goodbye Yaakov Litzman

MK Aryeh Deri (Shas) waited until the Attorney General came to a conclusion in his open case. The conclusion was not nearly as bad as had been expected, but still bad, and they came to a plea bargain arrangement by which Deri would resign from the Knesset and pay a nice fine, but won't go to jail actively and won't be tagged with the label of "kalon" - moral turpitude - which would prevent him form running for Knesset again for a period of 7 years. So he resigns now but could theoretically run again for Knesset in the next elections, whenever they might be.

MK Yaakov Litzman (UTJ) is in a similar position, waiting for his case to be decided by the Attorney General as well. Litzman is being investigated for a few alleged crimes, including involvement in helping Malka Leifer avoid justice by illegally influencing medical evaluations of her ability to stand trial (among other things).

Litzman, it seems, isn't waiting for Mandelblit the way Deri did. Litzman just announced that he will not run for Knesset again, and it has nothing to do with the case against him and he is not waiting for a plea bargain. Litzman says he is 74 years old and does not need to be in the Knesset at this point and doesn't need to be dragged back to it.

Maybe he has had enough of the Knesset, maybe he has had enough of the investigations, maybe he is pre-empting what the Attorney General might decide, and maybe he just wants to retire and kick back on the beach or in the beis medrash. Whatever the real reason might be, and we may never know, unless the Admor of Gur intervenes and tells Litzman to run again, as he did a few elections ago, this may be the end of Litzman's days in government.

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