Like every other Israeli citizen, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has the right to be presumed innocent. Many months will pass before Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit is able to reach a final decision pursuant to a hearing. Netanyahu is innocent of any illegal activity until the legal process on the matter, expected to last at least four years, comes to an end. The unbelievable pressure on Mendelblit to make a decision on an indictment will be remembered as the Left's second dirty trick. The first, you will recall, was when Shimon Peres led to the dissolution of the government and unsuccessfully attempted to form a narrow government comprised of left-wing factions and the ultra-Orthodox parties. But just like their first attempts, this too shall end in failure.
The first clause of the attorney general's directives titled, "Prosecution and Enforcement Policy Ahead of Knesset and Local Elections" states, "The basic concept is that the legal system is not involved in the political arena." As far as Netanyahu is concerned, the law enforcement system is up to its neck in politics, whether by choice or as a result of the immense pressure from leftist spokespeople in the media and the political arena.
The political and media-based efforts focus on the demand the attorney general urgently submit his decision on the Netanyahu files during the Knesset election campaign. This effort is transparent and its purpose is clear. The Left's only remaining hope of putting an end to right-wing rule is by putting Mendelblit through the ringer. He is told he must make a decision this very minute without due discretion or any genuine examination of thousands of pages of documentation pertaining to the investigation or the accounts from many dozens of witnesses. As a veteran jurist, I can assess the time it takes to examine the vast materials collected over the years of an investigation. With all due respect, this is not something Mendelblit can wrap up in a matter of months.
Rushing through the process and announcing a hearing absent the ability to finish it ahead of the elections would constitute a lethal blow to basic decency and the presumption of innocence. The public knows what Netanyahu is accused of; it has access to leaked information thanks to a hostile media that plays up the allegations and feels no need to wait for the attorney's general to form an opinion before reaching a decision on the matter ahead of the elections.
Should the attorney general succumb to the pressure, this reckless move will only deepen the public's loss of faith in the law enforcement system and bolster the sense that the system has been a partner to the dangerous attempt to bring about regime change through investigations instead of the ballot box.
The second clause of the aforementioned attorney general guidelines determines that the decision to file an indictment during an election campaign must be made with the necessary caution. As far as concerns the filing of an indictment against a prime minister at the height of an election campaign, minimum caution is required to conclude that an indictment should only be filed after the hearings on the matter have come to a close.
From the outset, the handling of the investigation has cast a shadow over the public's faith in government officials tasked with the matter concerning Netanyahu. Trust forms the basis of our ability to exist as a cohesive society, which is essential for social partnership. Many of Israel's citizens feel uncomfortable with the system's conduct. In particular, there is a blatant infrastructure of selective enforcement. The ties between politics and the media have never been examined in depth. Anyone familiar with the work of Knesset lawmakers, lobbyists and journalists know just how this system of reciprocity works. The most blatant example, of course, was the attempt by lawmakers to shut down Israel Hayom for the benefit of a competing newspaper. Law enforcement officials did not attribute any criminal significance to this attempt, and that is only one example.
For the benefit of the rule of law and the public's trust in law enforcement and out of concern for the state, it is my hope that Mendelblit will withstand the immense pressure exerted on him by the Left and the media. If he decides not to file an indictment, he will be portrayed as a weak sycophant in Netanyahu's service. If he decides to hastily file an indictment, a majority of the public will see him as a weak figure who succumbed to the media's rage. Under such circumstances, it would be best not to act in haste, as we all know the price that this entails.
