Likud officials say Netanyahu grew untrusting, unallied
In the wake of Hefetz's state's witness deal and PM Netanyahu's attacks on law-enforcement authorities, members of his party say they're averse to defend him in the media, adding he isn't satisfied even if you do so, and has started becoming more detached, untrusting.
“Bibi has stopped speaking to us and doesn’t seek advice from anyone,” a Likud member said on Thursday, using the prime minister’s nickname. “We are also not thrilled with coming to his defense in the media, especially after his attack on the law-enforcement authorities, particularly the police.”
“Even if you are interviewed and defend him in a stately and moderate manner he isn’t satisfied,” the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Another Likud official commented on how the prime minister’s level of trust in those around him had plummeted. “Netanyahu doesn't trust anyone and doesn’t believe anyone,” he said, adding that he had almost completely isolated himself.
“He has practically no close associates in the party, except maybe Tourism Minister Yariv Levin. That’s why the MKs and the ministers are afraid of expressing anything, of responding or voicing their criticism on the investigations. Any statement of this kind is immediately thought of by him as subversion, as treachery or some kind of conspiracy to unseat him,” the Likud member said.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu accused authorities heading a series of graft probes against him of employing intimidatory techniques to compel suspects into slandering him, regardless of the veracity of the claims.
The verbal assault on the investigative teams came just days after Hefetz, signed a state's witness agreement, joining two other former close Netanyahu associates who have turned state's witnesses recently—Ari Harow and Shlomo Filber.
“I read about a man who was taken for investigation, on whom they exerted masses of pressure and told him, ‘Lie, be a state’s witness’ and he refuses. It is difficult to believe that in the State of Israel, in our 2018 democracy, such things occur,” Netanyahu said in a video uploaded on his Facebook page as he was flying from Washington to New York.
“So I want to say a few words about the industry of state’s witnesses. They take people who claim that they carried out some offence, place them under arrest, terrify them and say to them: ‘Your life is over. Your family’s lives are over. We’re taking practically everything from you, including your freedom. Do you want to be free of this? There is one way out—slander Netanyahu. It doesn’t matter if you tell hallucinatory lies. The main thing is that you slander Netanyahu,” the prime minister’s post continued.
“When there is something real, you don’t need a single state’s witness, and when there isn’t anything, even one thousands state’s witnesses won’t help. This obsessive hunt for one state’s witness and then another and another is the best proof that there is nothing,” he added, sticking to the mantra that has escorted him throughout his public defense since the investigations erupted.
