Netanyahu Is Now Attacking His Own Democracy

In the waning days of 2018, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for elections in April, he did so from what appeared to be a position of strength. Although he had long been in a low-scale war of attrition with politicians to his right, Netanyahu was certain that they could not siphon serious votes from his Likud party. Given that there were no formidable personalities in the center or on the left to challenge him, he was confident that he would strengthen his parliamentary position before the attorney general could decide about indicting him on corruption allegations.

As U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May learned in June 2017, however, snap elections to buttress parliamentary standing can backfire. May managed to retain her position, but ended up much weakened. The same may happen to Netanyahu. For him, this brief election season has been brutal, for multiple reasons, two of them critical. First, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit did not wait until after the election to release preliminary findings. Mandelblit announced last month that Netanyahu would be indicted in three pending cases, on charges that included bribery. The prime minister’s standing in the polls then took a dive.