Up until election day on April 9, it was almost inconceivable to think that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would manage to evade the heavy hand of the law by political means. The following day, such a scenario appeared quite feasible. The tables had turned. The April 9 elections were a historic watershed. From now on, Israel’s law enforcement authorities will try to dodge Netanyahu’s machinations, not the other way around.

This summer, Netanyahu will break the record for the longest time in office set by the founder of the State of Israel and its first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion. In recent years, Netanyahu has also engaged in a historic Erdogan-style revolution designed to crush the media, weaken the courts and subject them to the executive and legislative branches, and trample public regulators and other guardians of Israeli democracy. He seems indomitable, and no one will even try to stop him.

On April 10, the day after the elections, the Justice Ministry in Jerusalem prepared boxes full of folders containing mountains of investigative material for their handover to Netanyahu’s legal team, which is defending him against cases of suspected corruption. As promised by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and in keeping with the prime minister’s demand as conveyed by his lawyers, the handover was delayed until after the elections to prevent material harmful to Netanyahu’s prospects from leaking out. As of this writing, however, the lawyers have not picked them up to prepare for the hearing that Netanyahu is supposed to undergo before the attorney general, who will indict Netanyahu pending that hearing. At the request of Netanyahu’s attorneys, the hearing originally scheduled for July was postponed until September. Netanyahu, however, is acting as if there is no hearing in the offing, and the piles of evidence compiled by the police and state prosecutors are taking on a yellowing tinge. Close associates insist there will not be a hearing, and even if one is held, it will not result in a trial. For the first time since police began investigating suspicions against Netanyahu more than two years ago, the prime minister’s associates may be right.

At a festive April 16 event to toast his Likud party’s election success and the upcoming Passover holiday, Netanyahu declared, “I am not deterred by the media.” He will try to return to the scene of the crime, as it were, and again assume the position of Communications minister in the new government he is forming. Netanyahu is suspected of abusing this same position that he insisted on holding after the 2015 elections when, obsessed by his media image, he allegedly traded regulatory and other favors for favorable coverage in what are known as cases 2000 and 4000. Facing possible charges of bribery, Netanyahu has nonetheless lost all fear and seems to be going for broke.