the annual quota on the number of Haredim required to draft into the IDF.

Anti-draft protest (Photo: Reuters)

It is still unclear who will succeed Auerbach, or whether the Faction's would be able to fully recover from the blow of his passing, but his followers made a point to stress that their struggle against the draft will continue unhindered. Rabbi Avraham Menkes, a spokesman for the Committee to Save the Torah World and a close associate of Rabbi Auerbach, told Ynet this morning that the Rabbi's followers will continue on his path. "It is not a struggle against enlistment, it is the great will of not only of our Rabbi, but of the revelation at Mount Sinai, to be adhering to Torah, to be laboring in Torah study. "It has nothing to do with Rabbi Auerbach, it has to do with all the great sages of Israel from time immemorial. We will always be adhering to the Torah of God and learning the Torah, and we will defend it at all times."

Rabbi Auerbach (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

In recent weeks, after several months of relentless demonstrations and roadblocks, there has been relative calm, with the Faction's protests being put on hold. It is estimated that this was a conscious decision of Rabbi Auerbach's "Committee to Save the Torah World," which stemmed both from tactical considerations and due to their rabbi's precarious medical condition. His sudden death and the slow progress in formulating a new amendment to the Conscription Law in the Knesset, though, are prompting the group to threaten to renew the protests.

Haredi arrested in Anti-draft demonstration (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

The HCJ's annulment is set to come into effect in the coming summer, and with no alternative yet to be formulated, the tight schedule is putting pressure on the Haredi representation in the Knesset. The Council of Torah Sages (represented in the Knesset by the Hassidic faction headed by Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman) hinted last week to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it expects him to approve a replacement legislative amendment on the issue even before its approval in the expected state budget in the coming weeks. The faction's goal is now twofold: to promote the issue to be more prominent on the public's agenda and embarrass the mainstream ultra-Orthodox politicians, portraying them as compromisers and weak.

Rabbi Auerbach's funeral (Photo: EPA)

Kikar Hashabbat Commentator Israel Cohen estimates that the renewal of the protests depends on the ability of Rabbi Auerbach's heir to strive like him for an uncompromising confrontation with the state and his followers' willingness to pay a personal price for it. "Rabbi Shmuel was both an extremist and a very charismatic person," Cohen said. "He was the glue that connected all the rabbis in the Faction. It will be very difficult to find someone who will step into his shoes, but if there is unity, agreement on the successor or heirs and adherence to the goal, it will be possible to at least maintain existing (protocols—ed). "However, as long as there is no heir to Auerbach, it is difficult to know where the struggle is headed."

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Political system entering a state of chaos

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Analysis: The state's witness agreement signed with Communication Ministry Director-General Shlomo Filber has led to a consensus among politicians that the Netanyahu era is coming to its end. Naftali Bennett, who sees himself as the next prime minister, will likely push for elections rather than take part in the formation of an alternative government. Political system entering a state of chaos : http://ift.tt/2Ckw51l

More than they want to destroy Israel, Iranians want to survive

The events of February 10 in Syria took place on the backdrop of the Iranian celebrations marking 39 years since the establishment of the Islamic Republic.

This is a good opportunity to look into the relation between the Iranians’ regular daily activities and the major ideology guiding the unprecedented experiment known as “The Islamic Republic of Iran.” Do tactical actions stem from seminal principles? Not always, of course.

The present time has its own logic and isn’t always attentive or patient towards vision. Having said that, the Iranian presence in Syria and Lebanon can be seen as an ongoing reflection of the ideas that stood at the basis of the Islamic Republic’s foundation.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at a Revolutionary Guards parade (Photo: EPA)

Contrary to what we are used to hear in Israel, these seminal ideas can’t be summed up as the destruction of Israel or a Shiite takeover of the world, and not even as speeding up the arrival of the Shiite messiah, the Mahdi.

The ideological aspect of the Islamic Republic isn’t similar to the major ideologies that shaped the world in the 20th century. This isn’t a well-organized doctrine that just stands there, pure and decisive, and makes reality surrender to its commands. The Islamic Republic’s principles are engrained and forged in reality. For example, the Iranian policy’s basic command—survival.

Since splitting from the Sunni majority community following a dispute over the identity of Prophet Muhammad’s successors, the Shiites have seen survival as a religious commitment. Shiites must do everything possible to keep living, even if it means concealing the Shiite faith within a hostile Sunni environment.

This principle, however, isn’t simply a religious commandment that must be enforced word for word. It is a truth based on life experience which has shaped a conceptual and political tradition. In the Islamic Republic’s case, this principle became all the more important following the first decade in the new state’s life. It was a decade of a heavy and difficult war. The generation leading Iran today, both conservatives and moderates, discovered its commitment to survival in the foxholes of the terrible war with Iraq.

Documentation of the Iranian drone’s interception in Israeli airspace (Photo: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)

The reality of this war made it clear to the Islamic leadership that Iran is alone in the world. This loneliness led to a policy that rejects seclusion and adopts presence and friction.

We sometimes hear about the Iranians’ different time perception. They are either waiting for the messiah or seeking to speed up his arrival as much as possible. Their activities, therefore, cannot be taken at face value. Every activity is a rung in a ladder or a slice of salami, on the way to the complete vision forcing the Iranians to move forward in a certain way.

Because they believe in any activity that fulfills a present interest, this perception asserts, they are also scoring points for the future—redemption or the world to come. But the Shiite thought actually has an opposite intention. The Shiite perception of time is sharp and focused. A minority seeking to survive has no other choice. The present is the present, and its consequences are immediate and serious. The Shiite thought isn’t different in the perception of time, but in the perception of finality.

The religious faith guiding the Iranians sees every activity as creating the following activity. There isn’t a step that can be taken which won’t be followed by additional steps. A final, comprehensive solution to any conflict isn’t part of the Iranian lexicon. The final and absolute belongs to God. Human reality is formed and created ceaselessly.

That doesn’t change the fact that Iran is a threatening enemy, but recognizing the purpose of these ideas must influence the way Israel perceives this threat. For example, in the Israeli response to the Iranian drone launched into Israel. Bombing the control center which the drone was launched from reflects an approach seeking to convey an unequivocal message and draw a red line that must not be crossed.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds up a fragment of the Iranian drone at the Munich Security Conference (Photo: AFP, MSC Munich Security Conference / LENNART PREISS)

T

he same applies to the response of senior Israeli government and IDF officials—there will be no Iranian entrenchment in Syria, there will be no missile factory in Lebanon, there will be no Iranian soldiers in the Golan Heights.

All these demands are important and logical, but the way Israel defines their implementation is limited and actually limits Israel. Let’s take, for example, the issue of soldiers in the Golan Heights. Is Israel really safe only if the soldiers are stationed 60 kilometers away rather than 50? Won’t the Iranians be able to bring allies to the Golan Heights who will provide them with the required intelligence picture, even without having soldiers? The definition of Israeli success is based on meeting clear and defined objectives. But the Iranians aren’t meeting objectives. The Iranians are moving, walking about and creating friction. Any attempt to curb or contain them must consider this seminal rule, which stems from the urge to survive in the region and in a hostile world. The Iranians are moving back and forth and from all directions. They learn as they move and form their interests as they move. Red lines, as the Iranians see it, emphasize their movement advantage. Running water can melt even the most stubborn rock.

Dr. Ori Goldberg, an expert on political theology in the Shiite world, teaches at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya and serves as a research fellow at the Forum for Regional Thinking.

Idan Barir is a research associate at the Forum for Regional Thinking, focusing on Iraq.

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Yes, it’s time for self-examination—by the NIF

Mickey Gitzin, the executive director of the New Israel Fund (NIF), is looking for legitimacy by comparing it to philanthropic foundations in the Right.

In a recent op-ed, he wrote that the NIF was simply “advancing social justice issues,” “opposing the settlements,” “talking” about “prayer rights” and about “the occupation,” and said it was time “for us to go back to talk about values, policy and ideas, focusing on the case in question.”

This disingenuous account is aimed at making us forget that the NIF, which has funded some 850 organizations over the years and spends about NIS 100 million a year, operates as a clear political activist body.

Gitzin. Why are the NIF and its organizations working to tarnish Israel and encouraging decisions and actions against the state? (Photo: Shaul Golan)

Rachel Liel, who Gitzin succeeded as executive director, admitted it when she called the NIF “the real political opposition in Israel.” NIF President Talia Sasson made a similar comment, saying that “the government is acting against its citizens,” but “the civil society and its organizations… will stop it from running wild.”

Liel and Sasson are following in the footsteps of former NIF Executive Director Eliezer Yaari, who wrote following Ehud Barak’s victory over Benjamin Netanyahu in the 1999 elections: “It's impossible to look at what happened and not see the clear fingerprints of the New Israel Fund.”

The NIF, let me remind you, is an American organization. Its conscious activity as an active “political opposition”—which has recently been involved, for example, in protests aimed at toppling Netanyahu and in attempts to thwart the removal of illegal infiltrators—is outrageous.

Nevertheless, that isn’t the most serious problem in my opinion. The real problem is the anti-democratic and anti-Zionist nature of its activity.

This is demonstrated by the NIF in its activity against “the occupation.” The organizations it supports aren’t only working in Israel to convince and voice opinions; they are active around the world as well as anti-Israel agents.

B’Tselem and Breaking the Silence, which are supported by the NIF, are spreading anti-Israel propaganda in the world, releasing distorted and false reports and “testifying” against Israel in committees and conference abroad. Other NIF organizations, like the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and HaMoked, are working to reduce the IDF’s ability to fight terror and are providing terrorists with legal defense.

NIF President Talia Sasson basically admitted that the organization operates as a clear political activist body (Photo: Eldad Rafaeli)

During military operations, NIF-backed organizations rush to the courts to prevent the IDF from operating, while shouting in the foreign media—like the B’Tselem director did at the start of Operation Protective Edge—that “Israel is violating humanitarian international law.”

The NIF also supports anti-Israel organizations that boycott Judea and Samaria, nationalistic Palestinian organizations in Israel that are related to the radical vision document published by the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee, as well as organizations like Mossawa and Adalah (which promotes the right of return, operates against Israel in international institutions and has assisted in an attempt to sue IDF officers abroad).

As far as Gitzin is concerned, this is “a deep reflection of Zionism.” But seriously, why are the NIF and its organizations working to tarnish Israel and encouraging decisions and actions against the state? The answer is that they see Israel as a peace refuser, and are therefore interested in weakening and isolating the state, so it would be forced to give in to international dictations in favor of the Palestinians.

Only a complete fool is incapable of seeing right away that the anti-Israel propaganda and the undermining of Israel’s sovereignty are actually “a deep reflection” of anti-Zionism and a denial of democracy. There is nothing in the right-wing funds that is even similar to such subversive activity.

I do agree with Gitzin on two things: “It’s time to stop this hypocrisy,” and someone here definitely has to undergo a deep and painful “thorough examination.”

Ran Baratz is the founding editor of the Mida website and a former media advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Yair Lapid’s trial of fire

One of Yair Lapid’s main qualities, and even his rivals will agree, is diligence. Admittedly, however, things have come pretty easy for the Yesh Atid leader since he entered politics.

He won 19 Knesset seats in the 2013 elections and easily slipped into the finance minister’s seat. His short term there didn’t leave much of a mark. In the 2015 elections, Yesh Atid lost some Knesset seats, but Lapid landed on his feet. He turned to the opposition and went on to become the biggest political threat to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rule, at least according to current polls.

Lapid. The only one who physically looks like a prime minister (Photo: Amit Shabi)

In the past few weeks, perhaps for the first time in his political career, Lapid has been forced to deal with a “trial of fire.” Two trials, in fact. The first was a report on investigative television program “Uvda” about his good friend and faction member, Yaakov Peri. According to the report, Peri had failed a polygraph test after allegedly leaking information to Shas Minister Aryeh Deri about an investigation against him in the 1990s while Peri served as Shin Bet director.

Lapid chose to ignore the first part of the report. He even released a short statement mocking the people who exposed the findings. The second part, about Peri’s alleged lies regarding his military service, were treated in a completely different manner. After Peri was asked to comment and before the show was even aired, he announced his resignation from the Knesset. God knows what was said in the conversation between Lapid and Peri behind closed doors, but Lapid’s disregard of the first part of the report likely disappeared.

But the Peri affair looks like child’s play (especially as Likud members failed to attack Lapid about it, possibly to avoid embarrassing their coalition partner Aryeh Deri) compared to the second trial Lapid is dealing with now. This is his real leadership test—the fact that his name has been linked to the Netanyahu affairs.

Half an hour before the police published their recommendations in the Netanyahu investigations, Police Spokeswoman Merav Lapidot briefed crime reporters from the different media outlets on the investigation’s findings. When she spoke about the tax exemption law which businessman Arnon Milchan gained from and which, according to the police, Netanyahu had tried to advance in exchange for benefits, Lapidot surprised the reporters by telling them that one of the dozens of witnesses in the affair was none other than former Finance Minister Yair Lapid, who immediately entered the eye of the storm.

Netanyahu, who doesn’t miss a single mistake made by his rivals, enthusiastically grabbed this detail. While Lapid isn’t the key witness in the affair as some people have claimed (there are several witnesses, including senior Finance Ministry workers), the prime minister and his defenders in the Likud party used his testimony to launch an offensive, with Coalition Chairman David Amsalem calling Lapid a “snitch.”

Lapid and Peri. An investigative report led to the former Shin Bet chief’s resignation from the Knesset (Photo: Yogev Atias)

Lapid was in trouble. On the one hand, he definitely doesn’t want to taint the investigation or himself and create the impression that he testified against Netanyahu in an attempt to topple him; on the other hand, he was simply summoned by the police and told the truth. It took him almost 24 hours to come to his senses and release a recorded speech. Amsalem and his friends are “talking like criminals,” he said. “Don’t threaten us.” In these two minutes, Lapid looked like someone who is trying to convey determination but is also alarmed by the situation forced on him. He hadn’t planned the storm, which is just at its inception. Later on, especially if the attorney general decides to file an indictment in Case 1000, Lapid’s trial will intensify, as will the fire. Netanyahu's attack on Lapid wasn’t just a spin for investigation purposes. The prime minister sees the Yesh Atid leader as a real threat to his rule. Lapid is one of the only players in the political system who knows how to speak and physically looks like a prime minister. And one last point: The row sparked by Lapid’s testimony can also be seen as a gift to Zionist Union leader Avi Gabbay. So far, Gabbay’s rivals have said he won’t be able to form a future coalition due to his conflict with Kulanu leader Moshe Kahlon and Yisrael Beytenu leader Avgidor Lieberman. Now, Lapid’s rivals are saying he will have a problem too. “Let’s assume Netanyahu goes home because of him, among other things. Will Likud be able to forgive him and sit in the same government with him?” one of the Likud members has said. Looks like things aren’t going to get boring here.

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The day Netanyahu’s walls of denial broke down

We won’t forget what happened Tuesday. It’s the day the walls of denial broke down. Like in the theater, when a curtain falls on the last act of a play.

It was like watching police cars chase a robber on America’s endless highways. Agitating hours of dramatic and fateful revelations, which are expected to change not only the life of the man sitting by the wheel, but the face of this country.

Tuesday’s revelations were horrific. Everything we knew, or thought we knew, about corruption seemed like nothing compared to what was revealed.

After Filber reveals everything he knows about the man who destroyed every good thing in this country, a deal with Netanyahu seems very unlikely

In the morning, it was the exposure of the identity of the suspects in the Bezeq and Walla affair, who were brought to court for a remand hearing. The suspicions are serious: Bribery, fraud and breach of trust, in an attempt to buy positive and flattering coverage of the Netanyahu family in exchange for benefits worth millions of shekels for Bezeq’s controlling shareholder, Shaul Elovitch.

It seemed to be as corrupt as it could get, until we heard the unbelievable story about the Netanyahu family advisor, Nir Hefetz, who tried to build a deal of an appointment in exchange for an acquittal: Judge Hila Gerstl would be appointed attorney general as long as she promises to close the case against Sara Netanyahu.

This story seems somewhat overblown. The chance that after the 1997 “Bar-On Hebron” affair, Netanyahu was once again behind an attempt to buy an attorney general is nothing but delusional. It seems more like a local initiative by the two advisors, Hefetz and Eli Kamir, who toyed with an idea they were unable to implement. The intoxication of power appears to be a contagious disease: It turns out that after being close to the centers of power for too long, you start believing you have powers too.

The prime minister had a few short hours of grace. Those were the hours after journalist Ben Caspit exposed the Hefetz-Gerstl affair and before Communications Ministry Director-General Shlomo Filber signed a state’s witness agreement.

During those hours, if Netanyahu had good advisors—if he had any advisors left who were not in detention or on their way there—they would have told him: That’s it, it’s over. Go to the attorney general and try to strike a deal with him—you’ll step down and he’ll nix all the legal proceedings against you. Every hour that passes, every affair that is revealed, they would have told him, push you further away from a possible deal. Do it now, before it’s too late.

Those were the hours before Netanyahu's fate was sealed by his confidant, his associate, the man who up until Tuesday seemed to be willing to spend his entire life in jail as long as his master remained unharmed. After the agreement with Filber, the chance for a deal with Netanyahu is slim. After Filber reveals everything he knows about the man who destroyed every good thing in this country, a deal with Netanyahu seems very unlikely.

But on Tuesday evening, before the report that Filber was going to sign a state’s witness agreement, Netanyahu wasn’t ready to give up yet. In a video he published on his Facebook page, he called on Israel’s citizens to have faith in him. I want you to know that I trust you and you can trust me, he said.

Netanyahu on Tuesday. Like a person condemned to death, a moment before being taken to the electric chair, grasping at straws, claiming to be innocent (Photo: AFP)

Compare that appearance to his arrogant and confident appearance at a Likud rally two months ago. “There will be recommendations,” he roared. “So what?” On Tuesday, Netanyahu looked like a person condemned to death a moment before being taken to the electric chair, grasping at straws, claiming to be innocent.

And then Filber came along. After he signed a state’s witness agreement Tuesday night, we are in a completely different situation, very far from the place Netanyahu has been trying to lead us to. After Filber’s testimony, no one can keep hiding behind the statement that we need to wait. Wait for the attorney general, wait for the court, wait for elections. Filber is the tiebreaker. He is the golden piece of evidence.

Do you hear that, Moshe Kahlon? If you live on the same planet as us, if you hear the reports and see the affairs being exposed every few hours, you can no longer evade the situation by keeping silent, by being indifferent, by turning a blind eye.

And you, Naftali Bennett, our education minister, where are you? How long will you keep talking about morals while ensuring that the person who destroyed all systems, who isn’t leaving behind a single good spot that isn’t afflicted with corruption, remains in power?

And you, Ayelet Shaked, our justice minister, what moral authority do you have to appoint judges, to enact laws, to initiate reforms, while standing aloof at this time? Failing to take a stand, avoiding any question which may rock your seat.

And you, the Likud ministers. Small, weak, worthless people. People who are eyeing the premiership, but are watching everything that is going on as if they were just extras in a play, as if it has nothing to do with them. Where are you, Yisrael Katz, Gilad Erdan, Yuli Edelstein, Zeev Elkin?

And you, former Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who keeps tweeting insights on every issue—apart from the real issue: The prime minister’s corruption. Why don’t you have a single insight on the moral lawlessness taking place here?

I can’t remember such a period of weakness, of lack of leadership, as we are experiencing now. People who want to be leaders and are avoiding any ethical comment which might get them in trouble with the prime minister.

I’m thinking about Benny Begin, who visited the grave of his father, former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, this week. How can he keep silent in light of what is happening here? Is he afraid of losing the seat from which he is anyway doing nothing?

In a better world, the prime minister wouldn’t be the only one going home. So would all those who are keeping quiet.

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Israelis helping Poland play with Holocaust denial

In an incidental statement, a syntactic parenthesis, the Polish prime minister revealed the true colors of Poland’s nationalistic government. 

By creating a distorted comparison between the Poles who assisted the Nazis, “perpetrators” as he called them, and saying there were “Ukrainian perpetrators and Jewish perpetrators” as well, he presented the real essence of his party.

 

Nationalist Poland is unprepared to take responsibility for the hundreds of thousands of Jews who were exterminated as a result of local cooperation and snitching. It is refusing to to deal with the pogroms committed against survivors after the Holocaust.

The Polish nationalists’ Israeli friends gave them courage. The result is a Polish prime minister who has the audacity to compare victims to murderers (Photo: AFP)

My colleague Ronen Bergman, who asked an genuine question about his family, received a disingenuous response. Of course he could tell the story of the Gestapo’s snitches. But it’s a shame it happened after the Polish prime minister invented Jews who collaborated with the Nazis, as if they were their actual helpers. And no, the Judenrat that were formed under Nazi coercion cannot be compared to a polish town which burnt all the Jewish neighbors in the barn.

 

A group of useful idiots, most of them rightists and extreme rightists, served the Polish government here in Israel. They explained that the Polish legislation was simply aimed at preventing the erroneous phrase “Polish death camps.” That was a classic spin, which was swallowed by the radical right’s supporters with great appetite.

The Polish government knows that there isn’t a single historian who writes “Polish death camps,” and that it’s mostly a factual error. There is no malice or historical revisionism behind it.

In Poland, on the other hand, there is an extensive enterprise of lies (a lot of them coming from the government circles), which is unwilling to deal with the role the Poles played in the war. This legislation gives the court wide discretion to decide what qualifies as scientific research and what doesn’t, and in light of the fact that the court system’s independence has been crushed, it essentially permits the government to ban factual comments about collaboration with the Nazis.

The group of Israelis which backed the Poles should deeply consider the role they played in this affair, who they served and why. Holocaust researchers and historians, who all understood the circumstances of the Polish law, have been ignored. The official State of Israel has been treating the Poles with kid gloves. This must end.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu often talks about the Holocaust. Perhaps he could also defend its memory (Photo: AFP)

Clearly, the Israeli ambassador must be recalled, but that’s just the beginning. Israel must act against Poland in European Union institutions. It must use its influence in the United States, and this kind of influence exists. Again, that’s just the beginning.

 

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis are the children and grandchildren of Polish Jewish citizens whose property was stolen by the state or by their neighbors. The limited and ridiculous return provisions made sense when the Polish state still upheld an alliance with Israel. This alliance has been completely undermined, and it’s time to take advantage of Poland’s EU membership to call for the creation of proper property restitution systems.

Will anything come out of it? Probably not, but the Poles will understand that Israel is in the game.

The weakness demonstrated by the Israeli government in this affair has made it even worse. The Polish nationalists’ Israeli friends gave them courage. The result is a Polish prime minister who has the audacity to compare victims to murderers.

The prime minister often talks about the Holocaust. Perhaps he could also defend its memory.

Nadav Eyal is Channel 10's chief international correspondent.

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Netanyahu's Shakespearean tragedy

On Tuesday evening, as he came out of another exhausting, nerve-racking meeting with his lawyers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu probably asked himself what people normally ask when they reach such crossroads: How could this have happened to me?

I surrounded myself with the right people, national-religious, right-wing—Shlomo Filber, Ari Harow, Natan Eshel, Gil Shefer, Avichai Mandelblit and Roni Alsheikh—and now Eshel and Shefer are gone, Filber is a state’s witness, Harow is a state’s witness, Alsheikh refers to me as if I were a criminal and Mandelblit is filling up the detention cells with the next state's witnesses. They will cleanse their ingratitude on Shabbat, through a confessional prayer in synagogue.

Netanyahu (R) and Filber. How was I supposed to know he would take my general order seriously? (Photo: Reuters, Orel Cohen)

I made sure to give sensitive positions to relatives. One was appointed the party and family lawyer; I made the other my secret envoy. I let them keep running their law firm at the same time. People have to earn a living. How was I supposed to know they would get blinded by money?

I considered Arnon Milchan a friend. He would occasionally ask for something; I would occasionally ask for something. Friends arrange things for one another. How was I supposed to know he would keep the receipts?

I insisted on being appointed communications minister. I could have appointed one of the ministers, but they can’t be trusted. They just know how to suck up to the media. I had a well-organized plan which would have broken the television channels and websites to pieces. Dozens of channels, hundreds of websites. Shaul Elovitch was supposed to be the man of valor crossing ahead of his brothers. I said to Filber, help Bezeq, it’s important. A general order, nothing specific. How was I supposed to know he would take it seriously?

I made Nir Hefetz my media advisor. Everyone said he was the right man, the man connected to everyone. Even Sara said he could be trusted, and Sara knows about people. This Hefetz goes up to Eli Kamir, Hila Gerstl’s friend, and asks him: By the way, what does Gerstl think about the case against Sara? Didn’t he know it would all blow up in the end and come back to hit me? And now Hefetz is a suspect. I know that spoilt brat: He smells Lysol even when there is no smell of Lysol. He’ll tell the police even what he doesn’t know, as long as it keeps him out of jail.

What was I thinking when I told Ari Harow to record the conversations with Arnon Mozes, and why didn’t I have his cellphone thrown into the sea? There were elections, I won, I forgot. How was I supposed to know that Harow would get into legal trouble and that the police would open his cellphone?

No, I’m not guilty. I’m being persecuted. Some people envy me, some hate me and some are incited. Miki Zohar is right: It’s like the Rabin murder, with one difference—I’m not guilty.

The fact that Netanyahu feels persecuted doesn’t mean he isn’t being persecuted. It’s not just the presumption of innocence that he is entitled to. The criminal aspect in many of the allegations against him has yet to be established. It’s too early to say his legal defense is finished.

The problem is the accumulation of things. With so many dark clouds in the sky, the chance for rain increases. The state's witness agreement with his director-general in the Communications Ministry, Shlomo Filber, establishes a hierarchy. Up until Tuesday, Filber argued that the huge benefits he gave Elovitch, the owner of Bezeq, were his own decision, the fruit of his policy. Since he received nothing in return, there was no crime here—at the most, these were reckless decisions by a director-general who is clueless about this field.

Netanyahu and Hefetz. He’ll tell the police even what he doesn’t know, as long as it keeps him out of jail (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

It’s unlikely that this version gave him the status of a state’s witness. He was forced to changed his version: It wasn’t him, it was Netanyahu, and it wasn’t without a political return in the future and a return in the media right now. The flattering coverage of Netanyahu's wife on the Walla! News website were just an extra perk. Netanyahu wanted much more. What he planned to do was outrageous. But was it criminal too? The same question stands at the basis of Case 2000 too. The horse-trading those two men engaged in, one with a law subject to the Knesset’s approval and the other with his newspaper’s coverage policy, stains them both. The question is whether the stain reaches the level of a criminal charge. The submarine case exists even without Netanyahu. The prime minister will only be in trouble if it turns out he knew about the ties between the German shipyard and his lawyer, David Shimron. Netanyahu depends on Shimron’s testimony. And last but not least, Case 1000. The case is clear. It screams of fraud and breach of trust, possibly bribery too. But the topic’s littleness and pettiness is insulting. If parasitism were part of the criminal law, Netanyahu and his wife would be convicted immediately. But bribery? I’m not so sure. What all the investigations have in common is that Netanyahu has been lying in the swamp of power for too long. What began with one free newspaper—a corrupt gift from a casino mogul—grew bigger and bigger, becoming more and more rotten. As time goes by, you become less cautious and your sense of entitlement increases. The desire to destroy rivals in any way, the contempt towards the gatekeepers, the cynicism and the self-pity overpower the discretion. Until things just go too far. Netanyahu, in a bitter and anxious speech Tuesday evening, accused the investigating system of madness, of delusions. The police aren’t the only enemy that must be destroyed now—so is the State Attorney’s Office. His appearance gave the battle he is waging dimensions of a Shakespearean tragedy. This isn’t the end, it isn’t even the beginning of the end, but there can be no other ending.

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