Netanyahu’s hall of shame

Although Israel is gearing up this week to mark the historic 1947 UN vote that led to the creation of a Jewish state, the country’s print media is far more concerned with the advancing of legislation seen as the latest effort to protect the beleaguered prime minister from the inevitable fallout should he be prosecuted on corruption charges.

On Monday, after hours of heated debate, lawmakers advanced a contested bill that would restrict police from recommending criminal charges.

The bill proposed by Likud MK David Amsalem has widely been seen as an attempt by party lawmakers to shield Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from public backlash, should police find sufficient evidence against him in two ongoing corruption probes to warrant criminal charges by prosecutors.

The so-called “police recommendations bill” could spare Netanyahu a barrage of public criticism when police wrap up the two investigations and the investigators’ conclusions on his alleged guilt might otherwise grace the nightly news broadcasts.

“Shame” reads the front page of Yedioth Ahronoth daily, whose coverage castigates the newly passed legislation as “the law to silence police.”

“The Knesset has ensured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government at least a few more months of grace,” it says, barely containing its disdain for the law, which has also been subject to heavy criticism from police and the attorney general.

Yedioth columnists are equally unimpressed with the recommendations bill, penning no fewer than four op-eds on the front page criticizing the legislation.

Nahum Barnea likens Netanyahu and his staunchest allies to the Polish city of Chelm, known in Eastern European Jewish folklore as the city of fools and simpletons. He writes that Amsalem, along with fellow Likud MK and Netanyahu ally David Bitan, are the modern-day “wise men of Chelm,” who “don’t really understand but vigorously nod in agreement” to whatever they are being told by their “rabbi.”

Yedioth’s Sima Kadmon channels “shame, humiliation, frustration and despair” at Knesset members for acting “with the sole aim of preserving Netanyahu’s rule.”

“What has been happening over the last two weeks is a disgrace that will be discussed for many years to come,” she writes. “Those who are responsible are Knesset members and ministers, but first and foremost, the prime minister. Who will be that little boy, the first one to say out loud that the emperor is wearing no clothes?”

She concludes that “there is not one righteous man in [Netanyahu’s] Sodom.”

Haaretz, Israel’s most prominent left-wing paper, is equally unimpressed with the new legislation.

The paper’s front page story highlights that police are legally obliged to keep the public in the dark regarding the recommendations.

Like Yedioth, Haaretz also accompanies its lead story with several scathing op-eds that criticize the legislation as “one of the most shameful moments for the legislature.”

One columnist, Yossi Verter, argues the bill’s main purpose is to “silence, conceal and cover up” Netanayhu’s alleged wrongdoings.

“There is no doubt that this is an attempt to prevent the police from composing a summary of the evidentiary basis for the case will harm the investigation and the subsequent quality of the prosecution’s treatment of the case,” he says.

In an editorial, Haaretz decries “using legislation pertaining to a specific individual, especially when that individual is the prime minister, demonstrates contempt for the Knesset and undermines public faith in the democratic process.”

Unsurprisingly, the only major newspaper to offer subdued criticism of the law is the staunchly pro-Netanayhu Israel Hayom.

While its front page report does describe the arguments made by opposition MKs during the stormy session that preceded the vote, its own columnists offer a significantly less critical view of the legislation.

Columnist Amnon Lord says that Amsalem and Bitan probably have “good reasons” to attempt to block what he calls “political investigations,” but he warns the bill could push right-wing voters toward the center-left.

Lord calls the legislation an “unnecessary maneuver” that will only serve to divide the Likud base and drive voters into the arms of Yesh Atid, “a party devoid of any kind of democracy.”

“But all of the sudden, they’ll miss Netanyahu,” Lord predicts, “when things in the north, the south, and everywhere else in the country will spiral out of control.”