"Publication of the recommendations on the police chief's last day in the job proves what I have said from day one: this game was fixed, but in the end the truth will win," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted yesterday evening before his speech to Likud supporters at Kfar Maccabiah.
In a crowded hall at Kfar Maccabiah, at a Likud movement Hanukah event, Netanyahu commented on the police recommendation summarizing Case 4000 that he and Shaul Elovitch should be indicted for bribery. The allegation is that the prime minister intervened in regulatory decisions in order to benefit Elovitch and the Bezeq group, while Elovitch directly and indirectly demanded interference with content on the Walla! news website, controlled by Bezeq, to Netanyahu's benefit.
"How did they manage to time it precisely on the police commissioner's last day in office? It's a genuine Hanukah miracle. What a gift they gave us. What did you expect, my friends? The witch-hunt against us continues, the process was contaminated from the start. I wasn't surprised at the recommendations, and I wasn't surprised that they were published today. They decided a year ago that these would be the recommendations, so what's new?" Netanyahu told the assembled Likud activists.
"These crazy claims that we acted against the investigators. It was all published with much noise, and when it was refuted, there wasn't another word. With a whimper; they didn't talk about it anymore," Netanyahu said. "The publication of the recommendations on the Police Commissioner's last day proves what I have said from day one: the game was fixed. It's impossible to expect any other outcome from a process that was contaminated even before it began.
"I don't know who the next police commissioner will be, but I know one thing," Netanyahu continued, "he will have a big rehabilitation job to do to, because the public's confidence in the police is not at a high. I say what everyone sees, and stop the self-righteousness. Everyone can see how the game was fixed.
"I didn't give Elovitch anything, and I didn't receive anything from him," Netanyahu added concerning Case 4000. "The Bezeq-Yes merger was approved by all the professionals, by the legal advisors, and by the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council. Were they all in on the plot?
"Not only did Elovitch not receive a thing from me; in my period as minister of communications he and Bezeq sustained huge losses. When I was minister of communications, we introduced the wholesale market reform, which cut Internet prices and sent Bezeq's share price tumbling. A reform that hit Elovitch hard. That is to say, Bezeq didn't receive anything, it only lost. So what did I receive, you ask? I'll tell you - I received terrible coverage on Walla!. Thank you. Walla! is a left-wing website that has given me negative coverage for years, particularly before the last election. It's absurd. This is an unprecedented deal in the history of business. No-one gives anything and no-one receives anything. You already know what will happen in the end: there will be nothing, because there is nothing.
"The investigations have not diverted me, and will not divert me, from the really important things that I deal with day and night. We shall continue to act for the sake of the State of Israel," Netanyahu said.
Some 3,500 people came to applaud and cheer the prime minister. The top rank of the Likud party were all there. The exception was Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan, who has been careful in recent years, because of his position of responsibility for the Israel Police, not to attend events at which the police are publicly criticized by the prime minister.
Another notable absentee was former minister Gideon Sa'ar.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 3, 2018
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