Still With Bibi

Early polls showed that a majority of
Israelis are ready to move on.

LARRY DERFNER ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT

AP PHOTO BY BRIAN HENDLER

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Left-wing Israelis protested outside the Prime Minister's Office on Apri) 18.

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el Aviv — In the Carmel
Market, a traditional bas-
tion of hard-line Likud sup-
port, the attitude among
most of the vendors was that
Prime Minister Binyamin Ne-
tanyahu had not only escaped in-
dictment in last week's Bar-On
affair turn, but that he had tri-
umphed over his enemies.
"Labor didn't do the same
kinds of things when it was in
power?" said Eli Tasha while
standing behind his vegetable
stand the morning after the at-
torney general and state attor-
ney announced the prime
minister would not be indicted.
"They all tried to bring Bibi
down, and they all ended up the
losers."
Shimon Levy, a dress seller,
added, "Bibi's strong, he's no
sucker. He came out of this OK,
and from now on he's only going
to get stronger."
But what about the report's
note that a "real suspicion" of
criminal behavior still hung over
Netanyahu, but there just wasn't
enough evidence to prove it in
court?
"People forget," Levy replied.
"In another three years, by the
time the next election comes
around, this whole affair will be
dead and gone, and Bibi will win
again — even bigger than he won
the last time."
From his slashing, vengeful
victory speech on television fol-
lowing publication of the report,
it was clear that Netanyahu felt
confident that most Israelis were
on his side.
"Netanyahu knows his voting
public well, and he's banking on
it not to grasp, or even be inter-
ested in, the subtle nuances of le-

gal language, but only in the sim-
ple question of who won and who
lost. Netanyahu, it seems, thinks
he came out of this affair the win-
ner. And in many ways he is
right," wrote Ma'ariv political cor-
respondent Chemi Shalev.
The morning-after public opin-
ion survey published by Dr. Mina
Tsemach, Israel's most promi-
nent pollster, showed that 58 per-
cent of Israelis didn't think
Netanyahu was obliged to resign,
and 57 percent said there was no
need for new elections.
Netanyahu benefited from a
drastic lowering of expectations
in the days before he was let off
the hook. The police's surprise
recommendation that he be in-
dicted for fraud and breach of
trust made this the paramount
question in the public's mind:
Would he be indicted or not? At-
torney General Elyakim Rubin-
stein concluded that Netanyahu's
handling of the Bar-On appoint-
ment had been "baffling," but, on
the available evidence, not in-
dictable.
While Netanyahu's behavior
had been of a low standard, in
terms of public opinion it had
been high enough. Politically,
then, he had won.
The Netanyahu administra-
tion claimed again and again
that the media, the police and
the political left had conspired
to bring down the government.
"They haven't reconciled them-
selves to the voters' democrat-
ic decision in the last election,"
went the oft-repeated line. It res-
onated with much of the Israeli
public — probably the vast ma-
jority of the 54.5 percent of Jew-
ish voters who cast their ballots
for Netanyahu. In the eyes of