Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has done all he can to avoid the witness stand, but failed. Now he and his partners are sowing chaos to trap and inflame the base, even intimidating prosecutors and judges

"One of the reasons why Netanyahu is trying to evade giving testimony, beside the obvious reasons, is that, for him, it's a return to a place that he struggles to contain, a place of humiliation," said a man familiar with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption cases.

"Anyone who watched his questioning by the police can understand this. Suddenly, the strongest man in the country is sitting opposite investigators who are looking him in the eye, asking him embarrassing questions, accusing him of lying, playing interrogative tricks on him, shaming him and exposing his nakedness. He had a very bad time, and in my opinion, he doesn't want to repeat it. This ceremony will be repeated on a grand scale in cross-examination, and this time in front of an audience," he continued.

Eight years have passed since the investigations against Netanyahu were opened. Many predicted that they would end his political career, but the prime minister had other plans. Even if he could not stop the trial, he is still around, determined more than ever to take revenge on those who dared to send him on the humiliating journey.

In December 2021, Netanyahu was the opposition leader. His defense lawyer, Boaz Ben Zur, secretly negotiated with then-Attorney General Avichai Mandelblitt on a plea bargain that would result in his retirement from political life. Cross-examination of the state's witness, Nir Hefetz, was underway at the Jerusalem District Court.

In one hearing, the name of Kia, the Netanyahu's late dog, came up. "If she were here, we would have sicced her on someone, after they sicced the indictment on us," said Ben Zur sarcastically. The audience laughed, the judges sat silently and the negotiations fell apart. A year later, Netanyahu was back in power and sicced Justice Minister Yariv Levin on those who questioned, prosecuted and, in his opinion, humiliated him.

On October 7, 2023, the attempted judicial overhaul aimed at rescuing the prime minister from his trial came to a screeching halt. For a moment, it seemed that Netanyahu and his partners had hit the wall of reality, and that they realized how far they had gone and the price the entire country had paid. That illusion faded fast. They are again storming the buffet as if starving. Levin is fanning his destructive fantasy while bringing the Supreme Court to its knees so it will not stand in his way (or exhaust the law against Netanyahu in a criminal appeal). Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi is threatening to shut down the Kan Public Broadcasting Corporation, and members of the coalition are competing to threaten Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.

The evil spirit is directly related to Netanyahu's testimony at his trial, which is due to begin next Tuesday. The Mafioso-like video he made to defend detainee Eli Feldstein would never have been made if he were not going to take the witness stand. He hasn't the slightest interest in Feldstein's fate. He is sowing chaos to trap and inflame the base ahead of his testimony, intimidating prosecutors who will question him and the judges who will oversee the event.

In accordance with the Shin Bet security service's position, the testimony will be given in an underground courtroom at the Tel Aviv District Court, where gang boss Yitzhak Abergil's trial was held. Guards may secure the prosecutors just as they did in Abergil's case and for the same reason: fear of the fury of the defendant's foot-soldiers.

The boss of a murderous criminal gang, who grew up in Lod's Harakevet neighborhood with an alcoholic father and nine siblings, was brought to the hearings in a police van, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, and surrounded by prison guards. The prime minister, the son of a professor from Jerusalem's Rehavia neighborhood, will be brought to trial in a state convoy, wearing a suit and red/blue tie, with Shin Bet agents next to him.

Netanyahu has done everything he can not to reach this moment. Several weeks ago, during the hearing to postpone his testimony to February 2025, his political adviser Ophir Falk appeared in the courthouse carrying a red phone. Netanyahu wanted to tell the judges personally and on a secure line why the security situation required a postponement, but they refused to talk to him.

Next, Netanyahu tried to spread out his testimony as much as possible. The idea was to normalize the abnormal, in which the prime minister of a bleeding country would regularly take the witness stand for months. On Thursday, the judges dismissed his motion to hold only two abbreviated hearings a week, ruling that he must appear in court three times a week, day after day. Netanyahu will struggle to cope with that for long; he still has the option of giving up his job. That would paint him as a man sacrificing his personal interest for the sake of the country and would ignite his campaign against the law enforcement system, but would greatly harm him legally.

In the first half, Netanyahu will play against an empty net. His initial testimony, managed by his defense attorney, is in a fawning format in the style of those TV talk shows that reminisce about a celebrity's life. It will let the defendant describe his huge contribution to the establishment of the Israeli empire and also lament his persecution and the price he and his family have paid.

These will likely be the most authentic moments of his testimony. Netanyahu still believes that he is a victim of a dark conspiracy to remove him from power. In the past, he also believed that he was doomed, and if he could not stop the onrushing train, he'd find himself in Wing 10 at Maasiyahu Prison, like his predecessor, Ehud Olmert.

In court, he saw another conspiracy against him. "The verdict against me is preordained," he said. But the judges favorably surprised him – especially one of them, whom he mentioned positively in private conversations.

In his testimony, Netanyahu will try to buy the judges' hearts alongside his constant struggle for public opinion. He will argue that there was nothing wrong with his relations with Shaul Elovich ("I called all the publishers") and Arnon Milchan ("He likes me, he's my brother"). He will explain that his negotiations with Noni Mozes were also a matter of saving a life. He'll claim he was a father willing to do anything to prevent his sensitive children from ending their lives following insidious media reports by a vengeful publisher.

Netanyahu will have to make a supreme mental effort to show credibility. That's a tall order considering his lies under police questioning, which the prosecution will lay out in the second and tougher half of his testimony. The prosecutors will not only try to portray the defendant as a corrupt man who cannot be believed, but also explain the failure of the instructions meeting and persuade the judges that the court was hasty when they recommended the prosecution withdraw the bribery charge.

The prosecution can correct another mistake if cross-examination in Case 1000, which is straightforward bribery and favor-trading, is opened instead of in Case 4000, which involves regulatory favors. The decision to investigate the prime minister in ascending numerical order also has a thematic logic. Besides the known story of the Netanyahus' cravings, Case 1000 embodies in the most refined way the prime minister's willingness to cross red lines to please his wife. Although he tried to disavow her, on the advice of his late attorney, Jacob Weinroth, ("Sara and I are separate entities"), the testimonies in the case created the impression that Benjamin and Sara are part of a single entity.

The recordings at the core of Case 2000 tell the story of a prime minister who barters his governing power to buy a stake in the media. Case 4000, the concluding chapter in the saga of corruption, binds up the tidy ideas of its younger siblings.