Upcoming Israel poll: Netanyahu’s fate in the balance

JERUSALEM (AA) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have been shaken by the Israeli attorney-general’s recent decision to indict him on bribery, graft and corruption charges in three separate cases. <br> </p> <p>Netanyahu has lashed out at Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit, accusing him of being part of a left-wing plan to remove him from power by influencing Knesset elections slated for next month.<br> </p> <p>“The left-wing pressure has worked,” Netanyahu said at a press conference held after Mandelblit announced his decision to issue indictments.<br> </p> <p>According to Palestinian political analyst Anton Shalhat, Netanyahu currently faces three scenarios.<br> </p> <p>“The first scenario is that he wins the elections and maintains the right’s Knesset majority,” Shalhat told Anadolu Agency. <br> </p> <p>In this scenario, the analyst said, Netanyhau would hit back forcefully against his domestic political rivals while stepping up repressive measures against the Palestinians to satisfy his revitalized electoral base. <br> </p> <p>Since 2009, Netanyahu has served as prime minister in coalitions including extreme right-wing parties. <br> </p> <p>According to Shalhat, a second scenario sees Netanyahu losing the polls to left-wing parties led by the Blue and White party of former Army Chief-of-Staff Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party. <br> </p> <p>“This would essentially mark the end of Netanyahu’s political career,” Shalhat said. <br> </p> <p>“The election will be a matter of life and death for Netanyahu,” he added. “If he loses, his [Likud] party will abandon him and leave him at the mercy of the judiciary.” <br> </p> <p>In a third possible scenario, Shalhat said, the attorney-general would issue indictments against the prime minister before elections are held on April 9. <br> </p> <p>“This would force his party’s leadership to pressure him to resign,” the analyst said. <br> </p> <p>Internal Likud elections held last month led to the emergence of several possible contenders for the party’s top position, including Gideon Sa'ar, Yuli Edelstein, Yisrael Katz and Gilad Ardan. <br> </p> <p>Mandelblit appears especially likely to indict Netanyahu on charges of awarding favors to Israel’s Bezeq Telecom Company in return for favorable coverage on the firm’s news website. <br> </p> <p>The PM is also expected to be indicted for fraud and breach of trust in a case involving Israeli Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan, who was allegedly asked to purchase luxury items for Netanyahu and his wife. <br> </p> <p>A third case in which Netanyahu faces the specter of indictment concerns an alleged deal for favorable media coverage with Arnon Mozes, publisher of Hebrew-language daily Yedioth Ahronoth. <br> </p> <p>Mahdi Abdul-Hadi, another Palestinian political analyst, agrees the indictments could end Netanyahu’s political career — but not the continued dominance of the Israeli right over the country’s body politic.</p> <p>“The absence of left-wing parties from the political scene, the disintegration of the [centrist] ‘Zionist Camp’ coalition, and the decline in the Labor Party’s popularity all indicate that there is no real leftist political presence in Israel,” Abdul-Hadi told Anadolu Agency. <br> </p> <p>&quot;Israeli society is right-wing by nature,” he said. “It keeps producing right-wing parties and movements in various forms and coalitions.&quot;<br> </p> <p>&quot;If a new prime minister is elected,” Abdul-Hadi went on to speculate, “the resulting changes would likely be confined to domestic affairs and not foreign policy.&quot;