Netanyahu's Testimony Depicted an Upside-down Israel. It Could Cost Him Down the Road - Israel News - Haaretz.com
"The fireworks on July 4 in the United States are nothing compared to what will happen here," said Avichai Mendelblit to officials from the Lahav 433 Unit, in charge of public corruption offenses, during the meeting where he gave them – after some hesitation – the green light to investigate the affair that has come to be known as Case 2000, against prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "There'll be a huge riot here."
The then-attorney general knew that he was opening the gates of hell. It likely never even occurred to him that eight years later, on the first day of his courtroom testimony, Netanyahu would still be prime minister, and that the prosecutors would be arriving in court with a security escort.
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Anyone who sees the fact that Netanyahu failed to stop his criminal trial as evidence of the Israeli democracy's strength is delusional. The rule has already defeated the law. Israel Police has been taken over by a convicted criminal, the justice minister is an agent of chaos who fantasizes about dictatorship and the Supreme Court has not had a president for over a year.
The defendant's campaign of revenge has borne its poisonous fruits. Future prime ministers will no longer need a French law to grant them immunity from investigation.
Netanyahu at the Tel Aviv District Courthouse, on Tuesday.Credit: Reuven Kastro
They will be able to barter without hindrance the power entrusted to them with media owners, or demand that billionaires with vested interests buy them and their wives cigars and jewelry. Under these circumstances, Netanyahu's appearance in the Tel Aviv District Courthouse on Tuesday is a cold comfort.
As the defendant's supporters were demonstrating in front of the courthouse against "the prosecution's criminal organization," MK Tally Gotliv stormed into Room 201 and declared in her usual high decibels that Netanyahu could have saved himself this situation if he had listened to her and fortified himself behind immunity.
The good soldiers Amir Ohana, Miri Regev, Idit Silman, May Golan and Boaz Bismuth also preferred to spend the day in the underground courtroom – rather than in their offices on the Knesset, at the homes of hostage families or the cemeteries.
They would not have dared to do so in the days after October 7, but since then, the color has returned to their cheeks and taking part in the shameful Netanyahu personality cult is the price they must pay to the base.
"The defense minister hasn't come," shouted one of those present. "Neither has his predecessor," said another, recalling that Yoav Gallant hadn't turned up the day the trial got underway. "They didn't come," said a third supporter, "but the next defense minister is here."
When Netanyahu entered the courtroom, he took the time to welcome each and every one of his acolytes present. Some ministers and Knesset members couldn't find a place to sit. The hearing was delayed until MKs Nissim Vaturi and Almog Cohen agreed to leave.
Transportation Minister Miri Regev outside the Tel Aviv Distroct Court, on Tuesday.Credit: Itai Ron
At the start of his testimony, Netanyahu described himself, as is his wont, as the victim of the leftist conspiracy of the hostile media and its supporters in the police and the prosecutor's office – who would have lifted him up and paraded him through the streets if he had only returned to the pre-1967 borders.
He spilled stories about his struggles with Barack Obama and Iran, and claimed to be one of the most heavily guarded people in the world, alongside the American president and the pope. However, his vaulting himself into the ranks of the leader of a superpower did not stem solely from an inflated sense of self-importance.
Netanyahu's main goal was to dwarf the events described in the indictment and present them as minor details unworthy of a leader of his stature.
"Less is a drop in the ocean," said the man who bolted out of cabinet meetings when Arnon Milchan sought him out, who devoted dozens of hours to secret negotiations with Noni Mozes and hundreds of additional hours to attempts to influence or take control of media outlets.
This was not Netanyahu's first crash with reality. The man who aimed to get rid of all checks and balances and establish himself as the unchallenged ruler of Israel presented himself to the judges as a defender of democracy, a staunch admirer of America's Founding Fathers.
The man whose confidants distorted and leaked classified information to sabotage efforts to reach a hostage deal, and who praised the poisonous Channel 14 during the hearing, called the journalists who still remain here "engineers of consciousness."
The man who was in power when the cost of living in Israel broke all records raved about his contribution to the Israeli economy.
The man who demanded from Hadas Klein Cohiba cigars of a specific diameter called himself an ascetic who eats at his desk ("not cordon bleu," he emphasized with a French accent).
The man who harassed Shaul Elovitch, once Bezeq's controlling shareholder, directly and indirectly for years to give him favorable coverage on the Walla website, now dismissed it as having zero influence.
This upside-down world in which Netanyahu thrives will fill the courtroom in the weeks ahead. Then it will be the prosecution's turn to try and reverse it back. It will be a complex challenge, but prosecutor Judith Tirosh took the first step to getting there Tuesday morning, when she ignored the defense attorneys' repeated protests, and continued to call the prime minister "the defendant."