Israel has not seen anything like it for decades — thousands of protesters massing across the street from the prime minister’s official residence on Jerusalem’s Balfour Street, trying to breach the heavily fortified compound, and hundreds of police, some mounted, pushing them back. The protesters refusing to give up, standing firm as water canon sprays tried to disperse them. The confrontation lasted for hours, and culminated in the arrest of 50 protesters. Organizers branded the event “Bastille Night,” symbolic in both timing and substance. Not only did it take place on July 14, the date marking the French Revolution, it targeted the continued rule of indicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who for many of the demonstrators is a modern-day incarnation of despot Louis XVI, with his wife Sara cast in the role of “Let them eat cake” Marie Antoinette.

“Bastille Night” did not topple the Netanyahu regime, but Israel’s Bastille shuddered and the aftershocks of the ongoing protest are having a profound effect on Netanyahu and his ability to govern. The day after the protest that deteriorated into a violent expression of public fury at the Netanyahu family and its seemingly profligate lifestyle, the prime minister announced a surprise “gift” of 6 billion Israeli shekels ($1.75 billion) for the citizenry. Each Israeli adult will get 750 shekels ($217) and 500 shekels ($145) for each child, up to a cap of 3,000 shekels ($870) per family.

The move is a repudiation of Netanyahu’s old-new economic credo and of all the principles he holds dear as a conservative capitalist believer in market forces and minimal government intervention. His motivation is clear: He is fighting for his political survival and, as a derivative, for his personal freedom as he faces trial on charges of corruption. His planned escape from the long arm of the law had just crashed at full speed into a brick wall — the relentless coronavirus health and economic crisis. His approval ratings are plummeting and starting to affect his Likud party’s performance in the polls, closing his window of opportunity to dismantle the disastrous unity government with the rival Blue and White party, engineer new elections and install a streamlined, homogenous government that would allow him to crush the state’s judicial and law enforcement institutions. The heavy shadow of the coronavirus crisis has now overtaken his grand plan and his neo-con values, turning Netanyahu into a Middle Eastern caricature of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. There is no telling whether this might save him.

The generous bounty he offered, which has drawn deadly fire from top Finance Ministry officials and leading economists, has only one goal, to curtail and tone down the next protests planned for this coming Saturday, July 18. Overnight, Netanyahu has forgotten everything he had preached for ages and decided simply to fling money at the masses. The move testifies to a loss of control, perhaps even the beginning of panic. It was not preceded by any deliberations, analyses or professional input. Netanyahu himself convened a prime-time news conference, using his best rhetorical and persuasive skills to try to explain that this was not a populist measure to appease the public. He painted the goody bags as a measured economic recovery move to boost consumption and revitalize trade. Did he convince anyone, even himself? Hard to believe.