Mandelblit issued the blockbuster opinion only days after announcing a final indictment for Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust last Thursday.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit (R)(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit issued a legal opinion on Monday that amounts to deflecting all three ways that critics have sought to force Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu out of office in any immediate time frame.Mandelblit issued the blockbuster opinion only days after announcing a final indictment for Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust last Thursday.First, Mandelblit said the fact that Netanyahu is a transitional prime minister without a Knesset has no bearing on forcing him out immediately.He cited the Knesset law that says if a government is forced to be dissolved or a prime minister is forced to resign, the prime minister at the time remains the caretaker prime minister.In other words, if Netanyahu was forced out, he would essentially be the caretaker for himself.Second, he ruled that Netanyahu cannot be declared incompetent to carry out his duties merely by the legal establishment as a result of an indictment.Rather, he said this is a political-public sector question.Further, he said that the statutory law on the issue does not get into deep detail about what circumstances lead to being declared incompetent.However, overall, he said that the purpose of the law’s incompetence provisions applied to a situation where the prime minister physically or mentally could not carry out their duties, which he implied is not the case with even a harsh corruption indictment.Third, he said he would not rule on whether Netanyahu can be disqualified from forming a new government since the question is hypothetical, with no government expected to be formed by Netanyahu in the near future.Regarding whether Netanyahu needs to drop his additional ministerial portfolios – health minister, social welfare minister, Diaspora minister and acting agricultural minister – Mandelblit said he was still looking at the issue.It appears that Mandelblit is hoping that Netanyahu will resign these posts so that he does not need to rule on the issue.All of these issues could arrive at the High Court of Justice, but Mandelblit’s view will hold significant weight.Already on Sunday, the Movement for the Quality of Government in Israel has requested that the High Court fire Netanyahu for one of the above reasons.The High Court said that the petition was being filed prematurely, but that it could be refiled once Mandelblit had expressed an opinion.Now that Mandelblit has issued an opinion, the NGO may refile. The Labor Party and some other groups have also vowed to file to the High Court to get Netanyahu fired.If Netanyahu is reelected, a new petition could be filed theoretically to force him from office based on decades of case law that no minister can stay in office once indicted.But it appears that the issue may get decided by a High Court ruling on these issues before he gets reelected or that the issue will be resolved by someone beating Netanyahu in a possible third election or within the Likud, if it holds primaries in the coming weeks or months.
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