Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, (r) conferring with Defense Minister Naftali Bennett. (FLASH90/Miriam Alster)
“I can’t understand why the attorney general hurried to indict Prime Minister Netanyahu,” said the defense minister.
By World Israel News Staff
Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett questioned the rush to indict Israel’s premier on Tuesday.
“I can’t understand why the attorney general hurried to indict Prime Minister Netanyahu immediately before a historic event in Washington. Why should they humiliate Prime Minister Netanyahu when he, abroad, represents all of us, all of Israel’s citizens? Wait two days for his return to Israel,” Bennett said.
January 28, 2020 will go down in Israeli history as the date when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a historic meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House as the president announced a peace proposal for Israelis and Palestinians.
It will also go down in Israeli history as the first time that a sitting prime minister, Netanyahu, was indicted.
Just a few hours after Netanyahu announced that he was dropping his request for parliamentary immunity, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit proceeded to present the indictments in court relating to allegations against the prime minister in three different cases for alleged fraud and breach of public trust, and in one case, alleged involvement in bribery, as well.
“While Prime Minister Netanyahu and I disagree on certain things and even preside over two competing parties, he is the prime minister of all of us and his honor is the honor of the entire State of Israel. It’s not a proper step,” Bennett argued.
The prime minister is charged with exploiting his position to show a willingness to grant business favors to executives in exchange for better coverage of his activities in their media operations and receiving benefits from wealthy supporters for presumed favors in return.
A Likud statement in response to the issuing of the indictments repeated the prime minister’s accusation that the charges are a witch hunt.
Netanyahu has charged that Mandelblit succumbed to pressures from a left-wing establishment that is trying to topple a right-wing government through legal means due to its inability to defeat him at the ballot box.
Despite the indictments, Netanyahu heads the Likud party’s list running in the March 2 Knesset election.
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