Amid the latest scandal surrounding likely legal misconduct in Case 4000 (a corruption investigation potentially implicating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his close associates), there is no doubt that someone made a conscious decision to leave no stone unturned until the jackpot is attained. The jackpot has many different names – smoking gun, golden piece of evidence, irrefutable proof, or any number of other terms – but its goal is singular: to convince the Israeli public that the State of Israel is being run by a fundamentally corrupt prime minister.
This conscious decision was clearly made by Israel Police Commissioner Insp. Gen. Roni Alsheikh on the day he appointed Lior Horev – known as one of Netanyahu's harshest and most vocal opponents – to serve as police legal adviser.
On that day, two things occurred simultaneously: The media echo chamber took a 180 degree turn and the nearly violent anti-Alsheikh coverage became adoringly sympathetic, and, at the same time, a virtual tsunami of targeted media leaks began to swell, designed to do to Netanyahu what an early testimony did to disgraced former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert – bury him in the public's mind even before the trial begins.
It was supposed to be a sure bet, but two factors weren't taken into consideration: public opinion and the bulldozer effect.
The thing about the kind of bulldozers that Alsheikh used to turn over every stone is that they expose everything, not just what you're looking for. There is no telling what secrets will be revealed. In retrospect, it is safe to assume that the entire law enforcement mechanism would likely reconsider taking the path it ultimately chose had it known what was to emerge.
The coveted smoking gun incriminating Netanyahu may still be elusive, but in its place, we are witnessing painfully expensive foot-dragging, at the expense of the taxpayer of course. More than anything else, this foot-dragging reflects the police's selective enforcement, ignoring all the immediate suspects and focusing obsessively and exclusively on the prime minister. There are quite a few politicians who are undoubtedly breathing a sigh of relief at the knowledge that as long as Netanyahu is around, they will not be investigated.
The smoking gun has in fact been found. The fingerprints on the trigger, however, are not Netanyahu's but rather the police's.
In a spectacular boomerang effect, the bulldozer turned up a judge who failed to report what she viewed as an offer of a bribe; the illegitimate use of the legal term "obstruction of justice" to intimidate suspects into turning state's evidence; detention conditions that would make the KGB proud; the demoralization of a senior police officer who alleged that a chief investigator sexually harassed her; a judge and an investigator who illicitly coordinated detentions, obviating the role of the defense, reducing suspects to sub-human status, and more. It appears that there is not a single clause in the human dignity and liberty law that the police failed to violate. And if this is how a prime minister is treated, how do they treat the average citizen?
This could have been the Israeli democracy's finest hour. It could have been an opportunity to clean house. The police and the prosecutor's office could have taken this opportunity to purge and undergo much-needed reforms, for the benefit of every citizen in Israel.
Instead, the left-wing politicians and media chose to downplay what conservatives would consider a miracle. Instead of criticizing the conduct of the police, the Left criticized those who criticize it. We are witnessing a strange phenomenon whereby the "social" Left is encouraging the police to run wild and purposely overlooking blatant violations of basic human rights.
It seems that the only watchdogs of Israeli democracy that remain are the citizens themselves, who reinforce the public's trust in Netanyahu with every passing week. It could be that they identify the distortion of justice, or maybe they are simply frightened. Most likely it is a combination of the two.
