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Netanyahu out to shatter Israeli democracy, free press

The public opinion battle of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against a possible indictment continues, with his associates publishing photos of four journalists on a billboard, accusing them of persecuting the prime minister.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greets journalists as he arrives to the weekly cabinet meeting at his Jerusalem office  on January 6, 2019. (Photo by GALI TIBBON / various sources / AFP)        (Photo credit should read GALI TIBBON/AFP/Getty Images)
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government has managed to fracture the two foundations of any democracy: an independent judiciary and a free press. The prime minister’s re-election campaign proves he is now targeting both for total annihilation. Helping him is Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who prides herself on having wrought a revolution in the Israeli judicial system and wants to see it through to the end.

On Jan. 18, given increasing indications that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit is likely to indict Netanyahu on corruption charges before the April 9 elections, pending a hearing, a giant billboard went up in Tel Aviv with the portraits of four leading Israeli journalists and the caption, “They will not decide.”

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