The farce and failure of Netanyahu’s latest antics – opinion

The stench of a decade ago is nothing compared to that surrounding a prime minister desperate to evade justice

By JEFF BARAK
PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu. (photo credit: REUTERS)
PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Those concerned by the farce surrounding the establishment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fifth government this week should hold their nerves: the real drama will start next week when Netanyahu takes center stage at the Jerusalem District Court with the beginning of his trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
Like every Netanyahu administration, the swearing-in of his government, initially scheduled for last week, got off to a delayed start, as the prime minister struggled to mollify would-be Likud ministers left without a portfolio.
For years Netanyahu has specialized in ignoring senior-ranking Likud Knesset members, handing out the most important ministries to politicians outside of the Likud. Yet each time these Likud loyalists are surprised and offended anew.
This time around, however, given the hugely inflated size of his planned government – 34 ministers and 16 deputy ministers! – one can feel a certain sympathy for leading Likud figures who failed to make the cut of this largest government in Israel’s history. If you can’t get a seat at this oversized government table, then, like former public security minister Gilad Erdan, it’s worth considering a second career.
While Netanyahu has been busy shaving off parts of ministries to create superfluous new ones, in the case of Erdan the prime minister took the opposite and surprising approach of appointing the former minister to the dual post of ambassador to the United States and ambassador to the United Nations.
The last time these two senior diplomatic roles were combined was over 60 years under Abba Eban. One hopes that Erdan was being uncharacteristically modest when he described his English as being OK although open to improvement. The chances, though, of him matching the Cambridge-educated polymath Eban’s eloquence and diplomatic finesse are slim, to say the least.
Furthermore, given the suspicion with which Netanyahu holds Erdan as a potential successor to the Likud leadership, the new ambassador will not be regarded in Washington as having the prime minister’s ear. This will make his job that much harder. Not only will Erdan find filling Eban’s shoes difficult, it will also be a tough struggle for him to emerge from the shadow left by Ron Dermer, the outgoing ambassador to Washington and ultimate Netanyahu-Donald Trump insider.
And one can’t help wondering whether, after all, Netanyahu does have a wicked sense of humor. His decision to appoint Miri Regev to the post of foreign minister after 18 months, when the premiership and some other ministries are scheduled to rotate, raises the scenario of Erdan having to greet and host Regev in Washington.
The sight of Erdan having to kowtow to Regev, one of his Likud rivals, will certainly bring a smile to Netanyahu’s face. Unfortunately, for the rest of us, the prospect of the crass and vulgar Regev being Israel’s face to the world is less amusing. Then again, Netanyahu’s whole modus operandi is predicated on what is best for him, not what is best for the country.
His decision to appoint Yuli Edelstein to the Health Ministry is a case in point. Unable to grant Edelstein’s wish to return to his previous post of Knesset speaker and yet unwilling to risk antagonizing him, Netanyahu has placed a man with no experience whatsoever in running a complex cabinet portfolio in charge of leading Israel’s response to the coronavirus.
Such a move, alongside the inflated number of ministers and deputy ministers, proves that this new administration is not an emergency government designed to lead Israel out of the COVID-19 crisis, but, rather, a government framed to ensure Netanyahu’s status as a sitting prime minister for at least the beginning period of his trial.
Additionally, the appointment of Amir Ohana, Netanyahu’s favorite bulldog, as Erdan’s replacement, is presumably to ensure no further charges are brought against the premier. With Ohana in charge of choosing the new Israel Police chief, it doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to assume that any criminal investigation into the shares Netanyahu received from his American cousin will silently peter out.
ALL THE prime minister’s real energies are focused on staying out of prison. Everything else, including the mooted annexation of parts of the West Bank and leading Israel on the path of post-pandemic economic recovery, is secondary.
Netanyahu’s failure last week to condemn the death threats and other hate mail sent to Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit was not due to the prime minister being distracted by coalition building. Netanyahu often boasts as to how he can do more in one day than others in a year. The prime minister’s silence was a sign of his approval for a recently launched campaign that seeks to delegitimize the attorney-general.
Last week’s revival of the decade-old Harpaz Affair is nothing but a last-ditch attempt to undermine Mandelblit. From once-trusted cabinet secretary and handpicked appointment as attorney-general, Mandelblit has turned into Netanyahu’s bête noire simply because, by indicting Netanyahu, he put his duty to the rule of law above that of his loyalty to the prime minister.
When Blue and White leader Benny Gantz took over from Gabi Ashkenazi as IDF chief of staff as a result of the fallout from the Harpaz Affair, he complained to his fellow generals of the “smell of a carcass in the room.”
Gantz will find that the stench of a decade ago will pale in comparison to what awaits him around the cabinet table headed by a man determined to evade justice.
The writer is a former editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post.