Israel’s prime minister is fighting for survival on four separate fronts, but while he can probably control three of them, there’s one 6,000 miles away he’s powerless to do anything about
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Jan. 10, 2021
The announcement on Friday that Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial hearing this week has been postponed indefinitely, due to the intensified coronavirus lockdown, elicited the expected response. After all, it was the prime minister who had lobbied furiously for a new lockdown and now, for the second time, his trial is being delayed for that reason. Coincidence? Many think not.
Netanyahu’s legal predicament is constantly at the forefront of his mind, but with over 8,000 new cases of COVID-19 each day last week, a tougher lockdown was all but inevitable. And besides, the decision over whether to postpone the hearing was down to the three Jerusalem District Court judges on the panel. They had the authority to hold the proceedings despite the lockdown, but decided for their reasons to wait. So far, they have not been overly favorable to the “number one defendant,” and there’s no reason to believe their decision was in any way tainted by anything but