Netanyahu Spared Another Corruption Investigation

Many former law enforcement officials in Israel have criticized Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit for “capitulating” to pressure by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu after reports on Tuesday revealed that the attorney general had decided not to open an investigation into Netanyahu’s allegedly shady stock market dealings. Last year, it was revealed that the prime minister had acquired $600,000 worth of shares in his cousin’s manufacturing company, only to sell them after entering the Prime Minister’s Office in 2009, without transferring his holdings to a blind trust and without notifying authorities, for around $4.3 million. Yet on Monday, Mandelblit, who ever since indicting Netanyahu on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust last year has suffered a barrage of scathing rebukes by the prime minister and his supporters, reportedly decided against opening a formal investigation, concluding that sufficient evidence could not be gathered to form a solid case.