Nothing to see here

Feburary 15, 2018

 

The very-long-awaited recommendations by the Israel Police regarding two (out of four, at least) investigations of Prime Minister Netanyahu, were announced last night: that the premier be indicted on charges of bribery in both cases. Whatever the strength of the legal cases (the experts differ), the political impact of this development is very limited. Even if the Attorney-General eventually acts on the recommendations, that will not be until late 2018 — at the earliest.

 

Therefore, from a political perspective, there will be no impact and the current storm will abate. Mr. Netanyahu’s personal support is intact and the Likud party remains solidly behind him — as do all the coalition parties. These recommendations and the allegations that generated them will not bring down this government, nor will they prevent Netanyahu from leading Likud in the next general election — which now seems likely to be held in 2019, perhaps somewhat earlier than its official date of November 2019.