Today’s Top Stories
1. Last night Israeli police recommended criminal charges against PM Netanyahu, as part of two investigations that go by the technical names, “Case 1000” and “Case 2000.” Allegations include bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Netanyahu called the allegations baseless as well as “biased” and “extreme,” and vowed to complete his fourth term in office.
In Israel, the police perform the preliminary investigation into a potential crime. (Times of Israel wrote an entire series of articles on the topic). Following the investigation stage, the police must choose whether to recommend that the attorney general bring criminal charges, in the form of an official indictment. For this reason, the police recommendation last night is a significant step in this process. The next step will be for Israel’s attorney general Avichai Mandelblit to decide whether or not to accept the recommendation and to issue an indictment. If he does, that will mark the beginning of a legal process likely to include a criminal trial, or possibly an out of court settlement.
Israeli law would not actually require the PM to step down until conviction, though there is no telling what political pressures might arise, as in the case of former PM Ehud Olmert in 2007-2008.
As a service to our readers we are making a variety of educational information available on this topic, however HonestReporting does not take positions on domestic Israeli political matters.
Take your pick of coverage: Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, Reuters, Associated Press, LA Times, just to name a few. The Israeli Democracy Institute has some additional background on the technical legal aspects.
2. Yesterday the trial began for Ahed Tamimi, who was arrested last December for hitting soldiers in a video that went viral on the internet. In the midst of what was shaping up to be a media circus, Judge Menachem Lieberman officially announced his decision to conduct the trial “behind closed doors,”: meaning without the presence of the press, but with the presence of the defendant, her legal counsel and her family.
Amid a flurry of strong but uninformed opinions on how Israeli and international law actually work, HR’s Daniel Pomerantz clarified the situation on i24 News:
3. After Saturday’s events in Syria, in which Israel clashed with Iranian forces, Deputy Minister for Diplomacy Michael Oren concluded that Washington has “almost no leverage on the ground,” but US Secretary of State Tillerson disagrees.
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4. Is denying Israeli help worth suffering drought? According to South Africa’s Rumana Akoob, writing in the Daily Vox and Mail & Guardian, the answer is (apparently): yes.
5. Newsweek presents this anti-Israel propaganda video as a history documentary. HonestReporting takes it apart.
Commentary/Analysis
• What’s it like to be a journalist in the Ahed Tamimi trial? Apparently, something of a spectacle.
• What are the people who oppose Tamimi’s arrest saying? Nour Tamimi (Ahed’s cousin) writes an opinion piece in The Washington Post.
• For an additional dissenting view, see Amnesty International, which calls for Ahed Tamimi’s immediate release.
• On the other hand, writing in Haaretz, Petra Marquardt-Bigman presents a sobering account of Ahed Tamimi’s cynical politics and her family’s rather dark backstory.
• What’s the strategic and political backstory behind the police recommendation against Netanyahu? Times of Israel’s David Horowitz weighs in.
• What were the actual events that led up to the present accusations against the PM, and what’s the “Milchan law?” Haaretz’s Allison Kaplan Sommer shares her take.
• What does the international press think of the emerging Netanyahu legal drama? The New York Times is fairly typical in that their main focus is on continuity of Israeli leadership.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Israel awards top literature prize to novelist critical of its policies (David Grossman) – Reuters
– Continued Iranian Military Expansion in Syria Will Lead to Wider Conflict – Dennis Ross
– Israel Must Prepare for War on Its Northern Border – Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Eyal Ben-Reuven
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