Yisrael Beytenu leader reportedly claims PM may strike plea deal before elections, quit politics in exchange for not being indicted pending a hearing
Former defense minister Avigdor Liberman has reportedly claimed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will likely fail to form a government even if his Likud party wins the elections, due to coalition partners’ refusal to serve under a premier who may by then be formally accused of criminal offenses.
The Yisrael Beytenu party leader said a possible scenario would see Netanyahu reaching a plea deal in which he would quit politics before the April 9 vote, in exchange for not being charged in the three corruption cases against him, the Ynet website reported Sunday.
“If such a deal is signed, Likud will have to choose an heir [to Netanyahu] before the elections,” he reportedly said. “In such a case we are in for a shakeup and it isn’t clear how it will end.”
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Police have recommended Netanyahu stand trial for bribery in three separate corruption cases. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit is currently reviewing the material and is reportedly set to announce a decision this month, but final charges would only be filed after a hearing procedure, which could take up to a year.
“Likud will win the election, but it is safe to assume that if it is decided to file an indictment against Benjamin Netanyahu before the elections, his chance of forming a new government are close to nil,” Liberman reportedly said at a closed meeting in the town of Mevasseret Zion, near Jerusalem.
“Therefore, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that Netanyahu will reach a plea deal before the elections,” Liberman continued.
In Liberman’s telling, rival right-wing leader Education Minister Naftali Bennett would stymie Netanyahu’s ability to form a coalition after elections.
Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who together recently launched the New Right party, haven’t clearly said whether they would agree to join Netanyahu’s government if Mandelblit announces an indictment pending a hearing before the election.
Last month, Hadashot TV aired a report saying that as part of the so-called Bezeq corruption case, or Case 4000, Netanyahu had personally overseen a political hit job against Bennett, pushing for the Walla news website to publish a report that Bennett’s wife, Gilat, had served as a chef at non-kosher restaurants, and another report linking Bennett’s father to incitement against assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in the 1990s.
“It is clear to me that Bennett hasn’t forgotten or forgiven Netanyahu for anything, mainly what he tried to concoct on the Walla website against his wife and father,” Liberman reportedly told supporters.
“Bennett will readily stab Netanyahu in the back, stand in front of the cameras and passionately speak about the rule of law and moral integrity,” he said. “Some of the other potential partners will do the same. I think they’re lying in wait for Netanyahu to be charged.”
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman launches his party’s elections campaign in Tel Aviv on January 20, 2019. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Liberman stressed that as long as Netanyahu isn’t convicted and all his appeals are rejected — a process likely to take several years at least — his Yisrael Beytenu party will regard Netanyahu as innocent.
The New Right responded by slamming Liberman and mocking him for publicly saying several years ago that if he is made defense minister, Hamas politburo leader Ismail Haniyeh would be dead within 48 hours. Liberman was then appointed defense minister and did not deliver on his promise.
“As the public understood long ago, MK Liberman is a tireless talker. The terrorist Ismail Haniyeh, who is still patiently waiting for the end of Liberman’s 48-hour threat, can testify to that,” Bennett and Shaked’s party said.
“The New Right party stands behind its clear stance: We will recommend that the president task Netanyahu to form the government.”
The Likud party did not comment on Liberman’s remarks.
In Case 4000, Netanyahu is suspected of having advanced regulatory decisions as communications minister and prime minister from 2015 to 2017 that benefited Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder in Bezeq, the country’s largest telecommunications firm, in exchange for positive coverage from Elovitch’s Walla news site.
In Case 1000, Netanyahu is suspected of receiving benefits worth about NIS 1 million ($282,000) from billionaire benefactors in exchange for favors.
Case 2000 involves a suspected illicit quid-pro-quo deal between Netanyahu and Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper publisher Arnon Mozes that would have seen the prime minister weaken a rival daily, the Sheldon Adelson-backed Israel Hayom, in return for more favorable coverage from Yedioth.
Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing, and has claimed the investigations are part of a political vendetta and witch hunt aimed at ousting him, involving the political left, the media and the police.
@ Edgar G.: All true, Edgar. But somehow it does come out like blaming the victim. I feel exactly the same way when someone comments that someone murdered in New York or Washington D.C. shouldn’t have been walking alone after 12pm to do some late night shopping. The reason I am bothered by this post-mortem quarterbacking of a victim is that it misses the point: people, including women,shouldbe free to walk alone on nature trails or any other public space without risking their lives, just as they should be free to shop in Manhattan, even after midnight, at a convenience store, without risking their lives.
The same argument can be made of passengers who are killed by a suicide bomber when riding on a bus. Gee, that was foolish of them, when they could have taken a taxi (which might, however, turn out to be driven by a terrorist). Or you could say, when a child is killed by a rocket when playing outside after an alert has sounded: Gee, that was a stupid kid not running to the shelte the very second the alert was sounded,, and his parents were irresponsible for not dragging him into the shelter the instant the alert was sounded. Although true, that kind of response also misses the point, which is that children should be free to play outside without being killed by a rocket. Responsibility for these atrocities should be placed solely on the killers, those who sponsor them, and the government that failed to take adequate preventative measures to prevent such atrocities from being committed.
@ adamdalgliesh:
;
No Adam I was not-G-D Forbid- putting any blame on this poor girl, and you should not have felt so. Yes they should have the right to do this or that as they want. BUT…Israel…Arab murderers…?? I was implying that it was a bit thoughtless of her to be alone in the woods with potential murderers in hordes roaming around. It’s just a matter of prudence to take the safe pathway.. I’d say the same to anyone- man or woman of any age or capability. The mamzerim are not neccessarily singletons; there could be 2-3-4-5, a gang. .
I myself, boxer fighter, alert, and more, always walked on the side of’e street with fewer parked cars, to forestall any sudden emergence of a mugger-maybe with a knife or club. Just common sense…We’ve been living in lawless times, where the criminal has a huge group of “do-gooders” to take his side, and cry about hs deprived youth etc.etc
I agree with nearly everything you write here, Edgar. You are absolutely right that Israel’s coddling of terrorists is directly responsible for many of their murders. However, your hint that the girl was somehow partly to blame for walking in the woods is unfair. She and any woman should have the right to walk alone on a nature trail without having to fear being raped and murdered. Also, I don’t think the rabbinic ever intended “tikkun slam” to mean what the leftists mean by it. They have hijacked the term for their own purposes. The guy who publishes “Tikkun OLam” claims to be a rabbi, but isn’t he is a phoney with no formal training in Jewish studies and no rabbinical degree.
The latest story in the Jerusalem Post show that the Israeli police knew that the guy who murdered Ori was a terrorist who intended to murder Jews two years before the murder occurred. Yet they let him go after capturing with a large kitchen knife, even after he admitted that he planned to use it to kill an Israeli policeman or other Israeli. He also admitted at that time to be a member of Hamas. It is this kind of behavior by the Israeli police that made this murder and so many others possible.
@ adamdalgliesh:
They are not more evil than others. Any terrorist who takes a Jewish life is evil. If he fails, he has evil intent. (what was she doing going into the woods alone in these days…such a dangerous thing to do…) The whole Arab nation, about 350 million of them are, for the vastly major part, evil. They hate everybody, but because they’ve had more experience with the Jews being cowed and subservient to them, they take their shots. At the same time, they know they’ll be paid for life, also they won’t be executed. and the cushy Israel jails are better than what most of them live in. Free meals education foreign “humanitarian” oversght etc.etc.
These are a big attraction, considering that they are mostly inbred to a degree that they are mentally not very capable, and like the American Indian with a sniff of alcohol, can go crazy at the thought of killing a Jew. They are on the verge all the time, and Israel is culpable in not allowing execution, with their damned Tikkun Olam permeating all through the system.
The Rabonim are much to blame for the dissemination of this worthless regimen. Who made Jews the plumbers and carpenters of the world….Nobody,,, only the “wrapped-in-holiness Rabonim….who had been beaten into the dust enough times to change from being a valient, aggressive, fearless people, into what we are today.
@ Bear Klein: Obviously, Bear, you are not obligated to be commenting online or doing anything else you don’t feel like doing. I was not trying to say you were obligated to do anything whatsoever.
However, just as a matter of fact, I seem to recall reading a post from you very recently. Was it yesterday?
@ adamdalgliesh:
Just checked into the site for the first time in quite a while. Am I now required to be online commenting all the time on Israpundit?
This is what we all should be doing:
@ Edgar G.: Finally, I got a rise out of someone at Israpundit about this atrocity! So far, still only one person, yourself! It took a three day rant to get any response at all.
I admit I have been ranting these past three days.. But some atrocities are so evil that I believe everyone should rant about them.them. We Jews should regard ourselves as brothers and sisters. When some terrible injustice befalls one of us, especially, as is likely here, when it is directed against all Jews just because they are Jews, all should act as if they are members of the bereaved family. And that means not remaining silent.
The saying, “there is nothing that I can do about it.” Is a half-truth that is always said, or thought silently, every time something like this happens. Of course, it is true that one individual, not in a position of power, can do nothing about it directly. But when enough people scream bloody murder (in this case literally) governments usually feel forced or shamed into action. Obviously, there is more that the Israeli government and the iDF can do to drastically reduce the occurrance of these atrocities. Ending money transfers to the terror-supporting “Palestinian Authority” is one place to start. Forbidding Israeli banks from transferring Israeli or any other currency to the terrorist-ruled areas is another. Ending COGAT’s massive deliveries of supplies to the terror-supporting areas is a third. Completing the security fence, and maybe electrifying it, is another. Reoccupying the terrorist “territories” and rounding up all terrorists that the IDF and police can get their hands on, is yet another. The death penalty for terrorists is another. And there are hundreds of other possible measures, some more “kinetic” than what I have mentioned. My point is, the Israeli government, maybe even the American government, will feel they have to do something if enough people scream in outrage.
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do {and say} nothing.”
@ adamdalgliesh:
I am not “disintersted in the obscene act. But as I’ve posted just now there’s nothing we can do about it. It has become more the norm than an anomaly. This doesn’t make it any less a monstrous act.. I feel for every one who falls. And I’m sure the others do too. At this numbing stage, we just don’t go around ranting about it. There’s also a huge amount of “fatalism” in Modern Jewry. Personally, I just don’t know how the families can stand it and just murmur pious platitudes, instead of getting a few friends, waiting for the opportunity, and grab and torture the murderer. A few like that would maybe be an object lesson. I blame the Govt. for not having clamped down years ago on the Arabs paying the terrorists lifetime income. Scandalous encouragement to murder. They are culpable.
@ Bear Klein: Bear, Edgar: Why are you guys so completely unininterested in the murder of Ori Ansbacher? Why is their no outrage from you or anyone else who writes for Israpundit? I find that outrageous.
@ Bear Klein:
Also if Netanyahu s not convicted there wll be NO appeals.
Lieberman will say anything to get noticed. His party is barely hanging on in the polls.
His relevance or his party’s need is getting less by the day!