Weinstein should go

One the one hand, it would make no sense to appeal MK Avigdor Lieberman's verdict because the indictment should have never made it to the docket of the three judges at the Jerusalem Magistrates' Court. Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein, as you may recall, chose to water down the charges against Lieberman, opting to serve a half-baked indictment that focused on something that appeared to be miniscule, almost a side show.

Perhaps the former chief of the Economic Crimes Division in the State Attorney's Office, Avia Alef, and former Israel Police Intelligence and Investigations Division head Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yoav Segalovich, dragged their feet on this case. Perhaps they should have completed their investigation earlier. Ultimately, though, they assembled a case that was like a "word fitly spoken" (Proverbs 25:11). The draft indictment was well prepared and carried a clear message: Lieberman must stand trial for egregious crimes. But Weinstein just shrugged, and dithered.

Weinstein dispatched investigators to Cyprus to talk with a witness who seemed uncomfortable talking to them, constantly moving in her seat. He appointed a special investigator to review Alef and Segalovich's work, making it all too obvious that he wants to chip away at their recommendation to indict Lieberman on major crimes involving millions of shekels. Even after the prosecutors dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's in the draft indictment, he let Lieberman's lawyers pore over it for 12 months -- a full year -- to prepare for their pretrial hearing.

The way they handled former ambassador Ze'ev Ben Aryeh's misdeeds is borderline scandalous. Ben Aryeh's actions -- sharing with Lieberman privileged information on the police investigation against him -- amounted to breach of trust. He stole a document that belonged to the state. He obstructed justice. He confessed. So why did the State Attorney's Office agreed to a plea bargain that ultimately just reduced his sentence to four months of community service? This just makes our public norms look bad. Was it because they wanted him to be able to feel unconstrained when he would be called up to testify against Lieberman?

This plea bargain in the Ben Aryeh trial was the original sin that led to the watered down indictment served against Lieberman. It may also attest to malpractice on the part of the Sons of Light, who failed to open their eyes on time by demanding that Weinstein thwart the bizarre deal with Ben Aryeh.

But Weinstein is Weinstein; he will forever obstruct criminal probes (not in the legal sense of course). He let the big case against Lieberman slip through his fingers and let Ben Aryeh come out unscathed from the legal morass he was in, just like in August 2010, when he put out an embarrassing press release stating that neither then-Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi nor then-Defense Minister Ehud Barak were involved in the so-called Harpaz Document; just like he turned down former State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss' request to launch a criminal probe into who was behind the Galant document in May 2012. Only recently has he relented and ordered a new investigation, having exhausted all options. This is because Chief Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Danny Efroni joined the front lines of the Sons of Light.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel and the government watchdog Ometz are the latest organizations to call for Weinstein's resignation. Hearing them out would be even more important than appealing the mock trial we just witnessed. Weinstein would be wise to do what Naomi Shemer's famous song talks about: He should wake up tomorrow morning with a new song in his heart, bid farewell to his comfortable seat at the attorney-general's bureau and part ways with all the trappings that come with his powerful job.

Weinstein would be well served if he were to let others decide on the appeal. Just like he recused himself in former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's corruption cases. He should let other legal experts who are not emotionally or personally involved in this matter decide this. Hopefully, such people would not have their egos play a role. Hopefully, they would not be among those who cozy up to the boss and tailor their legal opinions according to his state of mind.

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