Opposition parties clash over handling of Hazan affair

Opposition parties Yesh Atid and the Zionist Union took swipes at each other on Saturday over Zionist Union chairman and opposition leader Isaac Herzog’s decision to help protect the ruling Likud party’s coalition as it deals with an internal scandal.

Last week, Herzog approved Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein’s request that the left-wing Zionist Union remove one of its own MKs from Knesset votes if scandal-ridden Likud Member of Knesset Oren Hazan does not attend. This would prevent the lawmaker from using his strategic position as the 61st member of the coalition to wield disproportionate influence in the government.

Hazan, who served as the deputy Knesset speaker, was suspended by Edelstein from his duties last week after a television expose aired allegations that the freshman MK, as manager of a casino in Bulgaria some years ago, bought and smoked crystal meth and regularly hired prostitutes for gamblers who visited his establishment.

Herzog defended his decision, saying it was meant to help maintain the damaged honor of the legislature. But Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid was not supportive.

“That’s not the role of the opposition — I have no idea why Herzog thought that was the role of the opposition,” Lapid said at a ShabaTarbut gathering — a morning of interviews and current affairs — in Rishon Lezion. “There are shameful things in the coalition; corruption has taken over the Likud party and politics. I would have acted differently.”

The Zionist Union accused Lapid, in response, of engaging in “petty politics” and suggested that he direct his criticism at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rather than at the opposition chief.

“Herzog responded to the request by the Knesset speaker for a limited, short number of days, because there are times when you must put the good of the state at the top of your list of priorities, and make decisions that are not the result of petty politics and narrow interests,” the party said in a statement.

But Herzog’s decision has been the subject of criticism within his own party as well. MK Shelly Yachimovich, Herzog’s main competition for the leadership of the Labor Party — which, along with Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua, makes up the Zionist Union — called the move “a mistake” and said the opposition should have left Likud to deal with the “disgrace” it had wrought.

Livni herself later stated that she “would not have made that decision,” though she added that she did not feel it was of dramatic consequence either way.

Lapid, meanwhile, did in fact criticize the Likud and Netanyahu for their handling of the situation, wondering why the prime minister had remained silent over the affair. He also demanded that Hazan be removed from the Knesset’s sensitive Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

“They have to provide an answer to this disgrace,” he said. “A person like MK Hazan cannot be exposed to Israel’s most sensitive secrets.”

According to the report, Lapid reiterated, at the event, his stance that his Yesh Atid party would not join Netanyahu’s coalition.

Last week’s report about Hazan, aired by Channel 2 news, said that he had used crystal meth and solicited prostitutes for clients while managing a casino in Burgas, Bulgaria, based on the anonymous testimonies of acquaintances of Hazan and casino staff. The report also presented a number of documents, emails and social media posts and photographs supporting the claims and tying Hazan to the casino’s management.

Hazan has long maintained that he never managed the Bulgarian casino, but rather a hotel “where there was also a casino,” and that it was managed by a person with whom he had no contact.

According to Channel 2, however, the casino in question is not inside a hotel, and the hotel Hazan claimed to have managed has had the same management for over 20 years — unrelated to Hazan.

According to a report on Channel 1 last week, soon after the swearing-in of the Knesset, a Bulgarian official contacted Israeli officials and asked that Hazan not be involved in any relations between the two countries.

Hazan, who has maintained his innocence since the television exposé, told supporters last week that he was the victim of the media’s deliberate efforts to destroy his reputation, and that he was unwilling to undergo a polygraph test, even if it would dispel the accusations against him.