“Israel’s legal system, which has proven itself fully capable of addressing legal questions … is the appropriate place for these matters to be adjudicated,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Nov. 18. No, these “issues” do not relate to his criminal indictments for bribery, fraud and breach of trust. His praise for the country’s legal system was part of an enthusiastic reaction to the Nov. 18 declaration by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that legal questions regarding Israel’s settlements are a matter for Israeli courts and not for international law to decide.
Indeed, generations of police officers, prosecutors and judges have proven to be an integral element in the settlement enterprise over the past 52 years. They are part of that same legal system that Netanyahu and his associates now claim is unfit to handle the prime minister’s criminal investigations. Just like the three indictments detailing a multitude of violations of Israeli law, Netanyahu considers the claim that the settlement enterprise violates international law to be false.
