https://arab.news/5xqka
Most people look forward to their summer break, and this year no one more so than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His options for traveling abroad are somewhat limited, either because of the International Criminal Court arrest warrant that hangs over his head, or, more generally, his unsurprising lack of popularity in the face of the horrific images beamed around the world of starvation in Gaza.
Still, the summer brings two blessings to the Israeli leader. First, the Knesset has broken up for its recess, giving him nearly three months of breathing space from managing his crooked coalition, which ranges from misfits to warmongers, to plot his next chapter of political survival, and with it the possibility of an early general election. Second, it is also a seasonal break for the courts, and hence for his corruption trial on charges of fraud, bribery, and breach of trust — with a looming prosecution cross-examination likely to leave him shifting uncomfortably in his seat.
Israel, meanwhile, is desperate for a general election, one that polls suggest would bring about a new and very different government. By law, the latest date for holding that election is October of next year, but with the never-ending catalog of horrific damage the Netanyahu government and its bunch of extreme nationalists and populists are inflicting on it, the country just does not have the luxury of waiting for more than a year before these merchants of destruction are sent packing.
