The political ill will in both countries is running so high that unless an antidote is found, each country will become increasingly ungovernable
Those days are gone. Both Netanyahu and Trump are mired in legal woes that might prevent them from regaining office.
Prosecutors in Netanyahu’s case pivoted last week to Case 1000, in which they allege Bibi committed a breach of trust by accepting — even demanding — expensive cigars, champagne, and jewelry from an Israeli businessman, in return for political and financial favors. Netanyahu’s attorneys must prove that Bibi accepted the gifts legally under Israel’s public service (gifts) law, and even if the amounts exceeded permissible limits, it should be punishable by only a fine, and not by a criminal conviction.
On Capitol Hill, hearings are in full swing, with former White House aides giving damaging testimony as to Trump’s conduct on and before the January 6 riots (Democrats call it an insurrection) and his attempts to stop the Electoral College from certifying Biden’s victory. A grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, is conducting a parallel probe to determine if Trump committed voter fraud there by asking Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” the votes he needed to overcome Biden’s margin of victory.
Here, too, both cases have strong parallels.
While Netanyahu did not claim voter fraud, he left office swinging, insisting he was hounded out on trumped-up charges leveled by a left-leaning judicial “junta” and its media cronies. To this day, Trump insists that he was cheated out of a second term by voter fraud, and throws his support to Republican primary candidates who embrace that position.
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