Israel’s state watchdog stands guard for Netanyahu
Instead of objectively evaluating the policies and ethics of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, new State Comptroller Matanyahu Engelman is protecting the premier’s interests.
In recent years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been placing enormous pressure on Israel’s high-level law enforcers and gatekeepers, with the goal of silencing or taking control of them. It's a life-or-death struggle for both sides.
Netanyahu appointed the police commissioner he wanted to emasculate the investigative wing in 2015, but the commissioner, Roni Alsheikh, soon came to his senses and became impartial and determined to see justice done. In the attorney general's office Netanyahu had a one-person dream team in the form of Yehuda Weinstein, who had served as the Netanyahu family’s personal attorney and gave the prime minister everything he wanted. However, Weinstein finished his term in 2016 and his replacement Avichai Mandelblit, another close associate of the prime minister, shows worrisome signs of independence. Mandelblit is working on the prime minister’s criminal files slowly but with determination. In the state comptroller’s office, Netanyahu had managed to place another convenient person seven years ago: retired District Judge Joseph Shapira. But here, too, the figure with a personal relationship with the Netanyahus transformed into a true public servant rather early in his tenure and refused to bend. Shapira then published reports regarding Netanyahu’s various affairs and policies.
