This political bomb was not supposed to blow up. It was detonated by accident Dec. 6 without advance warning in the Jerusalem District Courthouse where former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is standing trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. The former prime minister’s defense attorney, Boaz Ben Tzur, was cross-examining the state’s star witness Nir Hefetz, previously one of the Netanyahu family’s closest aides, asking him whether he recalled what he had told police investigators regarding Netanyahu’s competence to lead Israel. Hefetz had total recall. Too late, a whispered comment from one of Netanyahu’s defense team tipped Ben Tzur off to the severe damage Hefetz’s answer could cause his client’s image.

Hefetz recounted in court what he had told the police, a tale that was not included in the charge sheet against Netanyahu because it was not a criminal offense, but its public blowback potential is clear. Netanyahu remains a public figure as head of the Knesset opposition and is relentlessly trying to bring down the current government and return to office. The account by one of Netanyahu’s closest confidants could tarnish his image.

Hefetz stared at the ball Ben Tzur had served, and hit back with a sure-handed strike. “I did not trick the investigators and did not mislead them when I said what I thought about a certain security-related affair,” Hefetz said. “I left my job working for Benjamin Netanyahu in September 2017 because I thought he was no longer fit to make security decisions due to the situation around him [apparently referring to the criminal trial distraction]. I stand by this, that to this day he is unfit to hold Israel’s security in his hands because of his situation. This is worse than a criminal issue. This could have ended with thousands of dead people.”

Within minutes, his testimony was out in the open. Part of what he recounted had already been reported in the past, but when the story is told in court by someone who was inside the innermost sanctum, it resonates far louder. According to Israeli media, the affair to which Hefetz alluded occurred in July 2017. Three Arab-Israeli citizens walked out of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem toting makeshift submachine guns and shot to death two Israeli Border Patrol officers stationed at a gate of the highly volatile site. The government responded with a decision to place metal detectors at the entrance to the compound to prevent worshipers from smuggling in weapons.