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Jul. 2, 2021 6:06 AM
In January 2020, after the indictments were filed against then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin convened a handful of his closest advisers. The third election campaign (which gave rise to the government of Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz) was in full swing. Friends, he told them, I’ve decided. I am not going to give him the mandate to form a government. My conscience doesn’t allow me to, he explained.
Not all the participants were wildly enthusiastic, to say the least. It’s not just the formal issue, that for the first time in the history of the State of Israel that someone under criminal indictment will receive the mandate from the president, said Rivlin. It’s the gravity of the crimes. And no less than that, it’s the way he is behaving. He is accusing law enforcement authorities of the crime of fabricating charges against him, of falsely accusing him. First the police, then the State Prosecutor’s Office, and now the attorney general. They’re all criminals and only he is clean.