What Netanyahu Had Done During His Investigations Is Even Worse Than the Actual Charges
Corruption and leaders with moral flaws will always exist, both in Israel and abroad. But there has never been anything like this – a prime minister who incites against the institutions of his own country; a prime minister who accuses the police and prosecution of criminal intent and actions, of fabricating cases in order to destroy him politically. And he does all this just because they dared investigate him and put him on trial.
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– Bibi’s slash-and-burn strategy puts Israel on trial
Bibi’s slash-and-burn strategy puts Israel on trialHaaretz
If we take these claims seriously, we can’t avoid asking one honest question: If these agencies are so corrupt, led by villains who would stop at nothing to “fabricate cases,” then where has the prime minister – aka Benjamin Netanyahu – been for the past decade? How did he ever appoint them, and why did he change his mind about them so drastically only when they started investigating him like any ordinary person?
Netanyahu never addresses these contradictions, because they weaken him. Instead, he makes a lot of noise. An atmosphere of chaos – rumors, half-truths, massive mudslinging – drowns out this simple logic.
Just before his trial began Sunday, the prime minister accused state agencies and their leaders of criminal behavior; after all, fabricated cases, if they were really fabricated, are serious crimes. When he mentioned in his speech certain senior law enforcement officials – above all former Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich and Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit – he cited “weak points” that paint them as dishonest.
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There’s no doubt this is an ugly tactic in a dirty game, but Netanyahu, who is married to a psychologist, surely knows that one of the first terms learned by every fledgling psychology student is projection. To protect themselves, people project onto others attributes, behaviors, motives and other negative traits drawn from the basements of their own personalities. In Netanyahu’s world, it’s reasonable to believe that the attorney general was indicting him because of extortion.
Netanyahu is convinced that a huge injustice has been done to him, and in recent months he has compared himself to Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish officer thrown out of the French army and imprisoned due to a false accusation. (Maybe this affair attracts him in part because of its “happy” ending.)
Obviously, it’s his right to feel this way and even to argue that he’s innocent. That’s one reason the High Court of Justice was right not to disqualify him from serving as prime minister even before his trial began.