ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed today that corruption allegations against him were “biased, extreme” and “full of holes, like Swiss cheese,” after police recommended that he be prosecuted for taking bribes, fraud and breach of trust.

In their recommendations in the so-called File 1,000 case, published late yesterday, detectives said they had evidence that Mr Netanyahu had accepted gifts worth £150,000 from billionaire film producer Arnon Milchan, and £50,000 from Australian media billionaire James Packer.

Mr Netanyahu said his coalition government was stable despite the publication of the police report, with nearly all of his cabinet ministers issuing statements of support.

Chief whip David Amsalem accused the police of trying to stage a coup against the government. Mr Amsalem also branded Yair Lapid, a former finance minister when his party was in Mr Netanyahu’s coalition, as a “snitch” for testifying about Mr Netanyahu’s attempts to aid Mr Milchan — including bringing in a tax break.

Mr Lapid said he just co-operated when police asked, and said that “someone with such serious accusations against them, many of which he does not even deny, cannot continue to serve as prime minister.”

That echoed Mr Netanyahu’s comments a decade ago to then prime minister Ehud Olmert, that a leader “sunk up to his neck in interrogations” could not govern.

In another case, File 2,000, Mr Netanyahu was allegedly recorded asking Yediot Ahronot newspaper publisher Arnon Mozes for positive coverage in exchange for a law aimed at sinking a competing freesheet.

Left-wing coalition Hadash warned that Mr Netanyahu’s government may adopt desperate measures as a distraction, including starting a war against Syria, which Israel bombs regularly, or Lebanon.

Top officials have also reportedly discussed bombing Iranian capital Tehran if such a war were to start.

“The right-wing government is looking for an armed confrontation at all costs and everywhere,” it said.

“Beyond the threat to the lives of Israeli, Lebanese and Syrian citizens, it will unite the zionist parties around Netanyahu and his government and [people will] forget the corruption of the prime minister and his close associates.

“Public support against the regional war that Netanyahu and his government, in co-operation with and in the service of the United States, are trying to lead us into is the imperative of the day.”