Wednesday, December 05, 2018
Elder of Ziyon
Jerusalem, December 5 - Political opponents and rivals of Israel's prime minister accused him today of orchestrating the latest round of bribery and breach of trust allegations against himself and his wife in order to divert attention from the previous episodes in which the prime minister or his wife stand accused of bribery, breach of trust, and other abuses of power.
Police officials recommended indictment of Binyamin and Sara Netanyahu this week on bribery charges stemming from a multi-year investigation, alongside several other ongoing probes. Senior figures in the political Opposition, and some right-wing rivals of the premier, called attention today to what they termed suspicious timing of the announcement, coming as it does on the heels of other news involving alleged Netanyahu corruption, and suggesting the possibility that the police recommendation plays a part in a longtime Netanyahu strategy to distract from his corruption with other charges of corruption.
The decision whether to indict the prime minister rests with the Attorney General, who is expected to issue a decision in the next several months.
"I urge the public and the media not be taken in by this subterfuge," admonished MK Avi Gabbay, current head of Labor, the largest Opposition party. "We must not lose focus on Bibi's unsuitability for the office of prime minister, as demonstrated by his constant involvement in unsavory, and apparently illegal, activities, which he is attempting to obscure with other stories demonstrating his unsuitability for the office of prime minister." Gabbay called for Netanyahu's immediate resignation.
Gabbay's ally MK Tzipi Livni, chief of the HaTnuah Party and Gabbay's partner at the head of the Zionist Union faction in the Knesset, laid some blame at the media's feet. "It's irresponsible to cover these new corruption developments so intensively when there are so many older ones we haven't milked for all their political worth yet," she stated. "Netanyahu is basically exploiting the press's tendency to glom onto the most recent thing, which sometimes has its benefits, but in this case doesn't allow the public to really absorb to the fullest extent how corrupt Bibi is before getting sidetracked by other evidence of how corrupt Bibi is. A little journalistic responsibility, please."
Sources close to Netanyahu Likud rival Gidon Saar, who declined to be identified by name, voiced a different concern. "This is all Bibi getting attention, when you come down do it," warned one. "I think it's time we impose some socialism on the system, namely by assigning a certain level of coverage to which every aspiring elected official is entitled, and that way you don't have one guy hogging it all - at least until our guy gets into power and does the hogging, which would be ok because it's not Bibi."
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