The New York Times— David Halbfinger
The mushrooming corruption scandal plaguing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel turned in a surprising new direction on Tuesday, with an allegation that one of his closest advisers had sought to bribe a judge into dropping a criminal investigation involving the prime minister’s wife.
At the same time, the Israeli police said they had arrested several of Mr. Netanyahu’s friends and confidants, as well as top executives of Bezeq, the country’s biggest telecommunications company, in a widening inquiry into whether Mr. Netanyahu had traded official favors for favorable news coverage. That inquiry involves suspicions of obstruction of justice, as well as fraud and breach of trust, the police said.
Mr. Netanyahu was already embattled, after the police recommended a week ago that he be prosecuted for accepting what they said were nearly $300,000 in bribes from wealthy businessmen seeking government favors.
The new allegations significantly raise the level of political and legal peril he faces, suggesting that Mr. Netanyahu or his camp could be exposed to obstruction of justice charges.
According to the police and Israeli news reports, Nir Hefetz, a top adviser to the prime minister, passed a message to a former judge, Hila Gerstel, through an intermediary in late 2015: Would she drop the case against Sara Netanyahu in exchange for being named attorney general?
The case was not dropped, and Judge Gerstel, who was Israel’s commissioner for prosecutorial oversight, did not become attorney general. Avichai Mandelblit, who did get the job, announced in September that he intended to indict Sara Netanyahu on fraud charges, accusing her of misusing some $100,000 through her management of the prime minister’s official residence in Jerusalem.
A spokesman for Mr. Netanyahu and his family, Ofer Golan, denied any attempt by Mr. Hefetz to sway the judge’s actions: “Nir Hefetz never offered this hallucinatory proposal to the prime minister and his wife. He was never asked to make such a proposal, and we do not believe that Hefetz even raised such a thing.”
He added, “The Netanyahu couple will soon be accused of murdering Arlosoroff,” referring to the Zionist leader Haim Arlosoroff, who was assassinated in Tel Aviv in 1933.
The arrests in connection with Bezeq — a $2.9 billion telecom giant with telephone, television and news divisions — involved official actions taken by Mr. Netanyahu’s government that were worth hundreds of millions of dollars to a company whose bills ordinary Israeli voters pay every month.
Bezeq’s subsidiaries include a cable television company and Walla, a news website. Mr. Netanyahu’s aides are suspected of trading favorable treatment by the Communications Ministry, which regulates the company, for favorable coverage by the news site.
Mr. Netanyahu personally directed the ministry from 2015 to 2017. According to reports in the Globes newspaper and other Israeli outlets, Bezeq’s controlling shareholder, Shaul Elovitch, sought government permission to consolidate its subsidiaries to cut its expenses. A crucial letter from a top ministry official in late 2015 was of enormous value both to the company and to Mr. Elovitch, said Gad Perez, a Globes reporter.
On Sunday, the police arrested Mr. Hefetz; Shlomo Filber, who was director general of the communications ministry; Mr. Elovitch; his wife, Iris; his son Or, who was a director of both Bezeq and Yes, the cable TV company; Stella Handler, Bezeq’s chief executive officer; and Amikam Shorer, the company’s business development manager.
