When Benjamin Netanyahu appeared in the Jerusalem District
Court on Sunday May 24th it made political history.
Israel has had no shortage of corrupt leaders.
An Israeli President was sent to prison when Moshe Katzav
was sentenced to seven years on rape charges.
Ehud Olmert resigned as Prime Minister to stand trial on
charges of bribery and breach of trust both as mayor of Jerusalem and later as
Prime Minister. He was sentenced to 27 months on fraud charges and was
discharged from prison after serving just sixteen months.
Israel has an inglorious record of ministers, Knesset
members, chief rabbis, mayors and other officials going to prison on criminal
or security charges,
But when Benjamin Netanyahu appeared in front of the three
judges it was the first time that a sitting Prime Minister has faced criminal charges.
The timing is immaculate. After a traumatic year in which
three elections failed to produce a majority government, it took the political
skills of Netanyahu and the conscience of opposition leader, Benny Gantz, to
cobble together an emergency unity government. Yet, even before this government
has fully taken its Knesset seat the acting Prime Minister has set out on a marathon
legal journey to clear his name.
“There will be nothing, because there is nothing,” has
been the drumbeat slogan of Bibi, as he is affectionately known.
Throughout the agonizing process of investigations by the
police, acting on the orders of the State Attorney-General, Netanyahu has
protested that there has been political dirty business going on aided and abetted
by a compliant media. He proclaimed that the only way the opposition can get
rid of him was by staging a coup using the courts as a way to removed him from
power.
This may sound familiar to American readers.
Bibi’s lawyers have lodged over a hundred complaints of
leaks to the media and prosecution witnesses talking to reporters.
Leaving aside Bibi’s protests, let’s look into the charges
ranged against him.
Benjamin Netanyahu faces three different set of charges, but
all are related to over-arching charges against him of bribery and breach of
trust.
The most serious case concerns Case 4000. This is the case
in which Bibi is charged with a media bribery scheme with the owners of Bezek
and Walla communications and media companies. In this case, the owners, Shaul
Elovitch and his wife, Iris, are also co-defenders with a separate legal team.
The charges claim that Walla gave Bibi favorable coverage in
exchange for him making government policies favoring Elovitch’s Bezek company
to the value of around 1.8 billion shekels.
Bibi has protested that issues relating to the
communications industry rest with the ministry concerned and that several decisions
had gone against Bezek. The prosecution, however, will be producing as
supporting evidence large amounts of letters, email exchanges, text messages
and an array of witnesses, including a couple of significant people who have
turned state witnesses against the prime minister.
Watch out for the appearances of Nir Hefetz and Shlomo
Filber, two former aides to the prime minister. Hefetz will accuse Bibi of
micromanaging the Walla news coverage. His court appearance is important and
may take several days with the prosecution attempting to substantiate his
verbal evidence with an array of documents. To counter this, the lawyers of Bibi and of
the Elovitchs may take even longer when they cross-examine Hefetz.
There has been reports that the prosecution, via the police
investigation team, used excessive methods to break Hefetz in order to get him
to turn against his former boss.
Shades of FBI and Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, George Papadopoulos,
Paul Manafort.
But Shlomo Filber will be a tougher nut to crack. He will
make the case that Bibi hatched the scheme to grant favors to Shaul Elovitch via
government policies and he is expected to back up his evidence with documents.
The prosecution could also call Walla management personnel
to give evidence against the prime minister. This is a touchy issue because a
dozen Walla reporters have protested interference in their reporting of the
prime minister.
Netanyahu’s defense will give evidence of many negative news
stories against their client to prove there was no pro-Bibi dominance in Walla
reporting. He will also protest that any communications policies that favored
Elovitch were approved by named neutral bureaucrats.
It has been reported that parts of Bibi’s defense arguments
in Case 4000 are solid. The outcome may rest on how successfully his lawyers
can offset the appearance of Shlomo Filber.
Case 1000 concerns huge amounts of gifts that Bibi and his
wife received over the years from wealthy friends. Questions have arisen regarding
whether these were really friends, or patrons looking for favors. Certainly the
reports of crates of pink champagne and boxes of expensive cigars to the
Netanyahus, and rumors of Sara Netanyahu’s obsessive demands for clothes to
meet her self-given status as Israel’s first lady, have had a grating effect on
the Israeli public. However, it may prove difficult to establish any quid pro
quo in the Netanyahu dealings with Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, Australian
billionaire, James Packer, or Israeli Hollywood mogul, Arnon Milchan.
More complicated for Bibi is Case 2000. This involves his
relationship with Yediot newspaper owner, Noni Moses. Bibi is charged
with reducing the influence of the pro-Netanyahu Israel HaYom free
newspaper, owned by his former friend, Sheldon Adelson, in favor of Yediot. The
expected evidence of Sheldon Adelson will be interesting.
In the Case 2000, Bibi is on stronger ground. Moses is not
going to testify against himself and Attorney-General has already reduced the
charges against Bibi from bribery down to breach of trust.
The three cases will produce a procession of star witnesses
including former Mossad head, Tamir Pardo, no political friend of Bibi, former
Shin Bet head, Yuval Diskin, former national security adviser, Uzi Arad, leader
of the Opposition, Yair Lapid, a Bibi detester. Others may include Tzipi Livni,
Labour’s Eitan Cabel. Witnesses for Bibi will be Gilad Erdan, before he takes
up his posts in New York and Washington, Ron Dermer, until recently Ambassador
to the US, new Knesset Speaker, Yariv Levin, Ze’ev Elkin and Tzachi Hanegbi.
The initial Sunday hearing will mostly cover technical issues
concerning documents that the defense has requested from the court.
The trial is likely to drag on until late 2021 and possibly
as late as mid-2023. If Bibi is sentenced this is probably not going to be before
early 2022 and could be as late as the end of 2024.
Barry Shaw, Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.
A very fair and balanced account. In respect to "case 4000," it is important to add that the regulation changes that Bibi approved did not give the owner of Bezecmthe advantages he sought, because added to the regulation changes requested by Mr. and Mrs Elovitch was a provision that hadn't asked for and didn't want--opening up the communications field to competition, and breaking Bezec's monopoly. As a result, Bezec has lost a lot of money from the regulatory changes approved by Bibi, and has not gained financially.
ReplyDeleteNone of the individuals who allegedly paid bribes to Bibi got what they wanted from him. In his decisions, he was not influenced by what they offered or gave him. And he never received anything from Mr. Mozes. As a result, these disappointed would-be-bribers complained to the police about Bibi's conduct.