“I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as president, I must put the interest of America first."
By JEFF BARAKFormer US president Richard Nixon, upon facing impeachment in the Watergate scandal, stepped down from his position in a final televised address to the public(photo credit: REUTERS)
Nixon recognized the damage staying in power would inflict on the US. What about Netanyahu?We all know Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likes to see himself as Israel’s version of Donald Trump. But it would be better for Israel if our prime minister were to model himself on another US Republican president: Richard Nixon.Facing almost certain impeachment for his involvement in the Watergate scandal, Nixon went on television to make his final presidential address:“I would have preferred to carry through to the finish, whatever the personal agony it would have involved, and my family unanimously urged me to do so. But the interest of the nation must always come before any personal considerations.“I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as president, I must put the interest of America first. America needs a full-time president and a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with problems we face at home and abroad.“To continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the president and the Congress, in a period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without inflation at home. Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.”Compare and contrast with our prime minister’s shameful, self-pitying and whiny televised statement on Thursday evening, after Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit announced his decision to indict Netanyahu on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.All that was missing in Netanyahu’s appearance was the big, white, crocheted kippah that hard-core criminals prefer when appearing in court in a futile attempt to convince it of their innocence. The only thing white about Netanyahu’s appearance was his ashen face, as the prime minister finally realized the game was up. The brash bravado of “There will be nothing because there is nothing” was nowhere to be seen.Instead, using the lexicon of a career criminal, Netanyahu insisted that he had been set up; that the investigators were not “looking for the truth, they were looking for me.” Arguing that the legal process against him had been “contaminated,” he even lobbed the outrageous claim that the decision to indict him was an “attempted government coup.”Whereas Nixon clearly recognized the damage an attempt by him to remain in power would inflict upon the United States, our prime minister does not give a fig about the country’s well-being. It’s all about him. The only reason Israel is facing a third general election in the space of one year is Netanyahu’s refusal to stand down from public life and concentrate on preparing his defense against the very serious criminal charges he faces.IT MAY very well be that a court will decide that Netanyahu’s alleged acceptance of gifts of cigars, champagne and jewelry worth NIS 691,776 from two billionaires, and being entangled in a conflict of interests with one of them, does not constitute fraud and breach of trust (Case 1000), and that neither does Netanyahu’s detailed negotiations with a newspaper publisher about securing favorable coverage for himself, in return for introducing legislation to harm that paper’s most powerful competitor (Case 2000).It is even conceivable that a court might clear Netanyahu of the most serious charge of bribery, accepting the prime minister’s arguments that his and his family’s hundreds of documented requests for changes to the Walla website’s coverage of them had no influence whatsoever on Netanyahu’s decisions to grant Shaul Elovitch, Walla’s owner, regulatory benefits worth hundreds of millions of shekels to his core business of Bezeq (Case 4000).In theory – and, indeed, in practice – until he is convicted of these alleged crimes, Netanyahu is an innocent man. But with the shadow of such serious crimes hanging over him, Netanyahu’s own words back in 2008 should be ringing in his ears.“A prime minister who is neck-deep in investigations has no public or moral mandate to make crucial decisions...,” Netanyahu said then, as he pushed for then-premier Ehud Olmert to resign. Olmert, honorably, stepped down even before charges were brought against him. And even though he had fierce criticisms of the legal system which eventually sent him to prison, never once did Olmert claim that the investigations against him were a coup attempt.We should not be needing the attorney-general to rule this week on whether or not a person under indictment (Netanyahu) can still legally be granted the presidential mandate to attempt to form the country’s next government, should the political circumstances lead to such an appointment. Israel’s citizens deserve a full-time prime minister and one whose decisions, particularly in military matters, will not be scrutinized as to whether or not they are serving as a smoke screen to distract attention away from his legal difficulties.At the beginning of his pathetic and dishonorable appearance last Thursday evening, Netanyahu listed the different ways he had served the country in the past.The only way he can serve it now is to step down.The writer is a former editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post.
if(catID != 151){
var cont = `Take Israel home with the new Jerusalem Post Store
