By Ira Sharkansky
JERUSALEM — There are several parts to Bibi Netanyahu.
After distinguished military service, he climbed through lesser posts to be Prime Minister from 1984, and is set to make a record of the longest-serving Prime Minister in Israel’s history.
He’s bright, perhaps brilliant. Speaks fluently both Hebrew and English. Has recently made a record of close linkages with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. He’s gotten US recognition of Jerusalem’s capital plus an Embassy, and Israel’s possession of the Golan Heights from Trump. And with Putin he has managed a delicate interface in Syria that has allowed Israeli strikes against Hezbollah and Iranian targets that are often alongside Russian installations.
He’s traveled widely, and seems to have developed working relations with China, Germany, France, India, and Britain, along with a number of Latin American and African leaders.
He’s won the support of voters in the north and south, including those alongside Gaza whose welfare Bibi seems to sacrifice in order not to make things worse with Gaza.
He speaks firmly about punishing Gaza, but has stood against ministers who have insisted on more forceful actions there.
While there is much to praise in his record as Prime Minister, there is also much to condemn in a record of personal and family corruption that has so far produced the prosecutor’s intentions to indict, pending hearings, on three separate cases, with another case pending further inquiries.
The matter of hearings is currently in the news.
The prosecutor’s intention to begin them in July.has come up against confusions with respect to Netanyahu’s attorneys.
The files were to have been delivered after the election, but attorneys refused to receive them. Perhaps the issue was a still pending request of Netanyahu to receive money from a cousin to pay them.
Now the files have been delivered to attorneys.
Still unresolved is his request for permission to receive funds for his defense. The committee dealing with it has demanded a full disclosure of his wealth. Bibi has refused, claiming that the information would be leaked, and thereby destroy his right to privacy. He is claiming an inability to finance his defense, without the aid from a cousin.
Some would claim that a ranking official has no right to privacy about his finances.
And in the air of a government not yet created are proposals that may protect the Prime Minister (and perhaps other officials) from prosecution.
Bibi distanced himself from these shenanigans prior to the election, but more recently has guided Likud MKs in how to present the case for protection.
Gideon Sa’ar, with a long record of tension with Netanyahu, has announced his strong opposition to any extensive protection being enacted, even while claiming to support Bibi. This earned Sa’ar pretty much instant condemnation from some Likud MKs. But Sa’ar indicated that he was not alone in his position. And top Likudniks have so far chosen to be quiet about the issue.
Meanwhile, Bibi’s wife, Sara, has refused to accept offers to let her off lightly with respect to her management of the official residence, which has included large and small instances of criminal corruption.
And the elder son, Yair, has made headlines for salacious comments with friends that were recorded, as well as a number of nasty posts meant to serve the positions of his father.
The Legal Adviser to the Government, i.e., the chief prosecutor, has worked for more than two years with police investigators. Is the Legal Adviser being deliberate, or slow? And will he give in to demands to postpone hearings way into the future?
Perhaps the Legal Adviser is cautious, or overly so, in proceeding to put the head of government into the slammer. But it’s been done before, in the case of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, as well as President Moshe Katsav.
Getting in the way of judging Netanyahu are his apparent success in the election, alongside polls indicating that a majority opposes his continuation in office.
His party, Likud, won 35 seats in the Knesset. The primary opposition, Blue White, won the same number. How much credit should Bibi get from the success of five smaller parties, whose leaders indicated to the President that Bibi should be given the opportunity to form a government.
And it is not clear that his personal charm is responsible for good relations with both Trump and Putin. If national interests prevail in such matters, then another national leader might have done as well or even better than Bibi.
Israel is on the cusp of turning into something like Turkey, with certain forms of democracy, but using them to protect a leader with a record of personal corruption.
There is substantial criticism of Netanyahu in Israel, and as well from American Jews. There he seems weakest among the non-Orthodox. Within Israel he has championed their cause, but has not implemented much. Perhaps any Israeli leader would be beholden to Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox politicians, insistent in their opposition to goodies for the non-Orthodox.
Overall, it’s not easy to judge his records against visible support from many voters, as well as opposition from many others.
There are some who compare him to King David, who also had his faults, as well as people living alongside Gaza who praise him and continue voting Likud, despite suffering from missiles, rockets, balloons, and kites. Some Americans claim that Israel would be vulnerable without the protection of such a skilled speaker and politicians.
His attorneys have requested postponing hearings for a year. Too much in the files to review in the existing period until July, when the Legal Adviser to the Government proposed beginning them.
Are we to be saddled for more years with a corrupt Prime Minister and his corrupt wife, who smile and claim much wider support than what they actually enjoy?
Or will there be enough reluctance in Likud and its apparent allies to resist efforts to enact legal protections?
In the midst of all this, the man’s having trouble putting together a government. He has a bit more than a week left. Usually something happens in the last days. By this time, however, there’s usually more agreed to than there is now.
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Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University. He may be contacted via ira.sharkansky@sdjewishworld.com