A-G Willing to Start Deal Talks with Netanyahu If Court Decision Gets Accepted

In recent news, Avichai Mandelblit, the Attorney-General of the State of Israel, said that he was willing to consider entering a plea bargain conversation with the former Prime Minister of the country, Benjamin Netanyahu. However, he stated that this will only be possible if the former leader understands that he would be accepting that he committed various crimes related to corruption. Moreover, the prosecution will actively seek a ruling from the court to exclude Netanyahu from entering into public office for the next seven years. 

As of now, informal negotiations are being frequently held between various emissaries, who are trying to determine whether the former Prime Minister is going to think about taking up this kind of a deal. In addition, they further discussed whether Netanyahu would prefer a deal developed according to the style of Arye Deri, which would prevent the prosecution from seeking moral turpitude. Consequently, he would be allowed to stay in public office but, would have to temporarily withdraw from his position in the Knesset. Meanwhile, the emissaries are of the opinion that Mandelblit would not want to initiate any formal talks related to making indictments and their amendments, as well as other issues. 

On the other hand, if the former Prime Minister decides to take the deal being offered by the Attorney-General, the court will be responsible for determining his political fate. It is believed that the court will be more inclined towards accepting the prosecution’s suggestion to force Netanyahu to retire. Once the former Prime Minister agrees to do so, Mandelblit will take the other matters further. Mandelblit believes that he currently holds more power than Netanyahu, given that the latter chose to initiate the most recent round of casual talks. 

In addition, the Attorney-General is all set to step down from his position on the 1st of February. Furthermore, the person chosen to replace Mandelblit will be Amit Aisman, the State Attorney, whose career in the public office once hit a wall due to the efforts made by the former Prime Minister to keep him out. This prevented Aisman from being able to assume the role of State Attorney for a couple of months. It is no secret that there is not even a single state prosecutor who would not choose to carry on with Netanyahu’s trial and proceed to send him to jail. 

They will want to indict him for a couple of serious bribery cases as well, such as Cases 1000 and Cases 2000, as opposed to the minor legal charges negotiated by Mandelblit. In addition, Mandelblit is not even ready to bring about a proposal to show the state prosecution team, until and unless Netanyahu makes an agreement to accept his crimes related to corruption. He further has to agree to let the court take the inevitable decision related to his political fate, while favoring a push from the prosecution for moral turpitude. 

According to the Attorney-General, charging Netanyahu with anything lesser would be unfair and will be discouraged by him. He added that he is only willing to make some concessions, which he has successfully gotten approved from the other members of the prosecution team.