Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slams what he calls a “mass media conspiracy” against him as an attempt to remove him from power.
After arriving at his weekly faction meeting to cheers and singing of “Bibi Melech Yisrael” (Bibi is the king of Israel), the prime minister launches into a diatribe against the Israeli press for publishing “so-called” leaks of secret negotiations he held with Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes to apparently secure better coverage.
Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes arrives for investigation at the Lahav 433 police investigation unit in Lod on January 16, 2017. Ben Drori/Flash90)
“There is a fake investigation taking place against me on television every night,” he says. “They [the press] are trying to pressure the attorney general and the police into indicting me for no reason.”
Netanyahu described the efforts as a “march to decapitate” him.
“Well, I can tell the public something now,” he says, “that there has been no criminal wrongdoing.”
The “obsession” with the investigation is an attempt to hide the “huge successes” of his government, he says, citing low unemployment and a soft declaration from Sunday’s Paris peace conference.
“The public does not buy it. Many, many people support us and realize this disgraceful game and they are not falling for it,” he says. “I will continue to lead Likud and the state, with the help of God.”
— Raoul Wootliff
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From the Liveblog of
Monday, January 16, 2017
