THE DEEP STATE IN ISRAEL

Will the “Deep-State” Destroy Democracy?

by Martin Sherman arutzsheva

The unrelenting drive to bring an indictment—any indictment—against Netanyahu has long exceeded the bounds of reasonable law enforcement [me: this is a mirror image of what the frantic demoncrats are perpetrating vs. duly elected President Trump. Who but the leftist socialist/communist perps.]

The issue at the center of these investigations seems trivial against the background of the existential crises Israel is facing…The first probe, also known as case 1000, involves gifts of cigars and champagne Netanyahu received from close friends…I strongly believe that the appropriate criteria for criminal prosecution have not been met in the cigar and champagne case against Netanyahu… The other investigations (dubbed 2000 and 4000) pose even greater dangers to democratic governance and civil liberties… In both cases, the prime minister is essentially being investigated for allegedly trying to push the media – with long histories of attacking him and his family – to be fairer…—Prof. Alan Deshowitz,  Voters, Not the Police or the Courts, Should Decide Netanyahu’s Future

…what we are left with is an exploration of motives… [which] are not the kinds of questions that prosecutors and police should be empowered to ask elected officials and media moguls as a part of a criminal investigation…The relationship between politics and the media – and between politicians and publishers – is too nuanced, subtle and complex to be subject to the heavy hand of criminal law…police and prosecutors should not intrude on this complex, messy and nuanced relationship between politics and the media, except in cases of clear and unambiguous financial corruption well beyond what is alleged in the current cases… to criminalize these political differences is to endanger democracy and freedom of the press—Prof. Alan Deshowitz, Voters, Not the Police or the Courts, Should Decide Netanyahu’s Future

I disagree with Alan Dershowitz on much regarding Israel. But I found myself identifying almost completely with his analysis of the indictments (subject to a hearing) filed against Prime Minister Netanyahu by the attorney-general,  Avihai Mandelblit.

A product of politically partisan peer pressure


Caroline Glick, then-prominent journalist, today a candidate for the Knesset,  powerfully underscored the dubious (to be charitable) nature of the allegations against Netanyahu and the troubling double standards applied to him that they reflect.

Likewise, veteran lawyer, Dr. Haim Misgav, clearly conveyed how flimsy and unconvincing the charges against the Prime Minister are. Rather than prosecutors being “watchdogs" of the public interest, Misgav depicts them as “attack dogs” of the anti-Netanyahu circles, bent not on “eliminating wrongdoing in our midst, but removing the prime minister by any means possible”. Indeed, according to Misgav, the entire indictment is the product of the Attorney-General caving into peer pressure from the politically biased prosecution, and the timing of its publication, a stark attempt to impact the elections.

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Letting the cat out of the bag:

The unrelenting drive to bring an indictment—any indictment—against Netanyahu has long exceeded the bounds of reasonable law enforcement. Indeed, it increasingly seems that the levers of the justice system are being used for nothing more than to eject Netanyahu from power.

Strong corroboration of this was provided by the editor of the Jerusalem Post last week, who  revealed that “…the [Attorney-General]Mandelblit was prepared to close the cases against Netanyahu if the prime minister agreed to resign from political life.”

So there you have it. All Netanyahu’s allegedly grave crimes would be removed from the roster, forgiven and forgotten, and go unpunished if he would only vacate his elected office! Doesn’t get much clearer—or damning—than that!

And that, dear readers, is the bald and disturbing truth—from beginning to end.

Martin Sherman is the founder and executive director of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies..