THE PLEA BARGAIN

 

It seems every other news topic has been put on hold this week. News media speculation over a possible plea bargain that might keep former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu out of jail has been cast as “the only show in town.”

By most accounts the news media’s exaggerated attention to the case isn’t shared by the general public. A random poll conducted anywhere in the country would probably reveal that rank-and-file Israelis (myself included) find it difficult to differentiate between cases 1,000, 2,000, and 4,000. We all know that they involve charges of bribery, corruption and breach of trust, but we have long lost interest in the finer definitions. We are more concerned about staying out of harm’s way, mainly Omicron and other variants.

The news media’s obsession with the plea bargain topic is liable to give outsiders a false impression of what really concerns us most.   A casual observer would be forgiven for assuming that Israel has “let its guard down.” An assumption based on our newsoutlets’ coverage of current events.

However, the police, IDF and various security services are all well focused on what they are required to do. They keep a close watch on threats at home and around us.

One possible exception is our police force which has been accused of using NSO’s Pegasus spyware to pry on citizens in all walks of life. I’m quoting the Israeli daily business newspaper and website Calcalist “Mayors, leaders of political protests against former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and former governmental employees, were among those tracked by police without a search or bugging warrant authorising the surveillance.

Israel police uses NSO’s Pegasus spyware to remotely hack phones of Israeli citizens, control them and extract information from them. The Israeli company’s spyware, which has earned a notorious reputation in recent years after being used by oppressive regimes to spy on dissidents, was used, for example, by the police’s SIGINT unit in order to search for evidence of bribery in the cellphone of a serving mayor, during the stage in which the investigation was still confidential. The remote hacking delivered in this instance evidence of criminal offenses. This evidence was later whitewashed as intelligence and was followed by an open investigation. At this stage, the evidence already known to the police was legally seized with a search warrant provided by a judge.”

A spokesman for the Police Force denied the accusations saying: “The Israel Police Force acts according to the authority granted by law and when necessary, according to court orders and within the rules and regulations set by the responsible bodies. The police’s activity in this sector is under constant supervision and inspection by the Attorney General and additional external legal entities. Naturally, the police force doesn’t intend to comment on the tools it uses. Nevertheless, we will continue to act in a determined manner with all the means at our disposal, in the physical and online spaces, to fight crime in general, and organised crime in particular, to protect the safety and property of the public.”

Some people are worried by this apparent overreach of authority. I am not really concerned, so long as long as our gendarmerie gets the job done without abusive use of the tools it uses.

Incidentally, the initials NSO stand for Niv, Shalev and Omri, the names of the company's founders They are ex-members of Unit 8200, the Israeli Intelligence Corps unit responsible for collecting signals intelligence

The Pegasus spyware is classified as a weapon by Israel and any export of the technology must be approved by the government.

A recent statement issued by the company explained that, “NSO Group, develops best-in-class technology to help government agencies detect and prevent a wide-range of local and global threats.

“Our products help government intelligence and law-enforcement agencies use technology to meet the challenges of encryption to prevent and investigate terror and crime.

NSO technology is designed by telecommunications and intelligence experts who, positioned at the forefront of their fields, are dedicated to keeping pace with the ever-changing cyber world.”

In an interview with the Guardian on Wednesday, Omer Barlev, the cabinet minister with responsibility for policing, denied claims made this week by the Hebrew-language financial daily Calcalist that the phones of people who led protests against former premier Benjamin Netanyahu had been hacked into or surveilled by the police.

Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, an expert at the Israel Democracy Institute thinktank, said: “You can’t really ask for a court order authorising Pegasus” because Israeli law does not currently permit such invasive surveillance of its citizens.

“It is now clear that the current Protection of Privacy Law is not equipped to cope with today’s reality,” she told Agence France-Presse.

That being said, now we can get back to the plea bargain topic if only for the sake of clarifying it more.

 

In a piece she wrote last week Carrie Keller-Lynn Political and Legal Correspondent for the Times of Israel tended to play down the gravity of some of the charges in the various Netanyahu cases

“Pundits and scholars alike are debating whether the trial is an overreach of the court system, especially as two of the three cases turn on the question of whether favourable media coverage – essential to a politician’s role and relevance – is something of value to be traded.

Legal opinions are divided as to whether media attention is a benefit cognizable under the existing penal law, or if the attorney general is innovating new law.

Netanyahu is on trial in three cases, dubbed Cases 1000, 2000, and 4000 by police investigators. Case 1000 concerns lucrative gifts that Netanyahu received from wealthy supporters, while Cases 2000 and 4000 both revolve around quid pro quo deals in which Netanyahu allegedly was seeking to secure more favourable media coverage from the country’s leading newspaper Yediot Ahronot (Case 2000) and allegedly gained effective editorial control over Israel’s second-biggest news site, Walla (Case 4000).

While all three cases carry the charge of “fraud and breach of trust,” Case 4000 is considered the most serious, as it also brings an additional charge of bribery. In the Case 4000 quid pro quo, Netanyahu is alleged to have arranged immensely lucrative benefits for fellow defendant Shaul Elovitch, the then controlling shareholder of the Bezeq telecommunications company

Word of the possible plea deal comes just weeks before Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit is set to end his term on January 31.

Mandelblit was responsible for issuing the indictments against Netanyahu, following lengthy police investigations, and is largely seen as wanting to end his time in office with a successful conviction.

The next attorney general will be appointed by the coalition government, led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and may be much less likely to offer such a plea deal to Netanyahu.

But critics -- including hundreds of protesters who gathered outside of Mandelblit's home on Saturday night -- are pushing back against the deal. For them, anything less than a full trial and sentence carrying with it the stigma of moral turpitude would be regarded as a failure, given the seriousness of pursuing cases against a serving prime minister.

While at first glance it may seem like Netanyahu's political opponents would be happy to see him take a plea deal in disgrace and leave the political arena, some Israeli analysts say such a move could shake the stability of the current government.

The glue that has bound those parties reflects a shared wish to end Netanyahu's time as Israel's longest serving prime minister. And for as long as he has remained in front line politics -- as the leader of the opposition -- it has held together well.

But if he were to exit the stage, it could provide an opening for a new coalition, made-up entirely of right-wing and religious parties, that could topple the current unity government.

However, political commentator Anshel Pfeffer Ha’aretz thinks otherwise- “Even if Netanyahu signs a plea bargain and resigns, it won’t cause a political earthquake. Likud will still be the Bibi Party and there will be little incentive for coalition members to defect.”

Most of the news media accounts of the charges made against Benjamin Netanyahu omitted or glossed over Case 3000

The submarine affair, (Case 3000) concerns allegations of a massive bribery scheme in Israel’s multi-million-dollar purchase of naval vessels — submarines and large missile ships — from German shipbuilder Thyssenkrupp. The scandal also involved the sale of two Dolphin-class submarines and two anti-submarine warships by Germany to Egypt, allegedly approved by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu without consulting or notifying then-defence minister Moshe Ya’alon and then-IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz. Israel had long been granted an unofficial veto over such sales by Germany.

While several of Netanyahu’s close associates have been indicted in the case, which involves suspicions that Israeli officials were bribed to ensure Thyssenkrupp won the contract, the former premier has not been directly implicated, and the attorney general has said he is not a suspect. However, Ya’alon and Gantz think otherwise.

I want to conclude on a positive note. An item published by i24 News provided details of the recommendations made by a committee appointed to investigate medications to be included in the “health basket” for the current year. The recommendations submitted to Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, included medications and technologies worth $175.5 million. 

Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said the committee members "did an amazing job," adding that the subsidized treatments include “super-advanced drugs and technologies in the fields of mental health, rehabilitation, funding innovative cancer treatments, treatments for transgender individuals, lowering the price of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), adding another drug for HIV patients and assistance to a very wide range of people.” We have made every effort to ensure the citizens of the country receive the technologies that should be included in the basket as soon as possible,” said the coordinator of the committee, Dr. Osnat Luxenburg.

  
I'm adding a last minute postscript  : 

Contacts regarding  a plea deal between Benjamin Netanyahu and the state prosecution appeared to be in dire straits Wednesday evening, with sources close to both sides telling media outlets that it appeared increasingly unlikely that an agreement could be reached in the near future.
Netanyahu met with advisors at the office of one of his  attorneys. They are reported  to have discussed at length the  state of the negotiations. However, the reports indicated that the gaps between the sides appeared to be too wide to  bridge in the short time left in Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit’s tenure — seen as a key window for securing a deal.
According to  TV Channel 12, Mandelblit’s associates are now almost certain that a deal will not be struck. 

       
Take care.
Beni,                           20^th of January, 2022.