Roni Alsheikh, the general commissioner of the Israel Police, was hand-picked for his position by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in December 2015. Alsheikh was deputy director of the Shin Bet and a leading candidate to eventually head the security service when Netanyahu steamrolled him into becoming Israel’s “No. 1 Policeman.” Netanyahu’s strategy is to nominate his own people to key positions, especially those positions connected to law enforcement. These appointees are expected to be grateful for their high status and then deliver the goods: keeping things quiet while avoiding pesky inquiries against the prime minister and his family, such as the investigations that Netanyahu was subject to after losing the 1999 elections.

Gen. (Res.) Avichai Mandelblit is the current attorney general. Mandelblit, exactly like Alsheikh, was also pressed into his position by Netanyahu (in February 2016). Mandelblit, formerly Israel's military advocate general, had served as Netanyahu’s Cabinet secretary. This is an overt role of trust, and Mandelblit was a key player in Netanyahu’s intimate bureau. He was also viewed as one of “Netanyahu’s Boys,” those who would enter the tiny shoes of former Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein and others, who succeeded in softening, subverting and rejecting any negative information received by the enforcement authorities regarding the prime minister or his wife.

Today we can say with certainty that this strategy has collapsed. The police commissioner has given his full backing to the reinforced team of investigators from the elite police unit that is advancing rapidly in its investigations of corruption cases 1000 (Netanyahu is suspected of receiving benefits from businesspeople) and 2000 (Netanyahu and Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes are suspected of planning a deal for positive coverage of Netanyahu). And these cases threaten Netanyahu’s continued rule. Mandelblit was the one who instructed the investigations to begin, and he is the one who is keeping close tabs on them. That includes the dramatic decision to turn Ari Harow, Netanyahu’s former chief of staff, into a state witness against his boss. Mandelblit is supposed to be the one to decide whether to submit a bill of criminal indictment against a sitting prime minister in Israel, for the second time in its history (Ehud Olmert was the first).

On Oct. 14, Netanyahu scathingly attacked Alsheikh and what he called “a tsunami of leaks” from the investigations against him. Netanyahu did not bother to camouflage his actions or use one of his Likud backbencher emissaries. Instead, he himself openly attacked the commissioner.