News that former Communications Ministry Director General Shlomo Filber had turned state's witness in the newest corruption investigation against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached the prime minister while he was meeting with his lawyers on the other cases against him.
The fact that Filber – one of Netanyahu's closest associates, who has known him for decades, was privy to all his dirty little secrets and was hired to carry out the prime minister's plan to change the media landscape – was willing to turn against him means Netanyahu was as good as done, the pundits said. For all intents and purposes, it was game over.
Filber struck a deal after he was arrested as one of the prime suspects in Case 4,000, which centers on allegedly illicit dealings and conflicts of interest involving Israeli telecom corporation Bezeq and the Walla news website, which Bezeq owns. The police allege that Bezeq's controlling shareholder, Shaul Elovitch, ensured positive coverage of the Netanyahu family by Walla, in exchange for the prime minister promoting government regulations worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the company.
Case 4,000 comes on the heels of three other corruption cases involving the prime minister: Case 1,000, which centers on gifts Netanyahu allegedly received from Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer; Case 2,000, which focuses on an illicit deal Netanyahu allegedly tried to strike with Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes so as to ensure positive coverage; and Case 3,000, which revolves around an alleged conflict of interest with regard to the 2016 procurement of three German submarines. Case 3,000 does not implicate Netanyahu directly, but rather his attorney and cousin, David Shimron.
The politically savvy Netanyahu is no longer fazed by rumors about him or by the leaks from the various police investigations. After all, reports of his "political death" date back to Likud's victory in the 2009 elections and have always been greatly exaggerated.
Netanyahu, like all other top Likud officials, is only worried about one thing: that the circumstances of the various investigations waged against him will converge into critical mass. This will be the point where his supporters in Likud and the Right no longer follow him blindly and begin pondering "the day after" – and maybe even come up with alternatives to his leadership.
The prime minister has weathered his interrogations by the Israel Police and their recommendations that he be indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in Case 1,000. Then came Tuesday's shocking news about Filber, which threatened to turn the situation on its head.
Netanyahu was reportedly completely blindsided by the move, and worse: He had no time to prepare his supporters for the possibility that a longtime, trusted confidant would turn against him. He was unable to manage the public's expectations, as he did with his speech prior to the release of the police's recommendations in Case 1,000. This time, the police were one step ahead of him.
After Tuesday's bombshell, the question of "where do we go from here" was palpable at the Prime Minister's Office.
Attorney Jacob Weinroth had an unequivocal answer: Do nothing. In and of itself, Filber turning state's witness means nothing. We have to wait and see what he tells investigators and if any of it is even incriminating. We won't know where we are going for at least a few days, he said.
For the time being, the narrative Netanyahu has maintained in recent years is holding up well. The Left cannot understand it, but many in the Right feel that deliberate attempts are being made to target not just Netanyahu, but the national camp as a whole.
Netanyahu has been able to make himself synonymous with the national camp. The message is that while no one has to like him, no one should ever doubt the fact that targeting him stems from a desire to topple the Right and see the Left come to power. This is why he is taking legal fire on all fronts.
The critics who claim Netanyahu's policies are detrimental to Israel's international standing also claim he succumbs to the ultra-Orthodox parties' demands and is promoting anti-social policies. Now they argue that Netanyahu is corrupt and he should suspend himself, as if he would return to be welcomed with open arms. The premise that Netanyahu must go remains; only the reasons have changed.
The Left, which longs to see the end of the Netanyahu era, is frustrated by the Right's steadfast support for him, but left-wing politicians are making every mistake possible, thus allowing Netanyahu to perpetuate the situation.
The Left has classified Netanyahu as a "quality target" who must be eliminated so as to bring about a change in government. The Left assumes that even if the majority of the Israeli electorate is right-wing, removing Netanyahu from office could exponentially increase their chances of instigating a political upset.
This is why all of the Left's arrows are pointed at Netanyahu. All they need is to get their foot in the door, preferably if he suspends himself. The question of whether Filber's testimony will provide the Left with the opening remains to be seen.
The gladiator
Filber is a staunch Netanyahu loyalist. He has been by the prime minister's side for years, and he honestly believes not only that Netanyahu is the right man for the job, but that he is the only man for the job and that no one else has what it takes to lead the country.
Filber's loyalty stems from pure ideology. He never expected anything in return and has never asked for anything for himself. For Filber, supporting Netanyahu was a mission to serve a greater good.
Filber has never tried to hide it. "They say Netanyahu is using me? If so, I'm honored. That's what I'm here for," he used to say.
The trust the two shared was so great that it would not be an exaggeration to say that Filber was privy to Netanyahu's most secret thoughts, at least with respect to the media. The two spoke on a daily basis.
When Netanyahu named Filber as director general of the Communications Ministry he was looking for more than loyalty or experience. He did not want a lackey. He wanted a gladiator.
Filber willingly – eagerly – took on one of the most ferocious fights Netanyahu was waging. He was hand-picked to stand up to the tycoons, face off against an army of hostile journalists and tackle impossible bureaucracy, all in the name of changing the landscape of the Israeli media.
The Left saw and still sees this as an attempt to take over the media. The reality is that it was more of an attempt to correct a course that for decades has been off track, one good for the leftist elite, but bad for the public.
The division of labor between acting Communications Minister Netanyahu and Filber was clear: Netanyahu would define an objective and Filber would spare no effort to make it happen.
The Communications Ministry deals with countless issues, among them content, infrastructure, channels' characterization and licensing, broadcasting boards, and more. Neither Netanyahu nor Filber took interest in 80% of the ministry's business. Even if Filber had a strong opinion about an issue, if he learned it clashed with the opinions held with the professional elements in the ministry, he would simply let it go.
In this respect, he was considered easy to work with. He didn't pester the ministry's functionaries and they didn't bother him with the day-to-day minutiae.
Filber reserved his energy to the other 20% of the ministry's work, the part that Netanyahu did care about. When it came to that, there was no stopping Filber, who did not hesitate to show his teeth to get what he wanted.
For this reason, the police believe Filber is the perfect state's witness. If Filber really was Netanyahu's go-to guy when it came to shady deals, bribes and favors offered under the table, then investigators are eager to give him every opportunity to share what he knows.
Regardless of the Bezeq case and any criminal implications it may have, Netanyahu's intervention in the communications industry reflected public sentiment. Journalists and commentators can sit in the studios from morning to night, convincing each other that Israeli media is doing well, and even bring in likeminded politicians and academics to take aim at the prime minister for trying to "take control" of the media and instill it with a new and undesirable spirit, but they are only fooling themselves.
The same journalists and commentators took to the streets to protest the possibility that Channel 10 would be shut down and they did the same for the Israel Broadcasting Authority, but they all kept mum when left-wing politicians spared no effort to push a bill seeking to shutter Israel Hayom in 2014, and they are doing nothing now that Channel 20, Israel's heritage channel, is fighting to stay on the air. Channel 10's captains even sought legal action to stop Channel 20 from broadcasting news. Pluralism at its best.
Through the looking glass
The issue of Nir Hefetz is a completely different story.
The police believe that in 2015, Hefetz, another Netanyahu confidant arrested in Case 4,000, offered former judge Hila Gerstel a quid pro quo in which Netanyahu would appoint her attorney general in exchange for her closing a case in which the prime minister's wife, Sara, was alleged to have abused public funds.
Investigators are reportedly trying to convince Hefetz to turn state's witness as well, and if he does, it will be just as dramatic as Filber's decision. So far, however, Hefetz has refused to cooperate and it seems that whatever information he has given investigators supports Netanyahu's assertion that he had no knowledge of any offer made to Gerstel.
Netanyahu has always had a soft spot for journalists who support him. He would often meet with them and those meetings would often result in job offers.
Hefetz caught Netanyahu's attention in 2009, when the prime minister learned that a senior journalist in the infamously hostile Yedioth Ahronoth was a Likud supporter. Hefetz, then the editor of the paper's weekend magazine, published a flattering piece about Netanyahu and the two met shortly afterward. Netanyahu offered Hefetz the position of media director in his office. Hefetz accepted, taking over for Yossi Levy, who held the position during that year's election campaign.
His term as the Prime Minister's Office media director and Netanyahu's personal media adviser earned Hefetz considerable power. There was not a single junction where he was not present and no secret forum from which he was excluded. Hefetz soon became a regular fixture in cabinet meetings and in the special seven-minister forum Netanyahu had set up. He weighed in on political and diplomatic decisions, and if he found out anything was not shared with him, he would throw a temper tantrum. Only a handful of staffers ever dared to stand up to him.
Hefetz was not without his enemies at the Prime Minister's Office, and they constantly tried to undermine his credibility. It is not Netanyahu's best interest that Hefetz had in mind, only his own, they argued.
Hefetz was repeatedly accused of leaking information to the media, particularly to his previous employers at Yedioth Ahronoth. Any story published by the paper, as well as by Israel's two commercial channels, 2 and 10, immediately saw someone whisper in Netanyahu's ear, "Hefetz did it again." Many resented what they saw as Hefetz's ability to "get away with it" and when he left and the media leaks ceased, they saw it as proof they were right.
Netanyahu, however, chose Hefetz to be his family's media adviser. Sources close to the Netanyahu family say Hefetz won over Sara Netanyahu and has spent hours lending a sympathetic ear to her grievances about the media's hostility toward her.
But now all bets are off. With Netanyahu's greatest loyalist turning state's witness against him, and the confidant accused of being disloyal speaking in the prime minister's defense, it is a world turned upside-down.
