Can He Keep
The Power?
Israel's Prime Minister vows to stay the course,
b ut will his allies follow?
LARRY DERFNER ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT
lust because he wasn't in- minister, then was launched after media
dicted doesn't mean that reports that a key coalition ally under-
Israeli Prime Minister going a corruption trial pushed for Mr.
Binyamin Netanyahu Bar-On's appointment in exchange for a
agrees with the findings in controversial Cabinet vote. Mr. Bar-On
the recently concluded was expected to offer a more favorable
ruling in that trial.
Bar-On investigation.
In pursuing the case, the media proved
While the report heaped
praise on the major insti- that it could go above the head of the gov-
tutions that meshed to ernment, even above the government and
keep the government in line, make its investigative findings against
Mr. Netanyahu insists that the powers-that-be stick.
Indeed, Mr. Rubinstein
their leftist leanings are at the
and Ms. Arbel lauded Israel
heart of the society's problems.
Indeed, "replacing the elites" with "peo- .Television — which broke
ple who think like we do" seemed at the the Bar-On story — for play-
center of the short-lived appointment of ing a "positive role" in bring-
Likud operative Roni Bar-On as attorney ing many of the facts in the
case to light. This is a far cry
general.
Free of any charges, Mr. Netanyahu from Mr. Netanyahu's view
has been more forceful than ever in his of the media's "malicious"
attacks on the media for having suppos- performance.
Police investigators, head-
edly conspired with the left-wing politi-
cal opposition in an attempt to bring down ed by Chief of Investigations
Sando Mazor, were likewise
his government.
However, 'since last week's investiga- praised for "doing intensive investigative
tion report by Attorney General Elyakim work in a most professional, unchal-
Rubinstein and State Attorney Edna Ar- lengeable manner."
So much for the claim by the Ne-
bel, three of the "elites" that Mr. Ne-
tanyahu sees as his nemeses — the tanyahu administration that Chief Ma-
media, the police and the justice system zor and his officers were in cahoots with
— have emerged stronger. Because they Israel Television and the Labor opposi-
are each crucial to democracy, the ironic tion.
Mr. Netanyahu has long said he wants
conclusion is that the Bar-On Affair has
badly to privatize Israel Television —both
been a boon to Israeli democracy.
Likewise, Mr. Netanyahu's once cen- because he thinks it is a hotbed of leftist
tralized base of power is seen as dimin- bias, and because he is a great believer
in selling off government-owned compa-
ished.
Mr. Bar-On was appointed attorney nies. But were he to do so now, he would
general in early January, but an on- be accused of seeking revenge. And the
slaught by the media and the legal es- outcry and challenges in the Supreme
tablishment ran him out of office in two Court would be fast and furious.
On a lesser level, the administration
days. Mr. Rubinstein, a far superior can-
didate, filled the job. A criminal investi- would likely love to fire ITV reporter Ay-
gation, one recommended by the prime ala Hasson, news director Rafik Halaby,
ail
station manager Yair Stern and
Israel Broadcasting Authority director
Mordechai Kirschenbaum, but the high
marks from Mr. Rubinstein and Ms. Ar-
bel have secured their positions. The
same goes for Chief Mazor and his team
of police investigators.
As for the justice system, three senior
prosecutors on Ms. Arbors staff disagreed
with the final decision, and joined the po-
lice in recommending indictments against
Mr. Netanyahu, his chief
aide Avigdor Lieberman,
Justice Minister Tsachi
Hanegbi and Knesset
Member Arye Deri. (Mr.
Rubinstein and Ms. Arbel
decided to indict only Mr.
Deri.)
As with Israel Television
and the police, any attempt
by Mr. Netanyahu to shake
up the state prosecution
and get rid of the "left-wing
elitists" just wouldn't wash.
Further, Mr. Netanyahu's appointee
to be the political overseer of the justice
system, Mr. Hanegbi, is in danger of be-
ing fired. The Rubinstein-Arbel report
confirmed that during the Jan. 10 Cabi-
net debate on the appointment of Mr. Bar-
On, Mr. Hanegbi conveniently failed to
mention that Supreme Court President
Aharon Barak told him Mr. Bar-On was
an unsuitable candidate.
As such, Likud Knesset Member Ben-
ny Begin has been arguing for two
months that Mr. Hanegbi should be fired.
He has now been joined in this by Likud
Finance Minister Dan Meridor, Trans-
port Minister Yitzhak Levy and Industry
Minister Natan Sharansky.
So Mr. Sharansky and his Yisrael
B'Aliya party, The Third Way (another
coalition ally), and Mr. Meridor are now
the internal opposition in the government.
Each says they came close to leaving the
government after the Bar-On report, but
stayed because there was no conclusive
proof of Mr. Netanyahu's criminal cul-
pability.
"As far as public norms were con-
cerned," Mr. Sharansky said of the Bar-
On appointment, "it stank, it really
stank."
To try to show good faith and deter-
mination to reform, Mr. Netanyahu has
made Messrs. Sharansky, Meridor and
Rubinstein the heads of a committee to
oversee future high-level government ap-
pointments.
"If this committee isn't allowed to make
real changes, and turns into just anoth-
er committee, then we [Yisrael B'Aliya]
will be gone," Mr. Sharansky said. 'We'll
know the answer within another few
weeks."
Mr. Meridor said of the statements
coming out of the Netanyahu adminis-
tration: "What I cannot accept in any way
are the attacks on the media, or on the
police or the prosecution. One of the
lessons that needs to be learned — and
I'm not sure that it has been learned suf-
ficiently in government circles — is the
critical, vital role the media played in ex-
posing this terrible affair."
The Third Way has likewise demand-
ed that Mr. Netanyahu cease his attacks
on the media, the police and the justice
system.
So the prime minister emerges from
the Bar-On investigation with more hoops
to jump through than before to accom-
plish his agenda.
Meanwhile, the control mechanisms of
democracy — the media, poli- - • ,,,fic€
system, and a new, internal cli.&,c}c. in
government — are doing just fine. ❑
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