Netanyahu may be tarnished by leaked recordings with newspaper publisher

Channel 13 released the recordings on Saturday evening, just as the Attorney General’s office is concluding its discussions about whether to indict the prime minister.

By World Israel News Staff

Dominating today’s news in Israel are secret recordings of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and newspaper publisher Arnon Mozes of Yediot Ahronot. The recordings were broadcast on Channel 13’s Hamakor news program on Saturday night.

The recordings made in the course of two phone conversations that took place in 2014, Netanyahu and Mozes discuss making a deal in which Netanyahu will receive favorable coverage in Yediot Ahronot in return for advancing a law to hurt Yediot‘s main rival, Israel Hayom.

The recordings are part of Case 2000, in which Netanyahu faces indictment for fraud and breach of trust. Mozes also faces possible criminal charges. They’ve been made public just as the Attorney General’s Office brings to a close its deliberations on whether to indict the prime minister.

The conversations were taped by Ari Harow, a former Netanyahu aide who has turned state witness.

Netanyahu appears to agree to Mozes’s request to push through a law that would make it harder for hurt Yediot‘s competitor.

“We can legislate this, that’s all,” Netanyahu says. When Mozes asks which committee would take responsibility for the anti-Israel Hayom bill, Netanyahu replies, “We’ll set up a special committee.”

Netanyahu also asks that Mozes reduce Yediot‘s antagonism toward him from “9 1/2 to 7 1/2.”

Mozes asks Netanyahu to recommend a opinion writer who would write pieces favorable to Netanyahu.

Complaining about the negative coverage of one Yediot writer in particular, Netanyahu said, “You are forcing me to fight you. If you’re making your life’s mission to knock me down, my life’s mission is to fight you.”

Netanyahu’s office defended the prime minister following the leaked recordings, saying he never had any intention of making a deal with Mozes. The statement also said that the prime minister “was the only one who worked against the [Israel Hayom] law and dispersed the Knesset and blocked it and won in exchange hostile coverage from [Arnon] Mozes.”

Recognizing the damage the recordings may do to the prime minister, “This evening you brought a biased, criminal leak with the goal of harming Prime Minister Netanyahu and diverting [public] attention from the stink of biased-enforcement,” coming from the lack of interest in former Labor MK Eytan Cabel’s testimony. Cabel advanced the Israel Hayom bill.