The Israel Defense Forces likes to say that “plans are made to be changed.” In fact, anyone who has ever gone to war knows that plans drawn on sand tables and in planning departments are ground into dust in the heat of battle and nothing goes according to plan.

Former Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman is waging a battle for his political life. Last week he gained an important strategic victory when the state decided to drop the most serious charges against him: money laundering and accepting money from private businessmen while in office, for lack of evidence. At the same time, he suffered a local, tactical defeat when lesser charges, breach of trust and fraud, which had seemed marginal and harmless, turned into an indictment.

It had seemed certain that the affair of Ambassador Ze’ev Ben-Aryeh, who, while serving as ambassador to Belarus, passed on to Liberman classified material concerning the Israeli police probe into his boss’ business dealings there, would enable Liberman to brush the dust from his suit lapel and present himself in time for the swearing-in of the next government. Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, speaking in closed circles, had even dubbed the case “the Compact Portfolio”.

It had appeared that the case could be resolved in the blink of an eyelash, that the facts were not in dispute and that a plea bargain might even be reached to both sides’ satisfaction. Liberman would then resign, and while he might be deemed legally unfit to serve in the current government for reasons of moral turpitude, he could show up next month, after the elections, for a new term, as good as new.