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Israeli politicisation of ‘rule of law’

Dec 05,2018 - Last updated at Dec 05,2018

When the Israeli police recommend the pressing of graft and bribery charges against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, but the Israeli attorney general refuses to do so until now, this becomes a clear case of politicisation par excellence of the rule of law in Israel.

Israel prides itself on being a country of rule of law, where nobody is, presumably, above the law. But when it comes to Netanyahu, Israel all of a sudden becomes literally lawless.

The most recent charges against Netanyahu and his wife include fraud and bribery involving media mogul Shaul Elovitch and his wife, Iris, in exchange for favourable coverage of the Israeli prime minister. Netanyahu is fighting tooth and nail against these charges by calling them politically motivated.

The Israeli attorney general is suspiciously taking his time on the allegations against Netanyahu and his wife, and seems reluctant to go ahead and indict them, presumably because of pressing political considerations. Netanyahu is arguing that Israel is facing unprecedented dangers to its security from the north and the south and that this is no time to fiddle with the political leadership of the country.

In fact, Netanyahu has launched a series of provocations against Gaza to divert attention from his own political situation, and has launched recently yet another provocation against Lebanon’s Hizbollah by initiating a search and destroy military operation in search for alleged tunnels that Hizbollah may have dug into Israeli territory.

If push comes to shove, no one would put it past Netanyahu if he ends up attacking either Lebanon or Hamas to divert attention from the multifaceted corruption charges against him and his wife. Netanyahu is a master of political survival and he will do anything to stay in power, even when many Israelis would rather give another politician the chance to govern.

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