Binyamin Netanyahu’s allies reconsider their indicted leader
Nov 28th 2019TEL AVIVTHE RALLY’S organisers feared that turnout would be low. Even after a flurry of text messages and a big internet campaign, an underwhelming crowd of several thousand people showed up in downtown Tel Aviv on November 26th to protest against the “coup d’état”. That is how Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, refers to the legal campaign against him. Five days earlier he was charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust stemming from three corruption cases. Mr Netanyahu is the first sitting prime minister to be indicted. He denies all charges.The prime minister claims to be the victim of a left-wing conspiracy. Biased courts, police and media are to blame for his problems, he says. But after a decade in power, his grip on Israeli politics is weakening. His coalition of nationalist and religious parties failed to win a majority in two successive elections, in April and September. The opposition, led by the Blue and White party, has also come up short. Yet it has frustrated Mr Netanyahu’s attempts (and failed itself) to form a government, pushing the country towards another election. Cracks are even showing in his own Likud party, where he faces the most immediate challenge to his rule.Choose us for news analysis that respects your time and intelligenceSubscribe to The EconomistWe filter out the noise of the daily news cycle and analyse the trends that matterWe give you rigorous, deeply researched and fact-checked journalism. That’s why Americans named us their most trusted news source in 2017Available wherever you are—in print, digital and, uniquely, in audio, fully narrated by professional broadcastersThis website adheres to all nine of NewsGuard‘s standards of credibility and transparency.ORContinue reading this articleRegister with an email address