Netanyahu rejects calls to step down

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected calls to step down on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) after police recommended his indictment for corruption, the biggest challenge yet to the right-wing premier’s long tenure in power.

Netanyahu again came out swinging on Wednesday, harshly criticizing the police investigation while making clear he has no intention of resigning.

His governing coalition, seen as the most right-wing in Israeli reactions from key members in the coming days will be watched

“I can reassure you that the coalition is stable,” Netanyahu said at an event in Tel Aviv.

“Neither me nor anyone else has plans for elections. We’re going to continue to work together for the good of Israeli citizens until the end of the term” in 2019.

Netanyahu, prime minister for a total of nearly 12 years, also harshly denounced the police recommendations against him as “full of holes, like Swiss cheese.”

He said the police report was “contrary to the truth and logic.”

Police recommended on Tuesday that he be indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of public trust.

The attorney general must now decide how to move forward, a process that could take months.

A prime minister facing such police recommendations or who has been formally charged is not obliged to resign.

As it became clear police were to issue the recommendations on Tuesday night, Netanyahu gave a televised address to the nation, proclaiming his innocence and criticizing the police.

Ministers close to him also defended Netanyahu.

‘Undermine the police’

Avi Gabbay, leader of the opposition Labor party, said the “Netanyahu era is over” and called on him to step down.

“He is unworthy to continue to be prime minister of Israel. It’s very simple,” Gabbay said in a video interview with the Ynet news site.

Tzipi Livni, part of the main opposition Zionist Union alliance that also includes Labor, criticized what she called a campaign to undermine the police.

One of Netanyahu’s main rivals also came under the spotlight when it emerged he had spoken to police about one of the allegations against the prime minister.

Yair Lapid, head of the centrist opposition party Yesh Atid, said “there is no choice but to tell the truth when the police ask for explanations in a serious corruption case.”

Lapid, who also called on Ne minister at the time one of the allegations took place.

But at the same time, key coalition ministers signaled they would remain in the government, though at least one also criticized Netanyahu’s behavior.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett said “taking gifts” as Netanyahu is alleged to have done was not up to the “standard” of a prime minister.

But he stressed Netanyahu was innocent until proven guilty and that he would wait for the attorney general’s decision.

Bennett, who has ambitions to be prime minister, heads the farright party Jewish Home, which holds eight seats in parliament.

Netanyahu’s coalition controls 66 out of 120 seats in total.

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, whose center-right Kulanu party controls 10 seats, also signaled he would remain in the government as did Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu

“Something very, very dramatic happened last night, a kind of earthquake, but as far as changes in the political arena, I don’t see that yet,” political scientist Abraham Diskin of Hebrew University said in an interview with The Israel Project NGO.

Police have been investigating Netanyahu over suspicions that he and his family received expensive gifts from Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer.