The headline in Haaretz Friday morning said it all: “Senior law enforcement officials attack Dan Eldad: ‘We’ve become Turkey, he is a submissive slave.’” The “newspaper for thinking people” used the Torah term Eved Nirtza to describe the relationship between the newly appointed Acting State Prosecutor and Justice Minister Amir Ohana who appointed him against AG Avichai Mandelblit’s expressed wishes, and in turn against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who appointed Ohana.
An eved nirtza is a Hebrew slave who, when his time to be released comes up on the shmita (sabbatical) year, refuses to go free. His master then cuts a hole in his earlobe against the door post as a mark of humiliation.
The same folks who were hollering at Mandelblit’s deliberate, slow-paced decision-making process on the way to indicting Netanyahu on three counts of corruption, are now protesting the swift decision-making of Prosecutor Eldad regarding Blue&White Chairman Benny Gantz’s murky relationship with former police commissioner Roni Alsheikh in getting Gantz’s company, The Fifth Dimension, a sweetheart deal without a public tender, based on a proposal that was filled with lies about the company and its product (Gantz’s people claimed they had sold the product, a profiling technology, to five security-based clients – they had sold it to nobody; they said the product was ready to go – it was still in development).
Read: Prosecution Recommends Criminal Investigation of Gantz’s Collaboration with Former Police Chief.
Yoav Krakowsky, Kan 11 news political correspondent who usually presents the traditional, pro-left, anti-Netanyahu line on the nightly news panel, on Friday morning reported this masterpiece, without a single quote, a “people are saying” paragraph at the top of his report that is mostly about Yoav Krakowsky’s feelings:
“Inside the law enforcement system, harsh feelings were expressed after the decision to investigate The Fifth Dimension, with the speed and under the circumstances in which it was accepted. Senior officials wonder what was the urgency to make that decision now, only days after the deliberation of the matter has begun. In internal conversations in the past few hours, they wondered if these were not political considerations involved, and even if the decision to investigate was pertinent. The message that is being conveyed to the public is that the appointment on which the Justice Minister insisted, against AG’s view, is proving itself.”
The above is so poisonous and so bereft of actual news value, one must exercise caution after reading it and wash one’s hands and eyes repeatedly, with soap.
The initial Haaretz report on the prosecution’s investigation of the previous comptroller’s complaint about the deal went: “The prosecution recommended launching a criminal investigation into The Fifth Dimension affair; Gantz is not a suspect.” Lest the reader, God forbid, conclude that since Gantz was the company’s CEO when the suspect deal was struck, and remained its CEO until he drove it to bankruptcy and closure, that same Gantz may have been somehow involved.
Like good, old Bob Dylan taught us: “It may be the devil or it may be the Lord / But you’re gonna have to serve somebody…”
Former State Comptroller Yosef Shapira, in his scathing report, concluded: “The police decision to act this way did not contribute to the effective and purposeful promotion of addressing the technological need of the police.”
And it cost four million shekel. Would have cost 50 million. But not to worry, Gantz was merely in charge. This is the part that stretches this reporter’s patience: how is it possible that the CEO is declared in advance not responsible for the suspected crimes? There are only two conclusions from this notion of Gantz’s undoubted innocence, which as of today is shared by the entire Israeli major media front:
Gantz either knew about the conspiracy to defraud the police and should be disqualified to lead a major party, never mind seek the post of prime minister; or he didn’t know that the company under his management was corrupt, in which case he should be disqualified to lead a major party, never mind seek the post of prime minister.
This investigation is not about whether or not Gantz broke the law, it’s about his failure to prevent his subordinates from breaking the law.
Am I the only one seeing this?