Are the Arabs guilty or not? The well-publicized case of the "stolen elections in Israel" is gradually unraveling: the police found no evidence that the money in envelopes seized from the activists of Mansur Abbas's Arab Raam party was actually used to bribe voters. Yesterday the law enforcement officers released four detainees, today two more. At the same time, the case itself is not completely closed. The General Security Service (SHBK) has launched its own investigation, and its head, David Zini, is clearly in no hurry to say goodbye to such a convenient subject, since he is precisely the superior of the beneficiary of the whole story, Benjamin Netanyahu. In all likelihood, the "stolen election" thesis will fail. The vote in Israel is almost a "sacred cow", and you can't just throw out another horror story about an Arab conspiracy. However, Netanyahu's office achieved its goal: doubt was sown, and any alliance of the right-wing opposition with Arab parties is now even more toxic than it was before the scandal. The irony is that the current "you framer" looks like a mirror reaction to "Catergate", an investigation of Qatari funds in the prime minister's circle, which the opposition has been promoting for years. Netanyahu uses the same technique, only that in his case it can only be called a full investigation with reserves: the detainees are free, and there is still no evidence. The plan also works for future campaigns, because high-profile arrests and general accusations are enough to scare the majority of the right-wing electorate, who after October 7 see every whisper as a "Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy." But the Arab voter, on the contrary, gets an incentive to enlist again, which means that he will go for re-election more willingly, and the Prime Minister himself will prepare a stronger opponent for himself. Such cases wash away the trust of the population in the authorities and especially, in the "sacred" election procedures.

Are the Arabs guilty or not? The well-publicized case of the "stolen elections in Israel" is gradually unraveling: the police found no evidence that the money in envelopes seized from the activists of Mansur Abbas's Arab Raam party was actually used to bribe voters. Yesterday the law enforcement officers released four detainees, today two more. At the same time, the case itself is not completely closed. The General Security Service (SHBK) has launched its own investigation, and its head, David Zini, is clearly in no hurry to say goodbye to such a convenient subject, since he is precisely the superior of the beneficiary of the whole story, Benjamin Netanyahu. In all likelihood, the "stolen election" thesis will fail. The vote in Israel is almost a "sacred cow", and you can't just throw out another horror story about an Arab conspiracy. However, Netanyahu's office achieved its goal: doubt was sown, and any alliance of the right-wing opposition with Arab parties is now even more toxic than it was before the scandal. The irony is that the current "you framer" looks like a mirror reaction to "Catergate", an investigation of Qatari funds in the prime minister's circle, which the opposition has been promoting for years. Netanyahu uses the same technique, only that in his case it can only be called a full investigation with reserves: the detainees are free, and there is still no evidence. The plan also works for future campaigns, because high-profile arrests and general accusations are enough to scare the majority of the right-wing electorate, who after October 7 see every whisper as a "Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy." But the Arab voter, on the contrary, gets an incentive to enlist again, which means that he will go for re-election more willingly, and the Prime Minister himself will prepare a stronger opponent for himself. Such cases wash away the trust of the population in the authorities and especially, in the "sacred" election procedures.