On Jan. 17, 2017, Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh commented publicly for the first time on the investigations of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which had been making headlines. “The investigation won’t be very long,” he said. His almost offhanded remark was made while touring the southern Bedouin town of Rahat, as though in spontaneous response to reporters’ questions rather than at an official briefing for reporters on the dramatic investigations of an incumbent prime minister.
Alsheikh's predicted timeframe turned out to be wrong. The investigation of suspicions that Netanyahu accepted gifts from wealthy business people — a probe dubbed Case 1,000 — and colluded with Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes to obtain positive coverage (Case 2,000) is still ongoing, and the end is nowhere in sight. It’s still unclear when the police will wrap up its work and hand its recommendations to the state prosecutor.
