Prime Minister benjamin Netanyahu denied he would be asking for a plea deal at his trial in an interview to Walla news.
In response to the claims made by Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Liberman, Netanyahu said “I have rejected every attempt from journalists and others to promote such a thing,” he said.
He continued, saying “I have said so in the past, I am going to blow all these ludicrous claims and false cases I was given out of the water. I demand full transparency, I demanded it in my hearing, but the Attorney General refused.”
“But they also refuse to reveal the Ashkenazi-Mandelblit recording from the Herpaz case,” Netanyahu continued. “Until recently they also refused to investigate [Blue and White Leader] Benny Gantz’s ‘Fifth dimension’ case. They didn’t investigate Yoav Segalovich’s case, who was tampering with the investigation when he was head of the investigation department alongside his friend Gabi Ashkenazi. I demand they remove the non-disclosure agreements immediately.The public deserve to know – all of it”
Netanyahu also said it would be outrageous if a supreme court warrant is issued stating that he cannot form a government. “In a democracy it’s the people that are the ones who decide who leads.” Though he did not rule out the possibility that he would promote a new law that overturns the high court. “I don’t believe the court will make such a decision, it will cause untold damage to our democratic rule.”
Netanyahu used much of the interview’s time to criticize Benny Gantz and his ability to form a government and referred to the recordings published on Thursday of Gantz’s adviser, Yisrael Bachar, wherein he doubts Gantz’s leadership abilities.
“If someone is going to be prime minister, he must first be able to stand up to things like this, the public needs to know either way.”
Netanyahu denied any connection to the tapes as well the Rabbi who recorded them, despite the fact it was published they met during that same week. “The one who cooked this medicine is Benny Gantz himself. In his weakness, his hesitancy, in his leadership material,” he said.
