Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday he would sue two of his main political rivals for libel, claiming that they labelled him a traitor over a graft scandal involving a German submarine deal.
In a video published on his Facebook page, Netanyahu said he instructed his attorneys to take legal action against former armed forces chief Benny Gantz and ex-defense minister Moshe “Bogie” Yaalon.
Both are from the centrist Blue and White party which is seeking to unseat the veteran prime minister in an April 9 election. Opinion polls put Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud and Gantz’s new party neck-and-neck.
In the video, Netanyahu said that through their “labeling of me as a traitor” Gantz, Yaalon and their party colleague Yair Lapid — who cannot be sued because he is a legislator — had committed “a blood libel that must not be ignored.”
Netanyahu’s lawyer and other suspects have been the focus of a long-running police investigation into the sale of German submarines to Israel, amid concerns about a conflict of interest.
Netanyahu was questioned by police in the investigation but investigators said last year that the prime minister was not a suspect. He issued the video in apparent response to comments Yaalon made on Israel Radio about the submarines case two days ago.
Gantz, who has promised to pursue clean government, has sought to undermine Netanyahu by focusing public attention on the state’s decision not to deem the prime minister a suspect in the submarine case.
In a video statement in response, Lapid said Netanyahu’s video was full of lies and that neither he nor his colleagues had called the prime minister a traitor. He said he was willing to forgo his parliamentary immunity to prove it, adding: “Sue me.”
Officials in the Blue and White party said Gantz was unavailable for comment on Friday because he was on his way to the United States. Asked about Yaalon’s response, the party referred to Lapid’s video statement.