Israel: Ya'alon accuses Netanyahu of trying to control Army Radio

Israel’s former defence minister, Moshe Ya’alon, yesterday slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s behaviour amid allegations of corruption and accused him of trying to “take over” Army Radio.

“The Israelis live amid Netanyahu’s struggle to maintain his political position,” Ya’alon said, adding that “from a public perspective, Benjamin Netanyahu’s political career is over.”

In an interview with Army Radio, Ya’alon said that Netanyahu “has come off from the rails and is pushing the entire country to come off from the rails”.

“Before I left, I fought to prevent attempts to delegitimise the Supreme Court and the rule of law,” he said, referring to an attack by Netanyahu and his close associates in the Likud on the law enforcement authority and the media.

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Ya’alon described the performance of Israeli politicians toward Netanyahu’s policies as “the silence of the lambs” because of “political considerations, not considerations of leadership that advance the interests of the state. They created a web of lies about things that could have exploded”.

“The same thing happened with the media, did he not try to control Army Radio? I did not let him.”

Highlighting the crisis being faced by the coalition as a result of Orthodox Jewish groups threatening to pull out if laws are changed to force them into conscription into the army, Ya’alon said: “The only one who can decide whether we go to an election is Netanyahu. If Netanyahu feels that the elections may strengthen his position in the investigations against him, or postpone the proceedings, he will take this step. The draft law is just an excuse.”

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