This is the only way to begin, just begin, restoring the public’s trust in the legal system. Op-ed.
(JNS) With the appointment of a new attorney general, now is the appropriate time to thoroughly, honestly investigate just what the hell is going on with regard to the criminal indictment of former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Up until a few short months ago, claims that Netanyahu’s trial was part of a conspiracy seemed far-fetched. Not anymore. Since the very outset of the trial, Israelis’ jaws have been dropped almost daily due to the errors—let’s call them that—that have emerged from it. The accumulation of these errors pins numerous question marks over the system that incoming Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara will start managing next week.
A brief, non-exhaustive synopsis of things that have emerged from the trial
:• State’s witnesses denied any bribery took place and generally helped the defense;
• The prosecution’s lack of any shred of evidence of bribery;
• Investigators admitted they didn’t run a comparative analysis to prove or disprove the claim that Netanyahu in fact received “positive news coverage” or “unprofessional accommodation”;
• No proof that the head of the Walla news site agreed to cover Netanyahu’s political rivals positively;
• The prosecution’s illegal measures against those under interrogation, including;alleged unauthorized use of NSO.
• Inexplicable concessions afforded to former Knesset member Eitan Cabel, Yedioth Ahronoth and Walla;
Netanyahu’s indictment led to his election defeat. Even if he only lost two seats, the outcome was a political upheaval that occurred because of controversial actions taken by senior law enforcement officials against the country’s most prominent politician.
No democratic person can find this acceptable. No seeker of justice can come to terms with such an outrage. Therefore, the new attorney general’s first order of business must be to stop Netanyahu’s trial, reexamine the indictment and either annul or amend it in accordance with the findings.
Prosecutions enact such processes when trials hit snags, and this is the obvious course of action in the current case.
This is the only way to begin restoring the public’s trust in the legal system. As long as this doesn’t happen, Israel’s status as a democracy will be in question.
Ariel Kahana is a diplomatic correspondent for Israel Hayom.This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.
@Adam Dalgliesh: All very true. The major issue here is that the former AG used all his power to discredit Netanyahu and even that was not enough. We are all aware of the numerous articles by Caroline Glick that described the corruption (she did not really call it that) in the judicial system. It will be a very tough up-hill task to fix that and I doubt anyone will be able to fix it. I can only hope that Bibi can take off to greener pastures. He doesn’t deserve to get prison time for the crimes he was charged with, although I have serious doubts about the Covid story.
The trial and eventual conviction of Netanyahu will continue because it was always a political hit job. The Israeli ‘legal fraternity,” including judges, have no concern for law or justice in politically charged cases. They just want to make sure that the politicians they hate will no longer be in office or have the opportunity to return to office. The situation is the same as it was in England when there was a system of absolute monarchy (1486-1625), when the people the king wanted to be convicted, go to prison or be executed, always was. Also, the way it was under Stalin, except of that in Israel, the use of torture is less extreme and severe (although torture is sometimes used to extract confessions) and the sentences meeted out to the victim are less harsh–no death penalty, brief prison terms by and large. But the use of the legal system to achieve predetermined political results is the same as it was in Tudor England and Stalinist Russia.
Netanyahu will be convicted and will get prison time. The ‘legal fraternity” decided on this long ago.