Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s priorities over the past year have been clear: Squeezing the final drops from the succulent orange named President Donald Trump, fighting the health and economic crises induced by the coronavirus pandemic and cheating Defense Minister Benny Gantz out of the power-sharing deal he promised him. He continues to tar every rival with the “leftist” label that he had made synonymous with treason, even when the rivals’ political convictions are farther to the right than his own, as is the case with Yamina party Chair Naftali Bennett, Yisrael Beitenu Chairman Avigdor Liberman and former Likud stalwart Gideon Saar.
This list of priorities, however, is misleading. Netanyahu does not care deeply about any of them. He only cares about one coveted target, unique and glaring, ominously blipping on his radar — how to make his criminal indictment on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust go away. He is fully mobilized, 24/7, hatching plots and planning escape routes from the long arm of the law, and specifically from his trial that will reach its dramatic witness testimony and evidence stage in February 2021. There is absolutely nothing Netanyahu will not do to avoid this fiasco. Nothing at all.