Netanyahu's trial is far from over, but yesterday something fell through: the various reporters and commentators, who usually talk about the system instead of control, burst into almost uniform messages - "Mandelblit was wrong when he did not file indictments against Sarah and Yair Netanyahu."
Netanyahu's Trial: Hefetz Testimony - Day Two, Photo: Yoni Rickner
Let us leave for a moment the absurdity of the essence of the claim, and focus on the motivation to resonate: the statements against the ombudsman went out into the world at almost uniform timing, in a way that suspects that at least some of them are briefed by prosecutors. The
grievances against Mandelblit were not born in a vacuum, but as a result of his disastrous testimony so far to Nir Hefetz's lawsuit (even before his cross-examination began), similar to the testimony of prosecution witness Ilan Yeshua, who mostly assisted defense attorneys. Netanyahu and Elovich.
Netanyahu with his lawyers outside the courtroom, Photo: Emil Salman
The deep crisis in which the prosecution found itself at an early stage of the trial should not surprise anyone: as early as last April, with the opening of the evidentiary phase in the trial and the speech of prosecutor Liat Ben-Ari, we wrote here that any speech, "dramatic" as it may be, will be very difficult to fill. The giant at the heart of the indictment.
Mandelblit, Nitzan and Ben-Ari could have identified the huge holes themselves, but in truth their blindness is inevitable. The indictment against Netanyahu should not have been aired on the world stage, but was filed as a result of a disastrous combination that characterizes the "spirit" of the State Attorney's Office: deep contempt for the principle of popular rule ("ignorant masses") underlying the democratic regime; Intoxication of power (a body that enjoys almost unlimited authority to decide the fates of people, but almost no responsibility for its actions after castrating the mechanisms of control and supervision); An extreme progressive agenda ("exceptional" in the language of the State Attorney's Office) that sees Netanyahu as a key enemy of the project of making Israel a state of all its citizens.
State witness Nir Hefetz in the courtroom, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
In such a state of affairs, any illegal interrogation, any trending leak and any indictment, perforated as it may be, will be trained and whitened - all in order to achieve the overarching goal of retaining power by the "right" people.
Unfortunately, this trend, of using the law enforcement system to "educate" the people with the help of incriminating its leaders, will not change any time soon.
Yesterday we were informed that the Minister of Justice, Saar, who knew how to constantly (with a great deal of justice) attack Netanyahu for "surrendering to the jurists", appointed Dan Meridor - Knight of the Activists - as the government's representative in the committee to locate the next spokesman. Against him, he has become a tool in the hands of lawyers.
Despite everything, there is room for optimism: Netanyahu's trial, which is currently becoming a public trial of Mandelblit and the State Attorney's Office, reinforces the hope that the day Israel is crowned a true democracy.