Will New Witness Close the Case on Bibi?
The state has secured a new witness in its ongoing investigation of corruption charges against Prime Minister Netanyahu. Shlomo Filber, once Netanyahu’s “right-hand man,” is allegedly going to give the state crucial testimony for Case 4000 – concerning alleged quid quo pro deals between the PM and Bezeq – Israel’s leading communications company. Many believe that this could be the end of Bibi’s political career, but recent polling has the PM’s Likud party gaining rather than losing support, despite widespread belief that Netanyahu is corrupt. More at YNET.
Filber’s testimony is expected to sew up a multimillion-dollar bribery case in which the prime minister allegedly helped telecom giant Bezeq in exchange for favorable coverage from Bezeq’s news website Walla. Netanyahu can now be considered a political corpse. He’s hemmed in from all sides by these three cases.
Allegations of corruption have dogged Netanyahu for the past two decades, but he has never been charged with a crime. The defection of an aide as close as Filber turns up the heat.
“This looks very problematic and raises the chances of there being an indictment,” said Abraham Diskin, professor emeritus of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The Zionist Union chairman said a prime minister whose confidants, like Communications Ministry Director-General Shlomo Filber and Netanyahu’s former chief of staff Ari Harrow, turned state’s witness should resign immediately, and he is certain Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett and Kulanu chairman Moshe Kahlon will soon agree…
Based on recent polling it is not clear that the opposition would gain from elections.