Last week’s session began with Netanyahu lecturing the judges

For drivers stuck in Tel Aviv’s endless traffic, last week was worse than usual, with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu arriving at the Tel Aviv District Court for the central Chanukah candlelighting ceremony.

Until now, Bibi has been fully present for about half of fifty-some scheduled cross-examination sessions. He’s only keeping his word; he promised at the start of his testimony that far from being the defendant, he’d be the one setting the agenda at his trial.

Last week’s session began with Netanyahu lecturing the judges panel so sharply it was hard to tell who was on trial.

“We requested that this morning be kept free, for good reason,” Netanyahu chided.

With his eyes flashing, Netanyahu announced his intention to suspend that day’s session at his discretion: “Today Paraguay’s Speaker of Parliament is arriving. If he comes here, I will take the time to meet him. Something very big is happening in South America — I won’t go into details. The second item, a very important meeting with the US ambassador in Turkey, Tom Barrett, who is also handling matters in Syria these days… I must leave at 10:30. It’s mandatory, no other way.”

The day before, Netanyahu’s lawyers had submitted a formal request to cancel court proceedings due to diplomatic scheduling constraints. In that almost surreal ritual, which exposes diplomatic and security meetings for all to see, Netanyahu had to carve out his day through petitions to the judges.

The request was partially granted, with the judges giving priority — in their own esteemed eyes — only to the meeting with US envoy Tom Barrett to Syria, who is friendly with Erdogan and therefore low on the list of Netanyahu’s favorite Trump-appointed envoys.

For Netanyahu, however, this was only the opening move. At the start of the session, he made clear to the judges that he would leave the session if Paraguayan parliament speaker Raúl Latorre arrived unexpectedly. And lo and behold — in tandem with Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, returning from a US visit, Speaker Latorre arrived at the Tel Aviv District Court to meet Netanyahu.

The judges, catching on late to the media maneuver, hinted that Netanyahu had planned an ambush, and clarified that had his request been worded differently, they would have canceled the court day.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, achieved exactly what he wanted. As part of the campaign he launched last week, he will now focus on a multi-front offensive — from courthouse corridors to Election Day later this year, this time targeting the judicial system. Bibi is hammering the judicial system, even at the risk of alienating centrist voters, calculating that in the grand tally, the gain outweighs the damage.

That campaign takes into account the fragmented opposition’s two central mantras: the October 7 failure under Bibi’s watch, and the “draft evasion law” now being advanced.

Bibi, for his part, sees the first matter as something that is already behind him.

Returning all living hostages, honoring every fallen soldier, and achievements against the Iranian axis across multiple fronts, together allow Netanyahu to enter the elections with his eternal “protector of Israel” mantle intact — despite the most horrific massacre of Jews since the Holocaust occuring on his watch.

Regarding the draft law, Netanyahu’s recent narrative — which will accompany him throughout the election — includes a noteworthy acknowledgment of the eternal contribution of Torah scholars, alongside his pride that, under his tenure, military conscription will for the first time receive formal approval from the chareidi establishment.

Bibi intends to bundle both of these issues together with his fight against the judiciary. Polls conducted by Netanyahu clearly show that today’s strongest right-wing sentiment centers on the judicial system. The conduct of the attorney general, Netanyahu’s own trial, and even the push to establish a High Court-led inquiry under President Yitzhak Amit will all be weaponized as political ammunition until the elections.

One Likud MK told me this week in the Knesset that the best outcome for Netanyahu would be a draft law that the High Court strikes down. The lack of ultra-Orthodox compliance can then be blamed on the judges, allowing him to include the draft law in the broader “fight against the judiciary” package.

Bibi’s recently submitted pardon request — odds low, as everyone knows — is also part of the campaign launch heading into the elections. The judges weighing the deferral requests, who become a media punching bag in the process, hand Netanyahu another card on the way to the ballot box. The relentless message: The judiciary, serving the opposition, is jamming sticks in the prime minister’s spokes and blocking his political progress alongside President Trump.

Practically, Netanyahu is expected to wrap up his personal testimony in the coming weeks, and his courtroom presence will hardly be required. None of this stopped him from filing the pardon request — not only out of fear of a distant conviction, which could serve as a prelude to an appeal dragging into the next decade.

The pardon request is part of a meticulously focused campaign. Bibi’s goal: to awaken the slumbering right wing and bring back to the fold those voters who currently tell pollsters they have no intention of casting ballots.

Out Loud, Out of Control

Former IDF chief of staff and star of the left-wing bloc Gadi Eisenkot went after the draft law — but unexpectedly found himself on the defensive on another front.

With a mix of courage and naivete, Eisenkot openly voiced what no one in the opposition dares say: that despite flattering polls, there is almost no possibility of forming a left-wing coalition without the support of at least one Arab party.

In a post-October 7 world, it was a bad move. Speaking the truth on camera is a luxury only losers can afford. Eisenkot’s words on Channel 12 — interpreted as giving a green light for a renewed “change government” with Arab support — sabotaged the opposition’s campaign. The vehement denials from Lapid and Arab MKs only deepened the suspicion.

This opposition is not a multiheaded Hydra; it’s headless, running out of control. Eisenkot’s statement will now be cast, in Likud’s hands, as the opposition’s master plan — either Bibi or pro-Palestinian MK Ahmed Tibi.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1092)