The shoe finally dropped on June 21. Israeli prosecutors filed an indictment against Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The charge: fraud and breach of trust while exploiting her position as wife of the prime minister. It is alleged that all this went on for more than two and a half years in the prime minister’s official residence in Jerusalem.

Almost 20 years have elapsed since the first criminal investigation was opened into Benjamin Netanyahu (2000). Now, an indictment has been filed for the first time against a member of the family that has ruled Israel for almost a full decade. It comes after an endless series of investigations and testimony from around the world (including Australia, the United States, Europe and elsewhere), the recruitment of state’s witnesses and much indecision. True, Sara Netanyahu is not Israel’s prime minister, but anyone familiar with the goings-on in the official residence knows that she is a full partner in the ruling enterprise. She has great influence on her husband, managing his life around the clock. Anyone who harms her, harms her husband.

Over the years, Benjamin Netanyahu has devoted tremendous amounts of energy to “keep the lady happy,” as Netanyahu’s inner circle describes it. According to a political source speaking on the condition of anonymity, whenever something happens that insults or hurts his wife, Netanyahu feels undermined and loses his equilibrium.

“We are one,” Netanyahu tells anyone asking why he continues to identify with and back up his spouse. This is not only with regard to investigations into her, but also the way that national decisions are made in his office. Anyone who does not fully accept that the first lady is in charge of her husband, is immediately distanced from the prime minister’s environs. Now, the first lady is involved in a criminal court case, and Netanyahu’s people have locked their sights on the police investigators, the attorney general and, of course, the media.