In an afternoon speech just two days after police investigators recommended he be indicted for fraud and "breach of trust," Netanyahu said he was not going away so quickly or quietly.
"Put away your suits," he warned his opponents. "This government is not going anywhere. We are staying where the people and history have put us."
Cabinet Secretary Danny Naveh, one of Netanyahu's top advisers, noted the police recommendation to indict had been based on the testimony of only one key witness, and predicted that the charges would never be brought. David Bar-Illan, Netanyahu's senior policy adviser, called the evidence unearthed during the 12-week investigation "flimsy and trivial," and said the administration's motto was "business as usual."
"No resignation, no suspension, no new elections, no nothing," he said. "We do not expect an indictment and we see nothing in the evidence to warrant one."
Still, most administration officials acknowledged that an atmosphere of catastrophe had settled in as the government lurched into the latest crisis of its short tenure.
The nation is in "a monstrous budget crisis, the scale of which calls into question the ability of the government to perform its functions," said First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais in a speech to parliament.
04-18-97
should be sent to: daily.letters@umich.edu | should be sent to: online.daily@umich.edu |