In a little over a month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could cement his role in the nation’s history if he secures a fourth term that will put him in line to be the longest serving prime minister ever. Standing in his way are two men: Benny Gantz, the former chief of general staff for the Israeli Defense Forces who is challenging Netanyahu, and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who announced last week he planned to indict the prime minister for bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
Together, some think they have the ability to bring down a prime minister who has pushed forward with a foreign policy that has aggressively expanded Israel’s presence in the occupied territories, engendered itself to right-wing strongmen, and isolated itself from more moderate allies in the West, while remaining relatively popular.
“These charge of bribery and fraud, they’re getting more and more traction and he may not be able to survive that politically,” WGBH News Analyst and CEO of the GroundTruth Project Charlie Sennott said in an interview with Boston Public Radio on Monday.
The charges against Netanyahu focus on three specific cases. In one, Netanyahu is accused of compensating the owner of Walla, a popular Israeli news site, for favorable coverage during the 2015 election. In another, the prime minister is accused of leveraging his friendship with casino magnate Sheldon Adelson by telling an Israeli newspaper publisher he would convince Adelson to curb circulation of an Israeli paper he owned, if the publisher agreed to provide more favorable coverage. Last, Israel’s attorney general recommended indicting Netanyahu for receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts for lobbying his Finance Ministry to extend a tax exemption to an expatriate movie producer in Hollywood.
Netanyahu says the charges are fabricated and part of an elaborate smear campaign orchestrated by his opponents to bring him and his political party, Likud, down.
“They mounted a thuggish, incessant campaign of pressure — I’d say almost inhuman — on the attorney general. Now, since the attorney general is only flesh and blood, the left wing’s pressure succeeded,” Netanyahu said in a speech on Thursday.
Netanyahu has yet to be charged, and there is still time for him and his lawyers to convince the attorney general to drop the charges. If convicted, Netanyahu could serve up to 10 years in prison on one charge of bribery alone. The allegations have been enough to cast doubt on his future as prime minister. Recent polls show Gantz with a 1 percent lead, and he plans on widening the gap by casting Netanyahu as a corrupt politician with no respect for the rule of law.
“Mr. Netanyahu, this country is dear to us and I am sure that it is also dear to you. You have the power to stop this. People of Israel, sitting with Netanyahu in the same government cannot happen. I call on you, Netanyahu, to show responsibility and to resign from you position,” Gantz said in a statement. “Stop personal attacks on people you have appointed yourself.”
Once thought unshakable, the scandal has now created the possibility of an Israel with the centrist former general, Gantz, at its helm. On the campaign trail, Gantz has been notoriously vague about what policies his administration would adopt. While Netanyahu has sought to shore up support with the Israeli right by promoting a supply-side approach to economics with an emphasis on national security, Gantz has tried to stick to the center. For example, when it comes to settlements in the occupied territories, Gantz earned praise from liberals for saying he won’t pursue settlement construction as actively as Netanyahu, but has also signaled he has no intention to freeze construction altogether. Similarly, on issues such as housing, economics and climate change, he has yet to endorse any clear goals or policies.
