As trial nears, Netanyahu’s associates go after attorney general

Ahead of his indictment, which Mandelblit announced in November 2019 and filed in court in January 2020, Netanyahu pulled out a secret weapon. First, he took control of the justice minister’s position following the resignation of Ayelet Shaked, a strong personality he replaced with a Likud backbencher named Amir Ohana. The man, beholden to Netanyahu and his coterie, immediately engaged Mandelblit in a fierce battle. When state prosecutor Shai Nitzan ended his term in December 2019, Ohana did all he could to fill his shoes with candidates who were anathema to Mandelblit. His bid failed the first time around, but was ultimately successful. Acting state prosecutor Dan Eldad (a transition government cannot make permanent appointments) immediately scanned emails sent by his predecessor and documents from the ministry’s safes. The classified emails and piles of paperwork, were designed to paint Mandelblit as unfit to lead Netanyahu’s prosecution. One of the cases dug out was the Harpaz scandal. Netanyahu’s emissaries are now saying that 10-year-old incriminating evidence against Mandelblit was buried during the probe against him. The material, they claim, proves Mandelblit obstructed the course of the investigation conducted at the time against his direct superior, Ashkenazi, who on May 14 will join Netanyahu’s new government.

A summary of these absurd developments: An attorney general named to his position as a personal appointment by the prime minister is under pressure to step aside because of dubious decade-old material, despite the case against him being dismissed after legal review and despite the statute of limitations. The prime minister, whose bribery trial starts later this month, has the approval of the nation’s top court to remain in power.

Mandelblit is not the only target of the vicious hunt. Former state prosecutor Nitzan, who to Netanyahu’s loyalists is the force behind the criminal probes, is also a popular target. The entire rule of law is under attack. The next stage of the delegitimization campaign is expected to focus on the court, particularly the three District Court judges assigned to Netanyahu’s trial. They have already been smeared as members of a “leftist panel” aiming to bring down the popular prime minister.

These venomous ideas have many adherents, who make up almost half the citizens of the Middle East’s only democracy. The prime minister’s son, Yair Netanyahu, has mounted a campaign of vicious tweets, fanning the flames threatening the country’s law enforcement bastions. In one of the them, he dubbed the justices “Illuminati” in a clear reference to the alleged conspiracy to unseat the elected prime minister. In another, he depicted Mandelblit as the Godfather of movie fame. Given this state of affairs, no one would be surprised if Mandelblit finds the severed head of a horse on his doorstep one morning. In Israel of 2020, anything goes.