Coalition chairman Miki Zohar threatened on Wednesday that more recordings of Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit would be released if Mandelblit did not resign and remove the indictments against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately.”Everything has already been clarified and I tell you that it’s just a small tap. If Mandelblit does not resign and dismiss the indictments we will reveal more things,” Zohar told 103FM.
On Tuesday, Channel 12 reported that Mandelblit complained that then-state attorney Shai Nizan “has his hands around my throat” in private telephone calls between 2015 and 2016.
Mandelblit was speaking, in recordings obtained by Channel 12, to then-Israel Bar Association president and confidante Efi Nave, about Nitzan’s decision not to declare the basis for closing an earlier case against the attorney-general.
Although Mandelblit was only a peripheral figure in the affair – which mostly involved a 2010 rivalry between then-defense minister Ehud Barak and then-IDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi over who was the country’s “Mr. Security” – he was suspected of withholding information from police for 24 hours.
“The cancellation of the indictments, the publication of a public apology by the two and the resignation of Mandelblit will not correct the terrible and unnecessary injustice done to Netanyahu and the Likud,” tweeted Zohar on Tuesday.
Netanyahu expressed disapproval of Zohar’s statements on Wednesday in a statement released by the Likud Party.
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“MK Miki Zohar’s remarks were made without the prime minister’s knowledge and were not made on his advice. The prime minister did not discuss the matter with MK Zohar. The prime minister disapproves of the things that are not acceptable to him,” read the statement.Blue and White demanded that Zohar resign, saying that he was pushing the country toward elections.”Miki Zohar should end his position as chairman of the coalition. He undermines the stability of the government every day and every day he’s in office brings us downhill to elections,” said the party in a statement. “Israel deserves more.”
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel called on the Israel Police commissioner to investigate Zohar for extortion.
“This is not the conduct of elected officials, and certainly not of a ruling party. It is the conduct of a gang drunk with power and an agenda, which does everything in its power to protect a prime minister accused of three serious indictments, in order to stay in power,” said the movement.
“If the chairman of the coalition collects so-called incriminating materials on the ombudsman, he should do the honor of submitting them to the police,” added the movement. “His method of operation, which he revealed this morning live, is reminiscent of the conduct of a criminal organization. This is not Sicily.”
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.
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