‘Worst persecution in country’s history’: Bribery charges against Netanyahu crumble

The bribery case against the Israeli prime minister has very little chance of succeeding, judges tell prosecution. 

By World Israel News Staff

Judges presiding over the trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding Case 4000, aka the Bezeq-Walla affair, told state prosecutors on Thursday that the have very little chance of winning, Hebrew-language media reported.

According to the charges, the prime minister had received favorable news coverage on a website owned by telecommunications provider Bezeq in exchange for regulatory favors to the telecom giant.

Netanyahu was officially indicted in November 2019 in three cases involving breach of trust, accepting bribes, and fraud. Case 4000 is considered the most significant.

“The worst political and legal persecution in the country’s history is collapsing. It is impossible not to be shocked by everything that has happened until now, and by what is revealed step by step. Even if it takes years – the truth must come to light,” Justice Minister Yariv Levin, an architect of the proposed judicial reforms, stated, according to Israel National News.

“An entire country celebrated the bribe he never took. A thousand arrows of ‘leave, you’re corrupt’ were shot into his back every day, and he remained standing,” Information Minister Galit Distel Atbaryan said, INN reported.

“Oceans of rage, frustration, and pain must have burned in him, but he didn’t show it. He revealed nothing.

“This trial is the darkest low point that the State of Israel has known,” she added. “The conspirators, the persecutors, and the perpetrators must still be held accountable, but tonight I just want to say thank you to Prime Minister Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu,” she concluded.

Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli slammed the opposition, blaming them for the years-long anti-Netanyahu campaign that divided the country while there was no basis for their charges against “a man who has dedicated his life to the revival of [the State of] Israel.”

“Seven years, five election campaigns, political chaos, endless hatred and boycotts, protests every Saturday from Balfour Street through Goren Square and the bridges to Kaplan, the complete denial of the presumption of innocence, torture of witnesses, wholesale leaks from investigations, shaming that cannot be described in words against a man who has dedicated his life to the rise of Israel,” Chikli fumed.

“And in the end, when our society has been wounded by baseless hatred and that wretched ‘Crime Minister gang,’ along with a few more disgruntled ex-ministers whom the public sent home, continues on its way, it turns out that everything has collapsed. There was no bribery, no fraud, no submarine affair, and no gas scandal.

“How proud I am to stand on the side of the truth, on the side of the ‘ignorant bibists’ who prove time and time again that they are the most intelligent public, on the side of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and on the side of a camp whose love for the people of Israel, for the heritage of Israel and for the State of Israel does not rely on anything else.”

Just over a week ago, Opposition leader Yair Lapid, perhaps the most vociferous opponent of the prime minister and a leader of the anti-Netanyahu protests, testified at Netanyahu’s trial. A lawyer noted a contradiction in his version of events, which appears to have strengthened the defense.