Opposition MK: Netanyahu probe ‘much more’ substantial than past inquiries

Opposition members raised the possibility Saturday of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being forced to step down in light of various investigations into his financial conduct.

Zionist Union MK Erel Margalit said his party should prepare for new elections in the near future. “We need to prepare for Netanyahu not ending his term as legally mandated,” he said, according to Channel 10 news.

Margalit claimed that the prime minister was “spending 80 percent of his time on silencing suspicions and investigations…the current suspicion of receiving funds without connection to elections is a lot more than a suspicion. It is much more substantiated than what we’ve heard before.”

On Friday Channel 10 reported that police were examining allegations that Netanyahu was involved in a major money laundering operation that could have foreign connections. A senior legal official may also be tied to the affair, the television station reported, but offered few further details in what it called an exclusive report.

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog said that an alternative coalition “can be arranged” in the current Knesset if such a need should arise, though he cautioned that “authorities must [first] do their work” on the matter.

Herzog has himself been the subject of a police probe on suspicions that he received illegal financial contributions during the 2013 Labor Party primary campaign. Police sources have said he is unlikely to be indicted.

The Zionist Union head acknowledged this fact, saying “I too have undergone an investigation that was entirely political in nature…I trust law enforcement officials to conduct themselves properly in [Netanyahu’s] case as well.”

Netanyahu has dismissed recent vague Hebrew media reports about the allegations as being without foundation.

According to the television report, the secret police investigation could implicate the prime minister and the senior official in the justice system in alleged “large-scale” corruption. Police officials have not yet traveled abroad to conduct financial and legal examinations abroad, but may do so in the future, the report said.

In a second case, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit in June reportedly instructed employees in the state prosecutor’s office to look into allegations that Netanyahu accepted 1 million euros (about $1.1 million) from accused French fraudster Arnaud Mimran in 2009.