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'Bibimania' hits Israel

The police investigations against Netanyahu have contributed to an increasingly divisive and corrosive atmosphere in Israel's public and politics.
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Likud Knesset member Miki Zohar sounded quite emotional during a Feb. 19 interview in which he compared the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to “what they’re doing to the prime minister.” He made the comment to Radio Haifa a day after the Case 4000 scandal exploded with a wave of arrests that scooped up people close to Netanyahu.

The media has described Case 4000 as the most serious of all the Netanyahu scandals. Shaul Elovitch, who owns controlling interest in the telecommunication giant Bezeq, allegedly received hundreds of millions of shekels in the form of an easing of regulations by the Ministry of Communications. In exchange, Netanyahu would receive favorable coverage on the Walla website, which Bezeq owns.

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