“I’m telling you, I haven’t got involved with this … and I don’t believe I will get involved with this,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on March 23. He was responding to Channel 12 interviewer Keren Marciano's question on whether he would advance legislation granting him immunity from prosecution if reelected April 9. “My associates brought this up without my knowledge,” said the man suspected of bribery and breach of trust. Netanyahu continued to play dumb during the surprise interview he gave ahead of the elections.
Let us assume that the prime minister’s allies went behind his back to initiate “a legal reform” designed to keep him out of jail. However, according to what he himself admitted to in the interview, he has been aware — at least since end of March — that his associates were trying to promote legislation that would place his personal interest far above the public’s. He should have instructed them to stop their disgraceful efforts rather than appointing them as ministers in the government he is forming, or as chairs of Knesset committees. Instead of ordering them to stop, he has authorized them to conduct negotiations on his behalf with his prospective coalition partners.
