“I have given my life for our state,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in his nationally televised response to three criminal indictments being issued against him Nov. 22. “I have fought for it, been wounded for it, and am fighting for it in recent years both in international arenas and here in order to turn us into a world power,” the accused testified in his defense, as if a character witness in the sentencing phase of his own trial. Netanyahu further stated that not only should he not relinquish his position, but that he would lead the state “responsibly, with devotion, while ensuring the security and future of us all.”

Netanyahu’s place in history is already guaranteed as the first incumbent prime minister to be indicted on criminal charges. The accusations against him, however, pale in comparison to the long list of criminal strategic actions and missteps he has committed against the state, in the process abandoning the security and future of its citizens. Each count on the list of violations is egregious in itself. The synergy created by the combination of Netanyahu’s strategic “crimes” and their impact overshadows the actual criminal indictments against him

The first count in the State of Israel v. Benjamin Netanyahu is murder in the first degree for the death of the Zionist dream. The weapons used: a deliberately provocative demand that the Palestinian leadership recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people; advancement of the settlement enterprise; nationalistic incitement; quiet support for Hamas and its partners, who disrupt the daily lives of Israelis in the Gaza border communities, in order to weaken the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank; and instigating his main collaborator, President Donald Trump, to take unilateral steps to cripple the peace process.

The second count is the nullification of the nuclear deal signed between Iran and the world powers. The weapons used: the pro-Israel Jewish and evangelical lobbies in the United States. Netanyahu takes credit for Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the agreement and to tighten sanctions against Iran. Netanyahu’s campaign to undermine the deal was undertaken against the advice of senior Israeli security officials, who believed that the agreement was satisfactory considering the circumstances. Their warnings to the effect that the alternative could result in an acceleration of Iran’s nuclear program are proving prescient.