Israeli PM Naftali Bennett assures Netanyahu's possible plea deal 'won't bring down govt'

Israel’s sitting Prime Minister Naftali Bennet on Sunday responding to reports about former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plea bargain in corruption trial said that his government will not be impacted if the ex-Israeli leader signed the deal. “Our government is not pointing out problems, it’s working to fix them,” Bennett was reported saying at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting by The Times of Israel newspaper. Israeli media was dominated by the news of the development, first reported by Channel 12 over the weekend that the Likud party leader and ex Israel PM Netanyahu was close to striking a covert deal with the state attorney’s office that would unexpectedly end his 12-year political career but provide relief from graft charges.

The reported agreement involved the former Israeli leader admitting to the two counts of breach of trust charges that led to the suspended prison sentence, and the remaining of his time to be converted to community service. But Netanyahu has been desperate to avoid a charge of moral turpitude, for which an outgoing attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit has reached out but the arrangement would imply that Netanyahu will be barred from politics for seven years. 

If Netanyahu goes, 'everything is possible..'

Ex Israel Prime Minister is on trial for manipulating the major Israeli telecom company with bribery in exchange for positive news coverage and for also accepting expensive gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from prominent figures. Despite the corruption charges, the 72-year-old ex-Israeli leader had rejected calls for stepping down from the position in 2019 blaming the media for a “witch hunt” against him. His trial officially began in 2020 after Tel Aviv’s two long years of political crisis and at least four elections due to the voters deadlocked over Netanyahu’s leadership.

Whilst Netanyahu’s legal battles mount, and reports of him quitting politics emerged, political analysts speculated that the deal would shake the current governing coalition and impact Israel’s government, a narrative Bennett downright rejected on Sunday. 

“Our government is not pointing out problems, it’s working to fix them,” Bennett said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, according to Tel Aviv’s newspaper The Times of Israel. “Therefore, to all the various political commentators, with all of your graphs and your scenarios, rest assured,” Bennett said.

“The government of Israel is working and continuing to work quietly and effectively day after day for the citizens of Israel,” the Israeli PM insisted. 

The eight coalition parties had converged previously with an aim to oust Netanyahu. Bennett’s Yamina party, New Hope and Yisrael Beytenu, and others had sworn not to join 30 Knesset seats in Netanyahu’s Likud party in view of his corruption charges. Although, as reports of Netanyahu’s political career-ending for almost a decade have emerged, Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman told the newspaper that Netanyahu’s exit would be “the big bang of the Israeli political map,” as the parties may want to form a coalition with Likud to form the right-wing government.

“If Netanyahu goes, everything is possible,” New Hope party’s MK Sharren Haskel reportedly stressed. Netanyahu and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit meanwhile may leave that decision to the judges as Netanyahu’s deal has to be approved by the court.