Just before the 2009 election, the Labor Party candidate for prime minister, Ehud Barak, considered focusing his campaign on the fight against government corruption. These were the final days of the Kadima government led by Ehud Olmert. Olmert would soon be forced to resign because of the criminal investigations into his affairs.

Barak himself led the successful political maneuvering that resulted in Olmert's resignation. It was why he believed that he had a winning campaign. The problem was that in-depth polling showed that government corruption was not a priority for Israeli voters. The truth is that Barak didn't need any polls to reach this conclusion. In 2003, the country voted overwhelmingly for the Likud headed by Ariel Sharon (38 seats), despite the serious criminal cases associated with him, such as the Greek island affair and the Cyril Kern loan. Regardless, people believed that Sharon was the person best suited to steer the country through the security challenges posed by the second intifada (2000-2005). Criminal scandals were not enough to prevent his election.

Now, with 2018 right around the corner, it looks like government corruption, which has popped up everywhere, is the ace that will win the next election. A partial list of the ongoing scandals would include the criminal investigations against the prime minister, but also against other senior Likud members, including Coalition Chairman David Bitan and Welfare Minister Haim Katz. Then there is the criminal investigation into Interior Minister Aryeh Deri of Shas, and reports of the allegedly corrupt political network created by Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, at the taxpayer's expense.

The protests against Netanyahu's corruption have gathered momentum in the last two weeks, ever since they were moved from the sleepy town of Petah Tikva to the heart of Tel Aviv. They are creating the sense that the country is just moments away from the collapse of a corrupt government. The fact that tens of thousands of people have joined these demonstrations testifies to a high level of public involvement. Nevertheless, they draw mainly from the center-left, or what is called, the "anti-Netanyahu" camp. Netanyahu claims that these are actually demonstrations by the left, which wants to bring down his right-wing coalition, and not through the ballot box either. While this is a populist claim, for Netanyahu's voters at least, it is in no way disconnected from reality.