Netanyahu works to pre-empt potential indictment

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “Hanukkah speech” to Likud members Dec. 19 was the meticulously planned opening shot of the last stretch in the battle for his political life.

Since he returned to the prime minister’s office in 2009, Netanyahu has convened two large political conventions of Likud members every year: on Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and Passover. His decision this year to gather Likud members on the last night of Hanukkah, a few weeks before the police are projected to recommend his indictment on the basis of bribery, was meant to get him to that moment as strong as he can be politically.

The commentary regarding a scared prime minister who unleashes unprecedented attacks on the police misses Netanyahu’s state of mind, as well as that of most Likud members, especially after his Hanukkah speech.

Netanyahu labored over this speech for several long days with one goal in mind: to render the expected police recommendation insignificant in public and political discourse. Netanyahu, as he said, released a “spoiler” to the police recommendation when he described what is about to happen: “The denouncers in the town squares and the headlines will try to blow up this balloon before all the air comes out. Now they’re trying to build tension: What will happen with the recommendations? I’ll give you a spoiler. In a few weeks, correspondents and analysts will sit in the television studios and begin the news broadcast with bombastic headlines: serious recommendations, we could say very serious, we could say some of the most serious in our nation’s history.”