Africa Map

African Press Agency

African Press Agency Logo
   

 Home
 Country Profile
 Useful Links
 Contact us

Home

Israel/PM scandalBack
[Published: Wednesday February 21 2018]

Final days of Benjamin Netanyahu's rule?

TEL AVIV , 21 Feb. - (ANA) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership has been dealt a harsh blow, apparently a mortal one, according to the Israeli daily "Haaretz".

The power of the prime minister doesn’t stem only from the outcome of an election, from a coalition majority or powers granted by law, but from the respect of the apparatus of government, of aides, spokespersons and confidants. The moment this circle is broken, the leader’s authority is lost - even if he remains in his seat for some time until his final ouster.

Today began with the appearance of Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich before the Knesset Interior Committee. Likud representatives invited him for a dressing down in front of the cameras in response to the recommendation (excuse me, summaries of the investigation, as Alsheich made clear) to indict Netanyahu on bribery charges in the lavish-gifts case and the Yedioth Ahronoth quid-pro-quo affair. The pretext was the commissioner’s remarks in an interview on investigative TV show “Fact.”

Alsheich was not afraid and didn’t bat an eye. On the contrary, he scolded the MKs who had not seen the full interview, and compared the prime minister and those in his orbit to a crime organization. That’s the way a man acts when he isn’t afraid of the prime minister and his shouters in the Knesset, when he understands that there’s nothing more Netanyahu can do to him except issue another whiney response about a “campaign of persecution by the media against my family.”

While Alsheich was speaking live from the Knesset, the story broke about an alleged proposal by Netanyahu’s former media adviser Nir Hefetz to Judge Hila Gerstl, to make her to the first female attorney general in exchange for closing the thefts case, the investigation into alleged improprieties involving household expenses. In the evening, a state’s evidence agreement was signed with Netanyahu’s man in the Communications Ministry, director general Shlomo Filber, who is to testify against the boss.

That’s the way the “final days” look, as the title of the book by American journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein on the collapse of President Richard Nixon’s presidency over the Watergate scandal reads. After the embarrassing tapes of Yair and of Sara Netanyahu, more stories will certainly emerge about conduct in the royal court on Balfour Street in Jerusalem. Testimonies that so far have only been whispered off the record, about interviews that the prime minister’s wife conducted with candidates for senior positions, will be told for all to hear. Folks will suddenly remember all kinds of interference by people around Netanyahu in decisions that were intended to serve the boss and his family. After all, it’s hard to believe that the indecent proposal to Judge Gerstl was a one-time thing.

The Gerstl affair reveals this dynamic well. When she was approached with the proposal of an appointment in exchange for closing a case, fear of the prime minister and his wife was so great that the judge didn’t dare file a police complaint and made do with informing associates, who also kept mum about it - first and foremost, the current Supreme Court President Esther Hayut. How sad: Senior law enforcement and justice officials are afraid for their own skin (or their career advancement) if they reveal corruption at the top. And then comes the moment when the fear dissipates. Alsheich and his people seem stronger than the sitting prime minister, and the burden can be unloaded and the terrible secret they have kept in their hearts can be revealed.  - (ANA) -

AB/ANA/21 February 2018 - - -

 

 

 


North South News website

Advertise banner

News icon US/Fundraiser
News icon Russia/NATO
News icon Trade/Vessel Traffic
News icon Global/Value Chain
News icon OECD/Jobless
News icon SIPRI/Arms Import
News icon EU/Kenya/Pesticides
News icon UN/Israel/Gza
News icon US/Israel/Gaza
News icon Pakistan/ISI Interference

AFRICAN PRESS AGENCY Copyright © 2005 - 2007