Following progress in Israeli police investigations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption issues, close associates of the mayor of West Jerusalem, Nir Barakat, announced that he will compete for a parliamentary seat in the ruling Likud party list, and then vie for the premier’s seat.
Sources close to Barakat confirmed that he intends to resign a year from now and run in the upcoming primary elections of the Likud party to choose the party's list for future parliamentary elections.
The mayor confided to his aides that he would be lying to himself if he ran for mayoral elections, then submitted his resignation to compete for a seat on the Likud list.
Although Netanyahu declared at the beginning of the week that his government coalition would last until the end of 2019, a senior Israeli minister told the Maariv website that the PM had not given up on early elections in June.
Netanyahu is aware he will face a problem in forming a government, and perhaps, legally, will face a problem in running for prime minister if corruption charges were brought against him, said the minister, who spoke on condition of anonymity
Israeli police summoned Netanyahu and his wife to investigate the so-called "File 4000" case on Friday. They are suspected of receiving supportive coverage from the Hebrew news website Walla owned by Shaul Elovitch.
Netanyahu is said to have acted to benefit Bizeq-Media in return, of which Elovitch is the controlling shareholder, thus earning millions of shekels.
Sources close to the Israeli police investigations revealed Tuesday a new suspicion in corruption cases linked to the prime minister; an attempt to influence prosecution witnesses and disrupt the judicial process.
This issue is expected to be addressed in the investigation with him on Friday, and it is likely Netanyahu will be questioned in parallel with his wife Sarah, who is suspected of involvement, as well as his son Yair.
