Ex-police chief says he thought Netanyahu would resign following criminal indictment
Comments by Roni Alsheich, who oversaw investigation of PM, spark backlash from ministers; then-AG Mandelblit: ‘His words don’t reflect decision-making process’
Amy Spiro is a reporter and writer with The Times of Israel
Former police chief Roni Alsheich ignited a firestorm of controversy on Wednesday when he implied that police had expected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign from office after was indicted on multiple corruption charges.
“Nobody could have guessed that ultimately, the prime minister would decide not to resign, would fight from within the system, would weaken the police,” said Alsheich in an interview with Army Radio.
Pressed to elaborate, Alsheich — who served as police chief during the investigation of Netanyahu and ended his term shortly before prosecutors recommended that the prime minister be indicted — denied that police had acted under the assumption that the prime minister would resign.
“You know what, I’ll direct [my words] instead not to the prime minister but rather to the party that fought and didn’t understand that it had to say, for the good of the country: ‘We want to stay in power and we are putting somebody else in charge,'” Alsheich added, referring to the decision of the Likud party to continue to back Netanyahu as its leader despite the indictment.
The former police chief added that he thought it was “basic morality” to expect Netanyahu to resign after he was indicted, pointing to the precedent set by former prime minister Ehud Olmert, who resigned even before he was ultimately indicted on corruption charges.
Alsheich added, however, that while the police would not and could not have acted any differently even knowing that Netanyahu would not resign and would continue to serve as prime minister, “perhaps the judiciary would have looked at it differently — but it’s a very hard question to answer because it didn’t happen.”
In a statement, the Likud party slammed Alsheich’s “shocking admission,” and said that “the only thing that thwarted his plan for a government coup was the firm stand of Prime Minister Netanyahu and his insistence on fighting for the revelation of the truth.”
The Likud party said the former police chief’s comments are grounds for opening an investigation into Alsheich and other officials.
In a statement, the State Attorney’s Office dismissed as “unfounded” any claims that the indictment of Netanyahu was based on “extraneous considerations.” The statement added that Alsheich “did not participate in the discussions during which it was decided to file an indictment.”
Alsheich’s comments sparked immediate backlash from members of Netanyahu’s hardline coalition, who accused Alsheich of admitting to attempting a coup against the prime minister.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said that Alsheich “admitted today in his own voice that he tried to carry out a coup through investigations and indictments.” The police chief “doesn’t care about democracy, doesn’t care about the law, all he wanted was just to oust a sitting prime minister who was democratically elected.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said it was “a sad day for the State of Israel,” slamming those officials who “tried to overthrow the government and failed, and are joining together now and trying to defeat the will of the Israeli voter, and will fail this time as well.”
Both Smotrich and Ben Gvir said that Alsheich’s comments proved the necessity of the government’s planned judicial overhaul to give greater power to the executive and legislative branch and dramatically weaken the judiciary.
Likud Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi sent a letter to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara demanding that she open an investigation into Alsheich, accusing him of “marking the prime minister as a target, encircling him with fabricated evidence” and working with his “partner in the cabal,” then-attorney general Avichai Mandelblit, to secure an indictment.
Labor party leader Merav Michaeli, meanwhile, defended Alsheich’s comments, telling Army Radio that “Netanyahu is the one who should have acted differently… we never imagined that he would drag an entire country into an abyss in order to protect his own interests.”
Mandelblit responded to Alsheich’s comments, saying “his words do not reflect the decision-making process; the issue of Netanyahu’s tenure did not come up in the discussions.”
Netanyahu is currently on trial in three separate cases on charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery. The trial began in May 2020 and is expected to last for several more years unless a plea agreement is reached.
Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing in the cases against him and claims that the charges were fabricated in a witch hunt led by the police and state prosecution.
