Levin and other Likud ministers hit out at pro-Netanyahu commentator, accuse him of blackmail

Justice Minister Yariv Levin accuses right-wing media personality Jacob Bardugo, considered a close association of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of attempting to blackmail him and threatening unspecified consequences for noncompliance.

“Because of personal matters, he obsessively slanders me from every platform and every day. It’s disrespectful, it’s not appropriate. It mainly helps one person, the one who calls himself the president of the Supreme Court. He wants me to be weakened from within,” Levin says during an interview with Radio Galey Israel.

“When a person comes to me with demands that no decent person would agree to and tells me ‘if you don’t meet these demands…’ I don’t want to use the words he said,” Levin adds, without elaborating.

Bardugo has recently been highly critical of Levin, as well as Communications and Culture Minister Shlomo Karhi and Miki Zohar, for the coalition’s failure to advance its legislative agenda and for graffiti sprayed on his home — creating a months-long public feud. Levin, Karhi and Zohar are all prominent members of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party.

“Jacob Bardugo does not represent the right – he represents himself,” Karhi tweets, describing the pundit as “a powerful figure who is trying to run the country according to his personal interests.”

“The threats, the pressures, and the lies are well-known and familiar. But we will not be deterred. We were not elected to please commentators with a microphone – but to serve the people of Israel,” Karhi writes, calling on Levin to “not be afraid.”

In a separate post, Zohar offers his support to Levin, “who is vigorously leading the important reform to fix the judicial system and is dealing with threats from home and abroad.”

“Like other ministers, I too have encountered the phenomenon of threats from Jacob Bardugo, who has vested interests and has intimidated the elected representatives of the right in a despicable manner,” Zohar writes.

Following Levin’s remarks, MK Naor Shiri of the opposition Yesh Atid party wrote to the Attorney General’s Office to demand a criminal investigation be opened into the matter, according to Channel 12 news.

In response, firebrand Likud MK Tally Gotliv posted a video in which she harshly criticized Levin, Karhi and Zohar, blaming her fellow Likud members for Shiri’s move.

“Let’s remember basic common sense. Not everyone has to love us, respect us, or agree with our ways and actions,” she states, asserting that going against “against an experienced and veteran commentator who supports right-wing positions and protects the government and the prime minister” is “shameful” and “plays into the hands of the left.”

“MK Naor Shiri of Yesh Atid is appealing to the prosecutor to open an investigation against Bardugo because of what Minister Levin said,” she continues. “We do not have the privilege to engage in offensive discourse, but only substantive discourse.”