PM slams ‘thought police’ media for skewed reporting of graft probes against him

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday slammed Israeli media for trying to defeat him through undemocratic means, and said that law enforcement officials are being pressured to pursue criminal investigations against him that have no basis.

Speaking at an event for his Likud party at the Tel Aviv Convention Center to mark the upcoming the Passover festival, Netanyahu accused local media of behaving like “thought police” by skewing its coverage of the graft probes against him and preventing any criticism of the “witch hunt” he claims he is facing.

The prime minister is under investigation in three separate graft cases, dubbed 1000, 2000 and 4000.

“Many people, and not just Likud supporters, hear what they are doing to us in the media, and they feel that it is a rigged game, a real witch hunt,” Netanyahu said at the event that was attended by Likud ministers and MKs along with Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and Netanyahu’s wife, Sara.

“There is a feeling of injustice, of something not right,” Netanyahu continued. “They know that since they can’t beat us at the ballot box, they can’t beat us in democratic ways, it is impossible. Since they can’t beat us democratically, there are those who are putting relentless thuggish pressure on the enforcement entities to bring us down in other ways,” he said.

Repeating claims he has made throughout a year of the ongoing investigations, Netanyahu accused the media fabricating false stories about him in order to push him out of office.

“And look at the biggest absurdity, the media choir, almost entirely, is so uniform that it denounces even the right to express criticism of what is going on here, it really is a thought police,” the prime minister continued.

“It is not that they find something and then investigate, they look, and look again, and again they look, and don’t find anything. And also now, they won’t find anything because there is nothing to find,” he said.

Some of the thousands who attended the event held up banners supporting the prime minister in his investigations with slogans reading “The case one thousand and one nights,” and “Netanyahu guards Israel.”

The prime minister appeared to thrive off the support of the crowd, who had been given Likud T-shirts by organizers ahead of Netanyahu’s speech.

“You are the source of my strength, you are the source of our strength, it is you,” Netanyahu told the cheering crowds. “The Likud is the biggest and strongest party in Israel,” he declared. “Together, we are leading the country, and together we will lead for many more years.”

Recent weeks have seen rumors of imminent elections with a coalition crisis that could have brought down the government only narrowly avoided last week. Critics cclaim that the prime minister want elections, which polls predict he would win, in order to pressure Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit not to indict him in two corruption cases in which police recommend he be charged for bribery.

In Case 1000, Netanyahu and his wife are suspected of receiving illicit gifts from billionaire benefactors, amounting to some NIS 1 million ($282,000) worth of cigars and champagne from the Israeli-born Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and Australian resort owner James Packer, in return for certain benefits.

Case 2000 involves a suspected illicit quid pro quo deal between Netanyahu and Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper publisher Arnon Mozes that would have seen the prime minister take steps weaken a rival daily, the Sheldon Adelson-backed Israel Hayom, in return for more favorable coverage from Yedioth.

He has also been questioned, reportedly as a suspect, in Case 4000, which involves suspicions he advanced regulation benefiting Bezeq telecom’s owner Shaul Elovitch in exchange for flattering coverage from Bezeq’s Walla news site.

In addition, he has been linked to two other corruption probes in which a number of his close associates and advisers are suspects.

The prime minister and his wife deny any wrongdoing.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.