The Daily - Israel’s Indispensable Prime Minister?

Episode Date: March 27, 2019

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel faces indictment over an alleged scheme involving brazen acts of bribery and fraud. Why are so many Israelis ready to re-elect him? Guest: David M. Halbfinger, the Jerusalem bureau chief of The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today, Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, faces indictments over an alleged scheme involving brazen acts of bribery and fraud. So why are so many Israelis ready to re-elect him? It's Wednesday, March 27th. I think the only way people would vote for someone under indictment

is if they can't live without him, if they think he's indispensable. David Helfinger is the Jerusalem bureau chief for The Times. And if you really want to understand how Benjamin Netanyahu developed this idea that he's the indispensable Israeli leader, you've got to go all the way back to the early 1990s when he first arrived on the scene. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Arafat, chairman of the executive council of the Palestine Liberation Organization, His Excellency Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, the President of the United States. When the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians is getting going,

for the first time really ever. Prime Minister Rabin, Chairman Arafat, Foreign Minister Perez. There's this breakthrough moment of the Oslo Accords. Today, we bear witness to an extraordinary act in one of history's defining dramas. And those accords, as we know, provided for Israel to begin to start pulling out from the occupied territories in Gaza and the West Bank. And the goal was this would eventually lead to a Palestinian state. Right. I remember watching this historic moment at the White House, and I think everyone who watched it and processed it in the days and weeks later thought,

this is truly a turning point in the history of the Middle East, Israel, and the Palestinians. That's right. But Netanyahu didn't see it that way. To him, Oslo was dangerous, a risk, a big mistake. The government has gone too far too fast, and most people say, hold it. It's right at this time that Netanyahu emerges on the Israeli political scene, taking over the Likud party, warning against how unwise and foolhardy these Oslo Accords would prove for Israelis. He gets into a really closely contested race in 1996.

With just days to go before the Israeli elections, campaign fever is sweeping the country. Netanyahu, who's against Perez's peace agreement with the Palestinians, is selling his own vision of a secure future for Israel. And... It took a split second and 22 pounds of TNT to transform a packed commuter bus in rush hour traffic into a pile of twisted metal and blood. The attack, the bloodiest in Israel in nearly 20 years, came just three months before an Israeli general election. There were suicide bombings by Palestinians that were, you know, leaving scores of Israelis dead. It was bloody. It was awful.

After the latest bombing, Israel's opposition leader urged Israelis to be restrained. Don't give up. They're trying to break us, these terrorists. They won't break us. And he was the guy who had been warning against precisely this kind of thing. He goes to sleep one night thinking that he has lost the race and he wakes up

the next prime minister of Israel. Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu, 46, thrice married father of three, right-wing politician, and now Israeli prime minister. This is the victory of the Jewish people. This is the victory of Israel. This is the victory of Jerusalem. I'm Israel. Thank God. Thank God.

And is it the view, David, that Netanyahu won precisely because of his skepticism about making peace with the Palestinians, that he was giving voice to something that maybe many Israelis privately agreed with? and hope and did then, I think he figured out a way to tap into that visceral, you know, gut level fear. I mean, violence does happen here. This is a very small country. It's the size of New Jersey, roughly in area and in population. And it's been fighting wars, you know, as long as it's been around. And everybody here knows somebody who lost somebody. You know, every time one of those buses blew up in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem or a cafe exploded, everybody knows somebody who didn't survive. So with that kind of a populace, with that kind of an audience, Netanyahu's message is very powerful. And what happens to the peace talks once Netanyahu is elected in 96?

For four days, the world has wondered what will happen to the M talks once Netanyahu is elected in 96. For four days, the world has wondered what will happen to the Mideast peace process now that the right wing is back in power. So he gets in, and having made these warnings, he now is the leader of the state of Israel, which depends very heavily on the United States, whose administration under Bill Clinton was very much interested in pursuing peace. So where does that leave Netanyahu?

He basically slow walks. I can tell you that we're negotiating earnestly, but I cannot at this time predict an end. I hope that the other side shows goodwill. We certainly have showed it. He resists. He slows things down. He expresses reservations. I would be very careful. And ultimately, because Israel is so dependent on the United States at that point.

Our position is to not only move on the peace process, but also improve the prosperity and economic conditions of the Palestinian population. He does get pressured into shaking Arafat's hand, into striking a deal in Hebron. And I believe that we can advance to achieve both goals for the benefit of both peoples. And ultimately, it's those concessions which inflame his own base, the right wing of Israel, against him. And when it comes time for him to get re-elected in 1999...

I think that Barack will take the elections. Israel is disappointed with Netanyahu. A lot of them desert him and he goes down. Bibi Netanyahu lost the elections and his own coalition actually turned against him. He's bounced out of office and he's sent into the wilderness. It seems like it could be the end of his political life. criticism about the peace process, is kind of strong-armed into engaging in it in a small way and experiences a huge blowback that costs him politically. What is the lesson for him?

Well, the lesson is you don't get anywhere by participating in a process you don't believe in. I think that's the lesson that he carries with him to this day. So what happens next? The objective now is to put the peace process back on all its tracks. Israel tries again for peace talks under President Clinton with Ehud Barak. A strong Israeli-American relationship must be the cornerstone on which to build a peaceful Middle East. Mr. President, the road ahead may be long and arduous, but together with our peace partners,

we can and will make it happen. There's this historic deal on the table in 2000, but the talks collapse. We have received five casualties so far. One of the casualties is the young girl who has suffered multiple burns. She is now on a mechanical ventilator and is undergoing extensive tests. We have one patient with hand burns, and we have three other patients who have been only lightly injured.

And later that year, the Palestinians resume their terror attacks against Israel. The car bomb went off in a narrow, lightly traveled side street in a working class area of West Jerusalem. The second intifada begins. More deaths and suffering on Jerusalem's streets, inevitably more fear and hatred. Bodies were carried out on stretches and in black plastic bags. And that's really three years of carnage inside Israel. The explosion ripped through the crowded bus, throwing bodies and wreckage across the road. The bombing was probably carried out as yet another act in the violent tip-to-tap killings

that have overwhelmed people's lives here for so long. This is what led the Israelis ultimately to build the barrier wall, separating Israel from much of the West Bank. All this time, Netanyahu is watching, sort of once again seeing his philosophy, his beliefs about the Palestinians and the prospects for peace essentially being vindicated. When I left office, I had time to kill. So I went around the world and I saw what everybody was doing. And when I was offered this opportunity, I said, OK. So he returns to the scene as the finance minister.

But I need to run the economic cabinet because that gives me the ability to actually make the decisions. You know, it's a kind of a thankless job, you'd think. This is the guy who has to raise taxes. But actually Netanyahu comes into the finance ministry. We cut spending. He cuts taxes. Cut welfare. He cuts the bloated bureaucracy.

Took over the pension funds of the unions, which were in actual bankruptcy. He privatizes industries. Raised the retirement age for men and women. And he really lays the groundwork for what would be widely praised across the spectrum here as an economic miracle for Israel. The economy last quarter grew 5.5%. The stock market has more than doubled. It's grown 100% in 12 months. And money is flowing in.

Investment is coming in. Israel is a very, very good deal. He develops this new kind of gravitas and regains the leadership of the right-wing party, Likud. At this ceremony Wednesday, Benjamin Netanyahu took over as prime minister of the Middle Eastern nation. And in 2009, he's able to win the job, and he was the next prime minister of the Middle Eastern nation. And in 2009, he's able to win the job,

and he was the next prime minister. And David, what does Netanyahu do once he's back in power as prime minister? I have to imagine that given his vindication from the 90s with the peace process, and once again in the mid-2000s, he's kind of hardened in this unwillingness from the 90s, with the peace process, and once again in the mid-2000s, he's kind of hardened in this unwillingness to engage in negotiations with the Palestinians.

Yeah, I mean, it's in this time when he really kind of masters the art of his form of politics. You see, at stake is not merely the future of my country. At stake is the future of the world. And nothing could imperil our common future more than the arming of Iran with nuclear weapons. He's got this incredible ability to stir the fears of Israelis, their basic existential fears. To understand what the world would be like with a nuclear-armed Iran, just imagine the world with a nuclear-armed al-Qaeda. He is masterly in his management of the Israeli economy. nuclear-armed al-Qaeda. He is masterly in his management of the Israeli economy. Israel is the fastest-growing, one of the most dynamic,

entrepreneurial and innovation-based economies on the planet. And he starts getting re-elected again and again with relative ease. And it's election day in Israel, and it appears Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will get another term in office. And it's also in this period that Netanyahu really cements the idea that he is truly indispensable to Israel. My friends, I've come here today because as prime minister of Israel, I feel a profound obligation to speak to you about an issue that could well threaten the survival of my country and the future of my people. He picks a fight with the Obama administration

over the Iran nuclear deal. It doesn't block Iran's path to the bomb. It paves Iran's path to the bomb. So why would anyone make this deal? He goes so far as to go to Congress and to challenge Obama publicly. We've been told that no deal is better than a bad deal. Well, this is a bad deal. It's a very bad deal. We're better off without it. And ultimately, what happens? He wins. You know, Obama leaves office.

My number one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran. Trump comes in. Trump basically echoes everything that Netanyahu's been saying. In just a short period of time, the world's leading state sponsor of terror will be on the cusp of acquiring the world's most dangerous weapons. And lo and behold. Therefore, I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.

The United States exit from the nuclear deal. And, you know, in 2016, Donald Trump promised at his convention speech, I alone can fix it. Only I can fix it. A year later, Netanyahu can say to Israelis, only I could have pulled this off. Only I could have stood up to an American president, you know, on his signature issue and been vindicated, you know, on his signature issue and been vindicated, you know, because I know the Americans so well, they get me. Only I could have done it. And there

he is again, the indispensable man. And when Netanyahu says that, it feels true, right? Yeah, and I have to say, yes. Earlier this year, Netanyahu put these giant billboards up for his campaign showing him alongside Trump. You know, they're like six or eight stories high, each of them. And I think when many Israelis think about what he accomplished pushing back against the Iran deal, I think, you know, he is that large in their minds. No prime minister could have done that except Bibi. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu.

He's held the post for nine years, but now his political future seems at best uncertain. Investigators say there's now sufficient evidence to charge Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of public trust. The next step now will be for the Attorney General here to either reject or accept the police recommendation calling for an indictment. Huge breaking news out of Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to be indicted. David, all this sounds like the story of a prime minister who is experiencing tremendous success and who is delivering very well on this message of indispensability that's

at the center of his political life. So what exactly goes wrong? I think in hindsight, somewhere along the way, as he's growing in stature, like really fast and really big in the eyes of his people, in the eyes of the rest of the world, you know, he starts to believe exactly how indispensable he is trying to convince Israelis he is. Starts to really identify himself with Israel. And that's not just taking personally what happens to Israel. That's thinking that, you know, what's good for you is good for the country. And there's an arrogance to that as well. For six weeks now, Israelis have been demonstrating against the prime minister, crime minister, as they've affectionately nicknamed him. You know, there's two things that start to get him into trouble, according to what we've been learning in the recent months. For one thing, he develops a taste for the trappings of power.

There's this sense that he and members of his family, they feel that, you know, somebody who is as exalted a leader on the world stage should be treated accordingly. There's a steady stream of gifts that he's accused of accepting from billionaires and Hollywood moguls who he's friends with and so on. Luxurious champagne for the lady and fine cigars for the gentleman. You know, there's like jewelry arriving in the prime fine cigars for the gentleman. You know, there's like jewelry arriving in the prime minister's residence for his wife.

There's tens of thousands of dollars worth of cigars. There's champagne. And then... Case number two. Netanyahu reportedly struck a deal with a major newspaper where in return for more favorable coverage, he would weaken a rival newspaper. The second thing is, if you're the indispensable man, but you see impediments to your continuing to lead, and those impediments might be in the form of a critical, fractious news media, well, how do you get around that? Maybe you want to bend the news media to your will,

and you'll look for ways to do that. How did that work exactly? So there are just countless examples of this, but one that really stands out for me goes back to Election Day the last time, in 2015. He put up a video on Election Day itself. Where he speaks to camera and says, you got to come out. The Arabs are being bused to the polls in droves. You know, they're not allowed to advertise in the last number of days of an Israeli election.

But Walla News, this news website over which Netanyahu is wielding enormous influence and control, Walla News has prevailed upon to run this Facebook video on its homepage prominently all day long. And who knows how many people saw that and got right out and voted. So no other candidate can advertise at this point, but this video kind of serves as a kind of advertisement for Netanyahu through a media organization that he's got this essentially bribery arrangement with. That's right. That's the allegation. And what do we know about how this was coordinated by Netanyahu or people around him? So much of this has been reported because the prosecutors have turned state witnesses out of some of Netanyahu's closest aides.

His media advisor, his deputy in the communications ministry. I mean, the guy who is running him back and forth, allegedly, between the family and the newsrooms. You know, there are conversations where the prime minister is wiretapped talking to some of these guys. There's just apparently a massive trove of evidence that we're not going to see until after the election. But I think, you know, from the way it's been reported up till now, it's going to be pretty damning. David, how do you think about these two things existing side by side, these extremely damning allegations of corruption, bribery, fraud,

and an Israeli electorate that may very well still be poised to re-elect the man who allegedly committed those acts. So I think that Israelis are just having a very difficult time imagining the next thing. Netanyahu's been in office for 10 years. He's done really well by the average Israeli. And Netanyahu himself has become this huge, towering figure.

I mean, there is nobody else on the scene. You know, the man challenging him, this former army chief, he's got lots of stature. He's very tall, but Netanyahu's image just dwarfs the guy. And so for Israelis, no matter, I mean, they take these charges seriously, but it is very, very hard for them to think about anybody else in that job. And that really, for many people, I think when they go into the ballot box, it's going to be hard for them to get past that, that idea.

Up against Netanyahu is this new party. It's led by a bunch of generals who are promising Israeli voters that they know how to keep them safe, that their security is in good hands. But Netanyahu is telling people, you know, I know you, I know your fears, trust your fears,

and you can only trust me to keep you safe. And it seems to be working. It's worked for him so many times, and it just might one more. David, thank you very much. Michael, it's great to be with you. Polling shows that the Israeli election, scheduled for April 9th, remains extremely close. In the days leading up to the election, Netanyahu has received political assistance from President Trump, who broke with decades of U.S. foreign policy

by recognizing Israel's authority over the Golan Heights, long a source of international controversy, during a ceremony at the White House this week. If Netanyahu is re-elected, he could become Israel's first sitting prime minister to face criminal prosecution. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. In an unexpected move, the Trump administration is waging a new attack on the Affordable Care Act,

telling a federal court that it now believes the entire law should be invalidated. In the past, the administration has asked courts to strike down individual elements of the ACA, but to leave the rest of the law in place. Last night, in federal court, the Justice Department of the Trump administration, I think they'd have more to do, decided not only to try to destroy protections

for pre-existing conditions, but to tear down every last benefit and protection the ACA affords. The timing could benefit Democrats, who were already planning to campaign for the presidency on a message of saving the ACA. And it could hurt Republicans who fear the decision may anger constituents

who have come to rely on the ACA. If the court agrees with the administration's request, millions of Americans could lose their health insurance, a possibility that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was quick to highlight. And the Department of Justice becomes the Department of Injustice

when it wants to tear down health care benefits. And the Times reports that Purdue Pharma and the family that owns it, the Sacklers, will pay nearly $275 million to settle a landmark lawsuit over its best-selling drug, OxyContin. The lawsuit, filed by the state of Oklahoma, alleges that Purdue encouraged doctors to prescribe OxyContin while underplaying its addictive properties,

thereby fueling the opioid epidemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. Much of the settlement will be used to finance a research center focused on treating addiction. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.