Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party on Thursday appealed to the High Court of Justice for an injunction against Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit's expected announcement of the counts on which he reportedly intends to indict Netanyahu, calling it "blatant intervention by the Left."
The petition was filed with extreme urgency by Likud legal counsel Avi Halevy. The party is pushing to keep Mendelblit from announcing his decision until after the April 9 general election, arguing that a pre-indictment hearing while the election campaign was in progress would have an undue and unfair effect on public opinion.
"The attorney general's announcement about his intention to publish a message [about the indictments] today [Thursday] is the result of pressure from the Left over the past three years, whose goal is to bring down the right-wing government and win the election outside the voting booth," the Likud said in a message.
Mendelblit was expected to announce on Thursday that he had decided to indict Netanyahu on serious charges – including bribery, fraud, and breach of trust – in two of the three cases of alleged corruption involving the prime minister, pending a hearing.
In Case 1,000, one of the first cases to come to light, Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, were investigated for allegedly accepting illicit gifts from billionaire businessmen Arnon Milchan and James Packer. Mendelblit was expected to announce indictments on charges of fraud and breach of trust in this case.
In Case 2,000, in which Netanyahu is suspected of negotiating a deal with Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon "Noni" Mozes under which he would work to curtail the activity of Israel Hayom in exchange for Yedioth Ahronoth softening its harshly critical coverage of Netanyahu. Mendelblit could decide not to indict him, in this case, to avoid interfering in the relationship between politics and the media.
The issue of an indictment in Case 2,000 has been a bone of contention between Mendelblit and State Attorney Shai Nitzan, who thinks that a non-indictment could make it difficult to indict Netanyahu in Case 4,000, which is considered the most serious case.
In Case 4,000, Netanyahu is suspected of having offered Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder in the Bezeq communications giant, benefits worth hundreds of millions of shekels in exchange for favorable coverage of Netanyahu and his family on the Bezeq-owned Walla news website. Mendelblit was expected to announce that he was indicting Netanyahu on counts of bribery.
The indictments can only be served after a hearing, a process that could take several weeks.
"It is possible that due to the announcement of the attorney general's decision, parties that are part of the right-wing bloc that supports the prime minister could get fewer Knesset seats [in the election], even though the decision could be reversed as a result of the hearing, which will take place only after the election – but too late for the parties that have lost representation in the Knesset as a result of the announcement," the Likud petition argued.
An indictment would mark the first time in Israeli history that a sitting prime minister has been charged with a crime. Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert served time in prison for corruption but had already resigned by the time he was charged.
Netanyahu doesn't look to go that quietly. He denies any wrongdoing and calls the various allegations a media-orchestrated witch hunt aimed at removing him from office. He has vowed to carry on and is deadlocked in the polls, 40 days before Israelis head to the voting stations.
While Israeli prime ministers are not required by law to resign if charged, the prospect of a prime minister standing trial while simultaneously running the country would be unchartered territory.
Mendelblit's decision could either galvanize Netanyahu's hard-line supporters who see him as a victim of an overzealous prosecution or turn more moderate backers against him who have tired of his lengthy rule tainted by long-standing accusations of corruption and hedonism.
Either way, the upcoming elections appear to be morphing into a referendum on Netanyahu as he seeks to become the longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history.
Ahead of Mendelblit's announcement on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump spoke up in defense of Netanyahu.
"Well, I just think he's been a great prime minister, and I don't know about his difficulty. But you're telling me something that, you know, people have been hearing about, but I don't know about that. I can say this – that he's done a great job as prime minister. He's tough. He's smart. He's strong," Trump said.
The Labor party posted a message on Twitter saying, "Enough, Netanyahu – confront reality and respect the attorney general's decision. It's time to put an end to the culture of government corruption you created."
