Likud admits Netanyahu trial can’t be stopped

“It is becoming more and more clear that the entire process in the Knesset has been marred and tainted by Blue and White’s anyone but Bibi campaign,” a Likud spokesman said.

By GIL HOFFMAN
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a cabinet meeting, December 2019. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a cabinet meeting, December 2019.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
The Likud will use every stalling tactic possible to delay procedures that would expedite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial, but party officials admitted on Thursday that efforts to achieve immunity for Netanyahu are ultimately bound to fail.
The Knesset’s legal adviser Eyal Yinon is expected to rule on Sunday that Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein cannot block Blue and White from forming a Knesset House Committee that would have a majority to reject Netanyahu’s request for immunity from prosecution in his criminal cases.
The Likud has promised to filibuster and repeatedly petition the High Court of Justice to delay every step along the way to the vote from the moment Yinon issues his ruling. A Likud statement on Thursday said Yinon should have disqualified himself from all aspects of the immunity procedure, because he will be a prosecution witness in Netanyahu’s trial.
“It is becoming more and more clear that the entire process in the Knesset has been marred and tainted by Blue and White’s anyone but Bibi campaign,” a Likud spokesman said.
Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit’s office responded that Yinon would only be a technical witness on how the Knesset works, not a witness against the prime minister, so there is no conflict of interest.
Netanyahu’s trial can only begin after the House Committee formally rejects Netanyahu’s immunity request and his indictment is then officially submitted to the Jerusalem District Court.
If Yinon rules that Edelstein can block Blue and White from forming a House Committee, Blue and White has vowed to remove Edelstein from office. There would be a majority to replace Edelstein with Blue and White MK Meir Cohen, because Yisrael Beytenu has announced it would support the move.