Something is Rotten… But It’s Not in Denmark

With apologies to Shakespeare… “something is rotten”, but it’s not in Denmark. It’s right here in our very midst. Another Israeli Prime Minister is being charged with corruption and bribery. Is there a disease that affects our past presidents and past and present prime ministers?

Today our national police, after a full year of investigation, have publicly indicted Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on charges of corruption and bribery during his present term in office.

It will be up to Attorney General Mandelblit to officially make the charge.

Anyone who knows and who has followed the news of the he-and-she Netanyahus have no doubts about their guilt. Bibi will have to give up cigar smoking and weeping Sara will have to drink water in place of fine French champagne.

Most of us believe that the Prime Minister will be found guilty in Case 1000 (bribery) and some have doubts about his situation in Case 2000 (corruption).

In Case 1000 both Bibi and Sara are guilty of having demanded…. YES. demanded… expensive gifts from Arnon Milchan, an Israeli billionaire and motion picture producer in California, in return for certain favors, among them help in obtaining a new 10 year American visa for Milchan and for helping him to establish residence in Caesarea for tax purposes. (Milchan currently lives in the United States).

The Netanyahu’s claim that they were gifts from “best friend” Milchan has been denied by Milchan in testimony he had given to the police. He repeated several times that expensive cigars, cases of fine champagne and expensive gold and diamond jewelry had, in truth, been demanded by both Bibi and Sara.

In finding the Prime Minister guilty, he certainly will not be sentenced to prison but he will have to resign in disgrace and humiliation from his high post. And Sara will have to vacate the Prime Minister’s official residence in Jerusalem and move with her husband and her two grown sons to their “little mansion” in exclusive Caesarea. There she will have to endure the gossip of neighbors who live in 5 and 6 million dollar homes.  Poor Sara !

Case 2000 involves the Prime Minister’s “requests” from the publisher of Israel’s largest daily Hebrew newspaper “Yedioth Aharonot”,  Amnon “Noni” Mozes,  that he be given better treatment and less critical opinions by the paper’s journalist staff in exchange for his efforts in putting the widely popular free daily, “Yisrael Hayom”, out of business. That charge is for corruption.

At the moment, as the Prime Minister has been indicted, charges are being brought by the police against publisher Mozes.  Bribery? Corruption?  Unknown as of this writing.

We as a nation have suffered the crimes of past President Katzav and past Prime Minister Olmert, both who were sentenced to prison terms, who brought world-wide disgrace upon our highest national heads of state.

And now we are pained by the Bibi-Sara scandals, once again bringing shame to our country. While Bibi has been a popular Prime Minister, widely travelled, who opened up Israel’s relations with black Africa and who was welcomed by India’s president as a “great statesman”, I don’t think there is a single Israeli citizen who will mourn for the departure of Sara Netanyahu and whore-hunting son Yair from their Jerusalem home.   Sara is probably the most disliked wife of any Prime Minister in our nation’s colorful history.

Personally, I think it would be in the nation’s best interests for Bibi Netanyahu to resign. He does not have to admit guilt. He can simply say that he and his wife do not want all the negative notoriety and that they would prefer a more tranquil life in their home in Caesarea by the sea.

Will our Attorney General Mandelblit pursue them as a tiger or as a pussy-cat?

Watch the news reports as the intrigue grows bigger.