MIDDLE EAST: A day after Israel's attorney-general closed a bribery case that had threatened to bring down Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon, right-wing politicians yesterday claimed that the state prosecution system had become a bastion of leftist political bias, and that only the attorney-general's intervention had prevented Mr Sharon's unconscionable ouster.
Essentially accusing the state prosecutors of narrowly failing to bring about a political coup, the rightist politicians - from within Mr Sharon's coalition and without - heaped praise on the Attorney-General, Mr Menahem Mazuz, for closing the bribery case, and called for an investigation into the behaviour of Ms Edna Arbel, Mr Mazuz's former deputy, who had recommended that the prime minister be put on trial and even drafted a charge sheet. Had charges been filed, Mr Sharon may well have had to suspend himself from office, and the legal wrangling would likely have continued for years.
Mr Avigdor Lieberman, a government minister until recently and one of the Knesset's most outspoken hawks, said Mr Mazuz had exposed a culture of left-wing bias in the state prosecution. And Mr Shaul Yahalom, a member of the panel of politicians and jurists that selects new members of the Israeli Supreme Court, called for a review of Ms Arbel's recent appointment to the Supreme Court bench.
It was unthinkable, he said, "that a judge whose personal and public integrity and behaviour have been questioned by the Attorney-General should continue to sit on the Supreme Court." In reversing Ms Arbel's recommendation that Mr Sharon be put on trial, Mr Mazuz said her handling of the case was deeply flawed and that Ms Arbel had apparently set herself "a goal" of charging Mr Sharon rather than weighing the evidence.
Critics of Mr Mazuz, however, are ridiculing some of the assertions he made in closing the case, and some are filing appeals with the Supreme Court - appeals legal experts believe will be rejected. The critics fault Mr Mazuz for saying the $640,000 paid to Mr Sharon's son Gilad represented a reasonable payment for two years "consultancy" work on an abortive Greek island tourism project. They also accuse Mr Mazuz of failing to honestly acknowledge that Mr Appel's relationship with Mr Sharon's son was maintained when the prime minister was in power as well as in opposition and of failing to highlight the dangers in the very fact of a close relationship between a leading politician like Mr. Sharon and an entrepreneur like Mr Appel. Such criticism notwithstanding, Mr Sharon is breathing more freely, and is to begin talks on bringing the opposition Labour Party into his coalition.
Meanwhile, Israel is considering building thousands of new homes in major West Bank settlements, even as it prepares to dismantle the 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip. Defence Minister Mr Shaul Mofaz said earlier this week he was considering building up to 2,000 housing units alone in the Etzion Bloc of settlements south of Jerusalem.