It's been almost five years since Benjamin Netanyahu's indictment by the Israeli courts, but the time, unprecedented in Israel's history, when a sitting prime minister appears in person before a court has come. Netanyahu presented himself to court in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, December 10, for his trial for corruption, fraud and breach of trust.

This is not the start of the trial, which brings together three separate cases, but its resumption. For the next few weeks, defendant Netanyahu is to appear three days a week, six hours a day, breaks included. At the end of a three-year investigation, the prime minister had been indicted, in 2020, in cases where he was each time implicated for attempting to win favors ranging from luxury gifts to more favorable coverage in certain media, in exchange for "gestures" and interventions on his part.

The first case concerns various gifts, including large-caliber Cohiba cigars and bottles of Dom Pérignon rosé champagne, supplied in a continuous stream to the Netanyahu couple by a friend, a Hollywood producer, who allegedly needed certain intercessions, according to the prosecution. The second case concerns alleged dealings to obtain more favorable coverage on a news website, Walla, in exchange for advantages granted to the Yediot Aharonot press group, the owner of the site and the daily Yediot Aharonot. The third case, potentially the most serious, concerns alleged favors in the field of media regulation.

The trial began on May 24, 2020, but has dragged on and been interrupted several times, so that time flew by without the prime minister being called to appear in person. Ever since the judicial machine was set in motion, the question of the responsibility of a leader facing charges of this nature has had a devastating impact on Israel, fuelling political instability. But something changed after the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, and since then, the meager crowds demonstrating in Tel Aviv, for or against Netanyahu, are unlikely to bring down his government.

Given the general apathy, the extreme length of the hearings, the interruptions that are to be expected, and the prosecution's possible difficulties in firmly establishing its evidence in complex cases, there is a risk of downplaying the seriousness of the scandal. Plus, the prime minister sees the court as a political platform, which he will not hesitate to use.

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