Coalition MKs lash Netanyahu for attack on police chief

Lawmakers from the governing coalition’s Kulanu party on Sunday hit out at the prime minister for implying the police chief had been leaking details of the investigations against him, saying Benjamin Netanyahu had crossed a red line.

Netanyahu on Saturday had launched an unprecedented attack on Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich, suggesting that he was behind a series of leaks from the two criminal investigations into alleged corruption by the prime minister and that the leaks had become “a tsunami” after Alscheich appointed a political adviser, Lior Horev.

The charge came in an official statement from Netanyahu, released soon after a TV report asserting that police investigators were expected to summon the prime minister for further questioning in the probes against him in the coming weeks.

“When Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich assumed his post, he made two important decisions: that there would be no more leaks in the investigations and there would be no more police recommendations [for indictment],” Netanyahu said in the statement, released by Netanyahu family spokesman Ofer Golan and posted on the prime minister’s official Facebook page.

“But since Lior Horev was appointed to be the police’s external political adviser at the cost of millions [of shekels] of taxpayer money and without a public tender for the position, the illegal leaks have become a tsunami, and the decision to avoid recommendations [for indictment] disappeared as a result,” the statement added.

Horev, who is politically well-connected, served as chairman of Kulanu’s Knesset campaign ahead of the last general elections in 2015.

MK Rachel Azaria tweeted, “A red line has been crossed with the attack on the police and we won’t allow it. The police force is the foundation of the citizens’ security and the rule of law.”

Party colleague Roy Folkman wrote, “What are tens of thousands of police officers supposed to feel with the unending attack on their work?” A responsible leadership should work to strengthen the legal system in the public’s eyes, he added.

MK Meirav Ben-Ari tweeted, “Prime Minister, sir, the problem isn’t with the chief of police, whom you chose yourself, with the police investigators who are doing their jobs, with leaks from investigations. The problem is with you.”

Rushing to defend Netanyahu, Likud MK Nava Boker accused Ben-Ari of behaving like a “fifth column” in the coalition and called on her to apologize or resign.

Fellow Likud member Ofer Akunis, the science and technology minister, described the Kulanu MKs’ comments as “brazen and false.” The prime minister was not targeting the police chief but the “disgusting phenomenon of leaks,” he said in a tweet.

The two investigations into Netanyahu have been dubbed cases 1000 and 2000.

Case 1000 relates to allegations that Netanyahu and his wife Sara received illicit gifts from billionaire benefactors, most notably hundreds of thousands of shekels’ worth of cigars and champagne from the Israeli-born Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan.

Case 2000 involves a suspected illicit quid pro quo deal between Netanyahu and Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper publisher Arnon Mozes that would have seen the prime minister weaken a rival daily, the Sheldon Adelson-backed Israel Hayom, in return for more favorable coverage from Yedioth.

Investigators are also expected to set a date for Netanyahu to provide testimony as a witness in Case 3000, which involves suspected corruption by several associates of the prime minister in the sale of German submarines to Israel, the report said.

Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing.