Israel’s state attorney has found insufficient evidence to prosecute anyone on the charges made by Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu that he was blackmailed over an extramarital affair and that his telephone was illegally tapped.
In the middle of the Likud’s primary campaign to elect the party’s leadership, Netanyahu claimed an anonymous caller threatened his wife with exposing the affair unless he dropped out of the race.
Netanyahu unleashed an uproar in the party’s ranks after he charged the call had been initiated by a Likud “higher-up,” generally taken to be a reference to his archrival, former Foreign Minister David Levy.
According to the statement released by the Justice Ministry this week, the police found support for the claim that Netanyahu’s campaign headquarters had been tapped, but not enough evidence to support a prosecution.
The police uncovered no evidence to back Netanyahu’s allegation that his wife had been threatened or that his home phone had been bugged, however.
The police also concluded that most of the information given to them by Netanyahu, which came from a private investigator hired by the popular politician, lacked credibility.
The authorities said they were closing the investigation of the case.
Netanyahu issued a prepared statement after the Justice Ministry decision, saying the state’s findings confirmed his “contention that criminal acts” were committed against him.
“It is regretful that despite the police department’s intensive efforts, enough evidence to prosecute the perpetrators,” his statement read.
For his part, Levy, in radio interviews after the news of the decision was made public, accused Netanyahu of stopping at nothing to deceive the public and to further his political objectives.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
