Following reports that suspicions of Palestinian Authority involvement in Israel's election campaign were being examined, MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party), who had previously warned about the issue, repeated his concerns on 103FM on Tuesday. Rothman described the allegations as deeply troubling and insisted that they required a thorough investigation.
"When I sent a letter, and I was the first to do so, to the chairman of the Central Elections Committee (CEC) and the head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), the first responses I received were, 'Why are you spreading a conspiracy theory? There was nothing, and there is nothing,'" Rothman recalled.
"It is very clear that a foreign state entity was involved in Israel's elections, and now what remains is to determine the extent of that involvement," he claimed.
Rothman also criticized restrictions allegedly imposed by the attorney-general on examining the matter.
"Any restriction imposed by the attorney-general, any such investigation, should concern anyone who cares about Israeli democracy," he said. "In my view, it is ridiculous to claim that this did not affect the election results before you even know the findings of the investigation."
Rothman raises possibility of new elections if foreign interference affected results
Asked whether he was suggesting that the results of the most recent Knesset elections should be annulled, Rothman responded with a series of hypothetical scenarios.
"If this affected 50,000 votes, would that require new elections? I don't know. If it affected 100,000 votes? Half a million votes? Then there would probably be no alternative, and new elections would have to be held," he said.
"There is one way to make sure we never find out: not to investigate. If you don't investigate, you won't know."
According to Rothman, the issue is significant regardless of the number of votes that may have been affected.
"This is a major incident, whether we are talking about five million, hundreds of thousands, or tens of thousands," he said.
"The Shin Bet is the body responsible for detecting cases of foreign interference. Today, there is no dispute that foreign influence took place. Solberg says it, Liberman says it, and this is no longer political at all."
"If there was foreign interference, then someone in the Shin Bet apparently failed," Rothman concluded.