The Israeli police continue to investigate the sale of German submarines to Israel and the people involved in the deal. But while we cannot predict the end results of the “submarine affair,” we already know that it has changed the face of the government. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will be forced to at least testify on this affair in the near future, can no longer run the country via his two lawyer-cousins who are his closest, most loyal associates. This system through which the prime minister conducted Israel’s most secret issues has been dismantled. It is gone for good.

On Nov. 5, just after 6 a.m., two arrest teams from elite police unit Lahav 433 made their appearance in front of the magnificent houses of the two strongest attorneys in Israel: Yitzhak Molcho, Netanyahu’s personal diplomatic emissary; and David Shimron, Netanyahu’s personal lawyer who is responsible for the internal-political front on behalf of the prime minister. The two are partners in a booming legal office in Jerusalem, which has turned into a veritable empire due to the long years that Netanyahu has been running the country.

Shimron is Netanyahu’s first cousin, while Molcho is married to Shimron’s sister and is also the prime minister’s cousin (second degree). These two, together with Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, and son, Yair, comprise Netanyahu’s war Cabinet, his inner beehive and nuclear family. This is a team from which there are never any leaks. It is with this group that Netanyahu conducts Israel’s most sensitive, convoluted and stately issues on all fronts.

If someone would have prophesied the arrest of the two attorneys on such a huge issue as the submarine affair — which threatens to implicate Netanyahu himself soon — the district psychiatrist would have surely ordered the hospitalization of the soothsayer. But this scenario actually transpired, last Sunday.