It looks like a “show trial” to me.

Anyone who describes the Israeli government in apocalyptic terms in the US media, and demands that US Jewry help save the state from the Netanyahu government will do everything to make sure that the legal system brings the prime minister down.

By Amnon Lord, ISRAEL HAYOM

The trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which begins today, can be seen from various angles. Many will see it as an attempt to cancel the results of the election, an attempt by historic political powers with connections to the most important bureaucratic institutions in the country to secure through an ouster what they were denied through democratic means.

But the correct viewpoint of the Netanyahu trial is as part of a series of projects that are attempting to commit national suicide. Benjamin Netanyahu has proved that he has doubled Israel’s power. Aharon Barak and Ehud Barak were both part of the mission to bring him down and frame him.

The Haaretz and Yedioth Ahronoth newspapers, TV channels, and of course the left-wing parties are all signatories to historic initiatives that caused Israel immense, almost irreversible, damage. But in the past few years, the ability of the initiators of unilateral withdrawals, the leaders of the destruction of the elected political system, to execute more projects that weaken us has come to an end. The public is simply issuing a gut response to all these things.

One aspect of national and economic security remains in place – that is Benjamin Netanyahu, who as prime minister for the last 11 years has blocked international alliance and Israeli-American alliances designed to restore Israel to its “natural” size, so it won’t bother anyone.

MK Ayman Odeh, who is unencumbered by the usual brainwashing against Netanyahu, offers convincing testimony of all this. In an interview to Palestinian television, he described the “national” need to topple Prime Minister Netanyahu: “Bringing down Netanyahu means sticking a knife in the ‘deal of the century.’ Since 1948, has there been an Israeli prime minister who influenced American decision-making like Benjamin Netanyahu does? Ben-Gurion, Sharett, Eshkol, Golda Meir, Barak, Sharon, or Olmert? The American Embassy moving to Jerusalem – Netanyahu. Recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli – Netanyahu. The US pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal – Netanyahu, and more.”

Part of that “more” – aside from increased economic strength – has happened in the past few years in the defense-operational arena. No other prime minister would have initiated a battle against Iran’s incursion into Syria, and as former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot said in this newspaper, Operation Northern Star to destroy Hezbollah’s tunnels was the most important security coup of the past decade, since it prevented Hezbollah attacks, and probably a full-out war. According to the dismissive responses of Ehud Barak and Avigdor Lieberman, only Netanyahu would have approved an operation like it. That is also the type of leadership Netanyahu showed during the corona crisis. Netanyahu acted swiftly and decisively, exactly the opposite of the accepted traditions of the failure leaders that characterized Israel for so many years.

When a national leader proves his advantages in such a convincing manner, the question arises – where does the fanaticism and energy invested in attempts to bring him down come from? There are a lot of explanations, but the political-national one is the most important.

The conglomerate of political parties, the media, and the defense established, used to know how to create the pressure necessary to influence the public and the decision-making institutions to make unilateral withdrawals. Anyone who describes the Israeli government in apocalyptic terms in the US media, and demands that US Jewry help save the state from the Netanyahu government will do everything possible so that the attorney general, the police, and the  State Attorney’s Office will do whatever “we” need them to. That is the newest project to break the nation. Taking down Netanyahu, if it happens, would be an event on the scale of the disengagement from the Gaza Strip, if not bigger.

The opening day of the trial also points to the intention of blowing the event up into something like a show trial. The appearance of the “accused” is followed by a full day of coverage on all channels, which allows the opposition to repeat its favorite mantra: “Bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.” But no heart-wrenching confession is expected today. Netanyahu’s judges are like their colleagues in the defense establishment; they reached the top through a selection process of a guild of judges that takes care to choose itself, so it’s doubtful whether any of them are cut from a different cloth than Aharon Barak, Esther Hayut, Shai Nitzan, or Liat Ben Ari. But they are human and profession and they are intelligent. They can surprise us and turn into an investigative committee that exposes all the crimes and biases of the police and the prosecution en route to the indictment.