Moti Sandler, an associate of Isaac Herzog, broke decades of silence and gave an interview to Sefi Ovadia on Uvda. Why? Because, according to him, Herzog is about to grant Benjamin Netanyahu a pardon as the result of an alleged deal supposedly struck three weeks before Herzog was elected president — and Sandler is determined to prevent it.
It is worth being skeptical of that explanation. Sandler fell out with Herzog over something entirely different, for reasons related to questions of honor and power. His past as a political operator also lends little weight to the claim that ideological motives drove him to violate the code of loyalty and friendship. He himself admitted that he still maintains a close friendship with Yisrael Einhorn, even after discovering, "to his surprise," that Einhorn had been working for Qatar. You don't abandon friends in trouble, Sandler says. Yet Herzog?
Sandler claimed that after Benjamin Netanyahu broke his promise to Benny Gantz to honor their rotation agreement, he became very angry with him and cut off relations. The breach, he said, made him look like a partner in the deception. If he really did cut ties with Netanyahu, after hurling insulting accusations at him, it was rather noble of the prime minister to send him, two years after breaking the agreement with Gantz, his memoirs with a warm dedication.
I sat in quite a few "off the record" meetings with Sandler. I feel entitled to reveal what I told him: "You helped Bibi remain prime minister time and time again." And indeed, Sandler mediated on Herzog's behalf in negotiations to form a unity government in 2016. Herzog suffered a devastating blow as a result of those talks. He neither joined the government nor retained his party. Sandler also mediated, on behalf of Avi Gabbay, in negotiations Gabbay conducted at the last minute in an attempt to form a government following the first round of elections in 2019. The result: Gabbay was politically destroyed and left humiliated.
Any reasonable person could have told Gabbay that there was a strong chance this would be the outcome of those negotiations, which ran directly counter to all his promises. Sandler was the one who took him on that journey, and it ended with a collision with a wall. Sandler is also proud of having mediated between Gantz and Netanyahu. Everyone knows how that ended. Afterwards, on his own initiative, he tried to construct a pardon or plea-bargain deal for Netanyahu before his trial began. If I were Netanyahu, I would keep smoking with him.
And if I were Herzog, I would have jumped for joy at the end of the Uvda episode. If that is the ammunition Sandler has after years of intimate proximity to him, Herzog has nothing to fear.
I completely believe Sandler's central story: that three weeks before the presidential election, he conveyed a message to Netanyahu at Herzog's initiative, in which Herzog promised that he was an "expert at dismantling complex explosives." It isn't difficult to understand what kind of explosive device he was referring to. But the distance between that and the famous deal that was allegedly discussed — the presidency in exchange for a pardon for Netanyahu — is enormous.
First, Herzog publicly stated that he supported granting Netanyahu a pardon before his trial even began. That statement was far more significant to the prime minister than this half-baked claim. Second, where is the deal? Where is Netanyahu's agreement? The claim that three weeks before the presidential election Netanyahu could still have put forward a candidate who would have defeated Herzog in a secret ballot is, to put it mildly, weak.
The bottom line is that, for the thousandth time, experienced politicians are discovering that there are no free lunches. You want to consult a wealthy, discreet political operator whose actions can always be denied, while benefiting from his creative mind and extensive connections? Be prepared for the day when he becomes disappointed in you and sets out for revenge.