Netanyahu Calls Bezeq Arrests ‘Witch Hunt’

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu took time out from his crowded European diplomatic schedule on Sunday to carry on his battle with the police and the media at home.

PM Netanyahu dismissed the Bezeq fraud investigation – which saw the arrest of a close Netanyahu adviser and senior officials at the telecom company on Sunday – as “another baseless investigation under pressure from the media. The media witch hunt continues at full force.”

“After the release of air from case 1000 and 2000, and after it became clear there was no air in case 3000, the media created massive pressure to create a new balloon, case 4000. The air will escape from it too,” the statement said.

The references were to the two cases (1000 and 2000) in which police have recommended indicting the PM, the submarine affair (3000), in which PM Netanyahu’s personal lawyers are implicated, though he is not, and the Bezeq probe (4000). The latter concerns allegations that PM Netanyahu traded favorable news coverage for benefits for the national phone company.

“The justice ministry made it clear in the state comptroller report that the prime minister did not take any controversial decisions,” PM Netanyahu said in a statement, and that there was no “suspicion of conflict of interest.”