I will not forget that morning. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared as one of the men in the Jerusalem District Court on Saladin Street. The frame was carefully planned, despite the sleepy morning hour and the audience that included reporters and retirees. Netanyahu stood in front of the cameras, with 15 members of his faction behind him.
Netanyahu in court at the opening of his trial Photo: Yonatan Zindel, Flash 90
“Sources in the police and the State Attorney’s Office have joined forces with the left-wing newspapers. I call them ‘just not Bibi’ to sew on my hallucinatory portfolios. The chairman of the Likud and the one elected by 1,350,000 citizens, and the police and the prosecutor’s office. “Israeli citizens, you are much smarter than this group thinks of you, of us,” Netanyahu added at the time.
Netanyahu’s pragmatism
But the two vehicles galloping towards each other were suddenly diverted from their course. Journalist Ben Caspit reported that there are contacts for a plea deal between Mandelblit and Netanyahu, a report that gave the signal for the beginning of a real drama in the political system, a drama that is being written as of this writing. Whoever called for tailor-made, hallucinatory and filthy cases actually seemed to me to have a plea deal with the systems that were directed against him, in his view, with the aim of overthrowing him. But this picture is not even partial.
The division of attributes in Netanyahu’s activities is more or less equal, and above all there is a copious dose of pragmatism. Even if Mendelssohn, who has been accused of trying to overthrow him, is facing a dialogue, there will be a dialogue here. At the political level, Netanyahu will be remembered as the one who turned RAAM into a legitimate ally, with the pragmatism that was eventually directed against him. At the political level, according to some reports, a senior lawyer on Netanyahu was sent in early 2020 to discuss a plea deal.
“I archived”
Sharpened: Not only is pragmatism here, but also a dash of ideology. In an interview with the Knesset channel on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the state, Netanyahu proudly detailed a list of laws he had prevented, laws that sought to limit the power of the judicial system. Among the laws: a law to curtail the powers of the High Court (“Ganzati”), a law to bring judges to a hearing in Knesset committees (“Ganzati”) and a law to change the composition of the selection committee for judges (“Ganzati”).
Netanyahu summed it up like this: “I simply maintained the independence of the Supreme Court.” If you look closely, you will notice that in his speech at the opening of the trial, Netanyahu did not say a single word about the justice system. Only the police and the State Attorney’s Office, Alsich and Mandelblit, absorbed his tongue. Needless to say, this fact is a shock to Netanyahu’s supporters who advocate restraining the High Court’s power.
Against this background, Netanyahu’s appeal to Aharon Barak, the high priest of the justice system, one of the people who represent the existence of this system as independent and activist, is clear. Barak responded to Netanyahu’s request, and to the expected surprise of the media, he replied in the following words: “Netanyahu was one of the greatest defenders of the justice system.”
This statement, which may only come to haunt, is conducted alongside a media that strongly denies it and now also sacrifices Aharon Barak (“Macher”) on the altar of Netanyahu’s files. Whether or not the plea bargain is executed, it is worth remembering this development in the plot.