JERUSALEM: Key coalition partners said on Wednesday they would stick with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for now, pending a decision by the attorney general whether to indict him for bribery as recommended by police.

A decision could take months and Netanyahu’s government appeared stable for the time being. The right-wing premier has strongly denied the police allegations, calling them “full of holes, like Swiss cheese”.

“I want to reassure you, the coalition is stable. No one, not I, not anyone else, has plans to go to an election,” Netanyahu told a conference in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, the day after police made their recommendations public.

“We will continue to work with you for the good of Israel’s citizens until the end of the term,” he said.

Police on Tuesday said they had found sufficient evidence for the 68-year-old Netanyahu to be charged with bribery in two separate cases, presenting him with one of the biggest challenges to his long dominance of Israeli politics.

It is now up to Attorney-General Avichai Mandel­blit, a former military advo­­cate general and ex-cabinet secretary who was appointed to the country’s top legal post by Netan­yahu, to decide whether to file criminal charges.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2018