Prime Minister Netanyahu
Photo: AFP
Netanyahu asks Likud members to defend him amid recent scandals
With his close associate attorney David Shimron under investigation and the release of a state comptroller report on his conflict of interest with Bezeq, the PM summons trusted ministers and MKs from his party for a meeting to tell them 'the facts' so they will 'present them in interviews to the media.'
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked members of his Likud Party on Thursday to defend him in the media in light of a state comptroller report
on his conflict of interest with Bezeq and the ongoing corruption investigation
into Israel's submarine deal with Germany.
"There's an attempt to lynch me and a campaign against me," Netanyahu told MKs and ministers from his party in a meeting. "The goal is to bring me and the Likud down. Political elements and media figures are joining forces."
Netanyahu called ministers Yariv Levin, Ze'ev Elkin, Miri Regev and Ofir Akunis, as well as MKs David Bitan, Miki Zohar and Amir Ohana to his office to update them on the latest scandals and instruct them on how to respond to them in the media.
Netanyahu at a Likud party meeting with coalition chairman MK David Bitan (File photo: AFP)
"I invited you over to tell you the facts, and you'll present them in interviews you give to the media," the prime minister told them.
"According to the Justice Ministry and the comptroller report, I did not make any controversial decisions. In the submarines investigation, it was explicitly clarified I was not involved. But that doesn't matter. You know why? Because Bibi is guilty even if his innocence is proven," he went on to say.
After the meeting, MK Miki Zohar commented that "We're going on the offensive. We're tired of the unforgivable besmirching of the prime minister. We have clear evidence he has nothing to do with any of the aforementioned affairs. It's time to stop trying to blame him for everything that happens in this country. It's time to stop with this unreasonable attitude that sees the prime minister as always guilty until proven otherwise."
Netanyahu has no direct ties to the alleged corruption in the submarines deal investigation. But one of the main suspects, David Shimron, is a close associate of the prime minister. Shimron was barred from speaking to Netanyahu amid the ongoing investigation.
On Wednesday, the state comptroller released a report on the Communication Ministry's treatment of the telecommunications giant Bezeq when Netanyahu, who is a close friend of the company's primary shareholder Shaul Elovitch, was the communications minister.
