Thread by @NTarnopolsky

1/ Buffeted by blowback to decision allowing the Jewish Power party into his governing coalition, Netanyahu has engaged in an interesting maneuver.
(short thread)

Netanyahu's attorney had the gall to ask Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked to release evidentiary material proving that the prime minister's relationship with Shaul Elovitch, Bibi friend & telecom titan, was not inappropriate. israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx…

Shaked responded immediately & properly: "I forwarded his letter to the attorney general and asked him to give a quick response on the matter, and I can not intervene beyond that that the matter is under investigation."

Yesterday, the prime minister spent the day whining about his inability to (legally) raise funds from friends and relatives to pay for his criminal defense. The police-judiciary-lefty-media conglomerate has taken away my basic right to pay for my defense, he howled.

Today Ayelet Shaked is the target of his Panzer corps campaign. Were she to acquiesce, Netanyahu could slink back while she was attacked by all the good government types. Were she to respond with rectitude, he'd launch his attack against her.

Here it is: "We were astounded" Netanyahu's lawyers say, by Shaked's refusal to give Netanyahu "Justice Ministry documents that help to prove his innocence." Mysteriously, they then say the information contained within these documents is common knowledge. "This is not material

resulting from the investigation or classified, but Justice Ministry documents submitted to the State Comptroller showing that the Bezeq-Yes certificates were duly authorized by regulators without the Prime Minister's intervention."

Allow me to speculate that if this were the case, Netanyahu's team would have released this exculpatory material ages ago.

Now in #breaking: Netanyahu's lawyers claim some of the text messages to Elovitz and top Walla officials are fabricated. Lots to unpack here: Was he trying to trip Shaked up? Who are the texts from?-- Netanyahu is known not to use a smartphone. themarker.com/news/politics/…

Meanwhile: The Likud is unhinged tonight. Likud TV, Netanyahu's in-house Pravda, posted a shocking ad wherein Benny Gantz, Netanyahu's former army chief of staff-turned-electoral rival, is labelled a dangerous leftist against a backdrop of solders' graves.

"The public isn't stupid. Gantz is left &left is dangerous," the narrator intones. Predictably, families of fallen soldiers, an important Israeli constituency, were disgusted. So was Gantz, whose party said “Fallen IDF soldiers & bereaved families could not imagine

that a PM would use them for political campaign videos. Netanyahu: Go apologize to the families immediately, or this stain will trail you all your life." Sound familiar? It echoes a letter sent by 90 rabbis warning voters of the indelible stain tainting any Jewish Power supporter

The Likud proceeded to behead the messenger. Avishai Ivri, Likud TV's sad "anchor" was immediately suspended. "Those responsible for the Likud broadcast tonight were suspended until further notice," the party declared.

Netanyahu announced that "as soon as the unfortunate editorial error made at Likud headquarters was reported to me I ordered the video removed, an investigation of the incident and action be taken against those responsible for the mishap."

"As a bereaved brother who for the past 43 years has been visiting his brother's grave on Mount Herzl, I understand the pain of the families." Indeed, Netanyahu felt the pain.

🔴An Israeli prime minister who manages to botch his #1 diplomatic event, provoke the blistering condemnation of mainstream Israeli orthodox rabbi and the across-the-board revulsion of American Jewish organizations, plus disgust bereaved military families: this is quite something

You could argue this is the holy trinity of Israeli political life:
1. Orthodox rabbis
2. US Jewish organizations
3. IDF

If it stumbles like a freak-out & flaps its wings like a freak-out it must be a freak-out: The Attorney General is expected to announce his decision on a possible indictment of Netanyahu by the end of the week, meaning, Wednesday or Thursday, some 40 days ahead of the April9 vote

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, currently on a state visit to Moscow, will return from Russia on Wednesday, a day earlier than originally planned." haaretz.com/israel-news/ne…

Lets revisit Bibi's decision to pave the way for Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) to take a Knesset seat. Just to clear the deck, Netanyahu embraced racial supremacists. 10 years in power & you forget how normal people react.

.@YaelPatir elegantly understates the case when she says he "underestimated US Jews' revulsion toward Kahanists." ynetnews.com/articles/0,734…

Most opposition parties joined forces today to ask the Central Elections Committee to bar Jewish Power from running for Knesset. JP advocates expelling Arabs from Israel, instigates violence against Palestinians and wants to make intermarriage illegal. timesofisrael.com/labor-meretz-s…

In an act of Platonic whataboutism, the @Likud_Party reacted by announcing it is "preparing to file a request demanding the Central Elections Committee ban Balad for running to the Knesset."

What is Balad? A party whose platform advocates "the struggle to transform the State of Israel into a democracy for all its citizens, irrespective of national or ethnic identity." It opposes the idea of Israel as a Jewish state & advocates re-envisioning it as a binational state.

Balad, like the USA, supports the creation of two states based on pre-1967 borders, with the West Bank, Gaza Strip & East Jerusalem constituting a Palestinian state. It describes itself as a "democratic progressive national party for the Palestinian citizens of Israel."