Amir Ohana is Israel’s Minister of Justice. Sort of. Sitting in an interim government, he is prevented from acting on all relevant matters.
But he can speak. And he did so shrilly, against what he called a cult of prosecutors within the prosecution service, as well as supporting members of the media.
By more or less specific hints, he meant individuals involved in the prosecution of the Prime Minister.
He called for holding prosecutors to lie detectors, meant to identify those who leaked information to the press.
Afterwards, commentators had trouble deciding if Ohana was speaking only for himself, or expressing what the Prime Minister wanted him to say.
He accused the prosecutors within the prosecution service of leaking news to the media, and not paying sufficient attention to the claims made by attorneys in hearings. One of the leading prosecutors took a vacation that spanned the hearings, but kept up with matters via documents. She was high on Ohana’s list of the guilty.
Other members of Bibi’s team joined the fray. The Minister of Internal Security Gilad Erdan and Minister of Jerusalem and Environmental Protection Ze’ev Elkin both supported what Ohana said. Erdan refused to answer an interviewer’s questions about what Yair Netanyahu said when interviewed by police. The young Netanyahu, referred to them as Gestapo and Stazzi.
In the same inquiry, Yair Netanyahu also accused Knesset Member Gideon Sa’ar of raping his secretary, then arranging a job for her in order to stifle the news.
News of this produced a request by Sa’ar for a transcript of the inquiry, in preparation for a suit against Yair Netanyahu. Sa’ar claimed, “This is another example of the relentless campaign of spreading false stories against me that has been going on for years, to discredit my name and harm me politically . . . As in the past, it will not succeed.”
Then came a statement released on behalf of Netanyahu that “the use of criminal and bias leaks from Yair’s investigation in his case is a continuation of the hunting campaign against him and the Netanyahu family, and an ugly attempt to shame him.”
Responses to Ohana from retired Justices of the Supreme Court were equally shrill, but from an opposite perspective. They attacked the generalized nature of Ohana’s comments, and linked them to an anti-democratic regime, or one setting out to destroy the country’s democracy and its professional administration.
The Attorney General and the Chief Prosecutor also responded, and both attacked the Minister who is nominally their political superior.
All told, it seemed like more of Bibi’s desperation, along with that of his close supporters, in the face of likely indictments.
From the Office of the Attorney General, we’re hearing that final decisions on the indictments will come by the end of the month.
Meanwhile, the key to negotiations about a new government, Avigdor Lieberman, speaks in riddles. He won’t sit in the government with the Arab List, but what about a government that is supported by Arab List without sitting as ministers?
Lieberman also speaks against Netanhayu, and his son, but also says that he has nothing against Bibi. That he’s in favor of a joint government of Blue and White with Likud, with Netanyahu sitting first as Prime Minister.
On the sidelines of all this, a lecturer at Bar Ilan University, Mordecai Kedar, announced that it was not Yigal Amir who killed Yitzhak Rabin. This a week before the annual anniversary of Rabin’s murder, with Amir and his family somewhat insulted by having the issue taken from them. Bar Ilan has had hearings about censoring the lecturer, and students are quarreling about the limits of academic freedom.
It seems like another expression of the obsession of the Bibi team, with Ohana, Kedar, and the young Netanyahu showing the frustration of an accused, with Bibi and his people unable to do the honorable resignation, but keeping to a wild story, holding on until the end, hoping for an election that will keep Bibi as Prime Minister for additional months.
Meanwhile, Blue and White and Likud are stuck in their postures. Likud with its block of right wing parties, and holding on to President Rivlin’s proposal of last month that Bibi would be the first Prime Minister. While Blue and White insists on changes in the picture, since Bibi didn’t succeed in forming a government. Blue and White is also talking with the Arab List, which may or may not be a smoke screen.
As Benny Gantz is in his third week with the mandate, there are commentators suggesting solutions all over the map. With all saying they want to avoid an election, and waiting for some party to show more flexibility.
Bibi seems to be the major actor wanting another election, which will give him a few more months as Prime Minister, and keep him from resigning in the face of indictments.
He has support, as does his American friend Donald Trump. In both cases, we can wonder how long it will last.
Republished from San Diego Jewish World