Only in Israel, a request for immunity filed in the first act does not fire in the third act, but dissipates, leaving behind a long trail of mountainous words.
Only in Israel, a Knesset that dissipated itself to know, for the third time in a year, is gathering in the midst of an election campaign for a special debate that is all hot air. Even after it became clear to everyone that the main debate had evaporated, its members continued, "just like nothing," because "the show has to go on." At any cost and any condition.
If the prime minister had the foresight, he would have been better off avoiding submitting the request for immunity. Was also worthy of value and public. Not everything that can and should be done is appropriate and should be done.
But Netanyahu, however suspicious and accused, believes in his innocence and fights for it by all means available to him: legal, political and media. Even those who do not always work in his favor.
The attorney general had to act differently. Not because his decisions so far do not stand the test of professional criticism or are tainted with impartiality, but because unlike the suspects he is instructing to prosecute, he should behave differently, being in the law enforcement system pyramid.
"Justice," it has been said more than once, "must not only be done but also seen." In the matter of visibility, the system failed, in its favor or not, over and over again. Thus, in unnecessary communications and email communications it was better not to have been sent; thus, in the absence of a senior State Attorney's staff in the midst of the hearing; The prosecution's application yesterday, to impose some of the evidence in Netanyahu's files, is not an exception in the criminal landscape, but in the eyes of the unaccustomed public it will also play to opponents of the judicial system, and may add a lot of oil to the public's loss of public trust in law enforcement.
Precisely because of all these, the haste in this case, even in this case, was from the devil. But patience in the prosecutor's office in the face of defense attorneys has long since expired (and there are those who worry about it, for his own reasons). At a record speed, the Attorney General and State Attorney's Office reached the building just across the road, the Jerusalem District Court building, to which, under the law, the indictment against an incumbent prime minister was filed, for the first time in the history of the State of Israel.
To put it in doubt, it should be emphasized that all the moves, including the erroneous ones made in Netanyahu's trial so far, did not materially harm the process itself. Despite the headlines and the noise, these are, if anything, minor moves that have no real and significant impact on the procedure itself. But they have left a bad taste among many members of the public who are unfamiliar with the subtle nuances of criminal law, and it is a pity.
The next test in this regard is at the door of the President of the Court, who will also have to determine the composition of the judges, the date of the indictment, the date of commencement of hearings and the pace at which the trial will proceed.
Despite the deliberate procrastination so far inflicted by the defendants, the interest of all parties, especially a prime minister who claims his innocence, should be as quickly as possible made clear of the trial and reach a decision in his case as soon as possible.
In addition, it should be borne in mind that beyond the crates of evidence that accompany the three cases, other defendants are also joined by them, who, too, and their attorneys have something to say about the trial date, its pace and duration. And we have not yet spoken while the parties' attorneys need to prepare for each meeting in advance, to process and digest the software afterwards.
In short, the trial would be exhausted and run to its fullest, without any shortcuts (frequently used in criminal proceedings with the consent of both parties to the proceeding) or such and other plea bargains, we expect a good few months, if not many years, of a long and tedious trial.
For further opinions of Aviad HaCohen