Feb 27, 2019 Amnon Peery Opinions 0
“To bring down a duly elected prime minister on the basis of an expansive and unprecedented application of a broad and expandable criminal statute endangers democracy,” Dershowitz wrote.
Alan Dershowitz at the Jerusalem Post Conference in New York, May 7, 2017. (photo credit: SIVAN FARAG)
Professor Alan Dershowitz, one of the most prominent Jewish lawyers in the United States and the world, published an open letter on Wednesday addressed to Attorney-General Avichai Mandleblit, in which he defended Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the ongoing investigations against him.
Mandelblit is expected to publish his decision on whether or not to indict Netanyahu on Thursday, with possible consequences on the current election cycle.
Dershowitz, in his letter published in Haaretz, negates charges of bribery and fraud against Netanyahu and said that an indictment against the prime minister would threaten the democratic process.
“To bring down a duly elected prime minister on the basis of an expansive and unprecedented application of a broad and expandable criminal statute endangers democracy,” Dershowitz wrote.
The Harvard professor expanded on the three cases – 1000, 2000 and 4000, which might bring forth an indictment – and rejected the legitimacy of the charges based on the existing evidence.
In Case 1000, in which Netanyahu is accused of handing out favors in return for gifts – cigars and champagne – from friends, Dershowitz wrote that there is no applicable law that defines the line of what would constitute bribery in this case.
“The accusation is that Netanyahu took too many such gifts and made too many favors in return. But how many are too many? The law doesn’t say,” Dershowitz asserted, adding that “no one should be charged with a crime unless he has willfully crossed a bright line and plainly violated a serious criminal statute.”
Cases 2000 and 4000, in which the prime minister is accused of supporting legislation in return for positive media coverage, “pose even greater dangers to democratic governance and civil liberties,” he said.
Dershowitz wrote that no substantial proof can be brought forth that a law was broken and that the complex relationship between political and media figures cannot be subject to prosecution. Instead this should be decided upon by the public, who can choose to vote in favor or against the representatives who behave in such a way.
In Case 2000, Netanyahu allegedly supported a law that would curtail Israel Hayom to gain fairer coverage from its competitor Yediot Aharonot in a deal struck with its publisher Noni Mozes. Netanyahu ultimately voted against the law, leaving prosecutors to deal with possible motives, but no real evidence that can be used against him.
Similarly, Dershowitz noted, in Case 4000 in which Netanyahu allegedly supported regulatory decisions made by civil servants in return for fairer coverage, a prosecution would be based on “speculation concerning the state of mind of the participants.”
“The relationship between politics and the media – and between politicians and publishers – is too nuanced, subtle and complex to be subject to the heavy hand of criminal law,” he wrote.
Dershowitz asserted that politicians’ decisions are often motivated by the coverage they would receive from the media and to achieve some sort of self-serving result.
“To empower prosecutors to probe these mixed motivations is to empower them to exercise undemocratic control over crucial institutions of democracy,” he reiterated.
The nature of politics, he added, and the relationship of it with media institutions to ‘”scratch my back and I will scratch yours’ is as Israeli as falafel and as American as apple pie.”
Dershowitz called on Mandelblit to let Netanyahu “continue his important work,” and to let Israelis decide at the ballot whether they accept the prime minister’s behavior or not.
“To criminalize these political differences is to endanger democracy and freedom of the press,” Dershowitz wrote.
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Menachem Begin in December 1942 wearing the Polish Army uniform of Gen. Anders’ forces with his wife Aliza and David Yutan; (back row) Moshe Stein and Israel Epstein
(photo credit: JABOTINSKY ARCHIVES)
During the inauguration of a memorial to the victims of the Siege of Leningrad in Jerusalem’s Sacher Park on January 24, 2020, before the climax of Holocaust remembrance events at which Russian President Vladimir Putin was given a central platform, we were stunned to hear a rendition of The Blue Kerchief (Siniy
Giant figures are seen during the 87th carnival parade of Aalst February 15, 2015
The annual carnival in Aalst, Belgium, is expected to take place on Sunday with even more antisemitic elements than in previous years.
Aalst’s organizers have sold hundreds of “rabbi kits” for revelers to dress as hassidic Jews in the carnival’s parade. The kit includes oversized noses, sidelocks (peyot) and black hats. The organizers plan to bring back floats similar to the one displayed in 2019 featuring oversized dolls of Jews, with rats on their shoulders, holding banknotes.
Pope Francis waves as he arrives at the Basilica of Saint Nicholas in the southern Italian coastal city of Bari, Italy February 23, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Remo Casilli.
Pope Francis on Sunday warned against “inequitable solutions” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying they would only be a prelude to new crises, in an apparent reference to US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace proposal.
Francis made his comments in the southern Italian port city of Bari, where he traveled to conclude a meeting of bishops from all countries in the Mediterranean basin.
Palestinians walk past a shop selling fruits in Ramallah, Feb. 20, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Mohamad Torokman.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have reached an agreement to end a five-month long trade dispute, officials said on Thursday.
The dispute, which opened a new front in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, began in September when the PA announced a boycott of Israel calves. The PA exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank under interim peace deals.
Antisemitic caricatures on display at the annual carnival in Aalst, Belgium. Photo: Raphael Ahren via Twitter.
Disturbing images emerged on Sunday of the annual carnival at Aalst, Belgium, showing an astounding number of antisemitic themes, costumes, displays and statements.
Israeli journalist Raphael Ahren documented people dressed as caricatures of Orthodox Jews, a fake “wailing wall” attacking critics of the parade, blatantly antisemitic characters and puppets wearing traditional Jewish clothes and sporting huge noses.
Feb 02, 2020 0
The remarks from the US official came in wake of the Palestinian decision to reject the administration’s peace plan. US PRESIDENT Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrive to...The stench of anti-Semitism always hovers over Switzerland’s Lake Geneva when the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is meeting there. The foul emanations reached a new nadir last week with UNHRC’s publication of a “database” of companies doing business in the disputed territories in Israel.
Following the publication of the list, Bruno Stagno Ugarte, deputy director for advocacy of NGO Human Rights Watch, stated, “The long-awaited release of the U.N. settlement business database should put all companies on notice: To do business with illegal settlements [sic] is to aid in the commission of war crimes.”
One of the many things that annoys me about politicians is how sure they are of themselves. Everything is black and white. Every idea is good or bad. Take globalism, for example. You either love it or hate it. It works or it doesn’t.
Another thing that annoys me is how so much of a politician’s life revolves around power: Do everything you can to get it, and everything you can to keep it.
Why am I ranting? Because, while our politicians have been consumed with power and the media with the fights over power, a threat to our nation has been virtually ignored.
Blue and White Party leaders Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid are establishing their diplomatic credentials in the immediate run-up to Israel’s March 2 election with an insult to a U.S. administration that has arguably provided Israel with more diplomatic gains than any previous administration.
The Times of Israel reported that at a campaign stop in front of English-speaking Israelis, Gantz accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “of neglecting bipartisan ties in favor of exclusive support from U.S. President Donald Trump’s Republican Party,” under the headline “Gantz pledges to mend ties with U.S. Democrats if elected.”
Bipartisanship was in short supply at the State of the Union address earlier this month—with one notable exception.
Nancy Pelosi had been looking dyspeptic, shuffling the papers she would later rip to shreds, when President Donald Trump reminded his audience that “the United States is leading a 59-nation diplomatic coalition against the socialist dictator of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro.”
Suddenly, the House Speaker applauded. Trump then introduced “the true and legitimate president of Venezuela: Juan Guaidó.”
The law professor Alan Dershowitz has thrown a legal hand-grenade into America’s political civil war by claiming to have evidence that former President Barack Obama “personally asked” the FBI to investigate someone “on behalf” of Obama’s “close ally,” billionaire financier George Soros.
He made his cryptic remark in an interview defending U.S. President Donald Trump against claims he interfered in the prosecution of his former adviser, Roger Stone.