December 13, 2012 -Lieberman Not to Indicted For Major Crimes but To Be Indicted For More Minor One

Today, the Chief Legal Advisor to the government, Yehuda Weinstein, finally made his decision in the Lieberman case. Weinstein decided to drop the charges against Lieberman on all the important points and indict only on a smaller case that involved the Israeli Ambassador to Belarus.

To put this ruling into perspective.. This case (as opposed to an earlier case) began in 2006. Three years ago the police recommended that Lieberman be indicted. The government's Legal advisor at the time decided to leave this case to his successor Weinstein. Weinstein did nothing with the case for six months. Then said he wanted to indict, but the Israeli system allows for a public official time to refute the charges. Lieberman and his attorneys tried to do so. Then Weinstein took another year to deliberate over whether to indict. The essense of the case concerns millions of dollars that went into various companies which the police believe were controlled by Lieberman during his time in government service. The main reason that Weinstein gave for not indicting was the fact that it would be difficult to convict Lieberman on these charges. Why would it be so hard to indict Lieberman? Well, in the interim, of the four main witnesses (other than a paper trail) two have died, one has disappeared in Russia, and the last, a women in Cyprus is reluctant to testify. Draw your own conclusions.

The major question that remains is whether Lieberman will be forced to resign because of the one charge brought against him. He is already playing the poor aggrieved party, and is unlikely to resign. Only a decision by the court could force him out.

Meanwhile, violence in the West Bank has seen a steady recent increase. Yesterday a Border Policewoman shot a Palestinian teenager when he pulled a weapon on the police. The weapon turned out to be fake pistol. Today dozens were injured in clashes near Hebron.