When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the Prime Minister’s Office following his bribery indictment on Thursday, he sounded remarkably similar to his close ally, US President Donald Trump. He repeatedly asked the public to demand an investigation of his investigators, whom he said were infected by politics. He even had his staff tweet it while he spoke. Netanyahu alleged that the cases against him were intended to topple a prime minister of the Right. “They weren’t looking to get the truth, they were looking to get me,” Netanyahu said. Netanyahu did not accuse Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit of treason, as Trump has of Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, the lead prosecutor in his impeachment hearings, but he came pretty close; and he did not retweet a warning that removing him from office would cause a civil war, as Trump did. But Netanyahu did accuse the police and state prosecutors of “an attempted coup.” And of course, both Netanyahu and Trump blame their investigations on the media that is complicit in the attempt to overthrow him. There are more comparisons that can be made, but it is important to point out what is different. In Israel, a prime minister can be ousted much easier than the president of the United States. There are no impeachment hearings in Israel, because our elections are not limited to every four years. We can have them every four months, and Thursday night, a third election in under a year became almost inevitable.
Unlike American Attorney-General William Barr, who has been accused of being too close to Trump, Mandelblit – who was Netanyahu’s cabinet secretary – acted independently. We have had two prime ministers in a row indicted, which shows the strength of our legal system. Democrats who wish it was easier to remove Trump from office can only watch what is unfolding in Israel and drool.
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