Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched on Friday a fierce and unprecedented attack on the Supreme Court and the judiciary, accusing them of trying to end his political career and send him to prison.
“Let there be no doubt, the High Court will take the opportunity to oust me,” political sources quoted the PM as saying in private conversations.
Netanyahu warned that if the court prevents him from becoming prime minister, or if a law is enacted banning him from running for the post in the future, then masses will take to the streets. “There will be a call to boycott the election,” he also said.
The sources added that the PM considers the police, prosecution and even the court, whose independence he had sworn to protect, worse enemies than Iran.
The Israeli PM’s media leaks are considered a threat to the Blue and White party led by Benny Gantz to prevent it from pushing with legislation that would bar Netanyahu to serve as prime minister following the collapse of talks on a unity government.
Gantz threatened this week he could advance legislation that would prevent Netanyahu from forming a government.
His proposed bill aims to block anyone facing criminal charges from forming a coalition.
Currently, Netanyahu is awaiting trial on charges of bribery, breach of trust and fraud.
The source said that Netanyahu accused the “High Court of Justice saints,” as he contemptuously calls the justices in private conversations, of being part of a jurists’ underground that has resolved to finish him politically and send him to prison.
Netanyahu accuses former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak of engaging in an ideological battle against him.
He said Barak has still some influence on court President Esther Hayut, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit and even Gantz and his party ally Gabi Ashkenazi, who all want to get rid of him in order to change Israel from a Jewish state into a state for all its citizens.
