It stands to reason that a prime minister indicted for serious crimes would resign his post and dedicate himself to clearing his name. But there is also logic in the argument put forth by Galit Distel Etebaryan: Assuming Netanyahu is innocent and the grave accusations against him are baseless, if he accepts a plea bargain and agrees to step down, he could be hurt twice: a mark of shame for the rest of his life and conceding the most important position in Israel.
For Netanyahu to consent, or push for a plea deal, as he was advised by his late attorney, Yaakov Weinroth, he needs to know, in his heart of hearts, that he is not innocent, or believe the justice system in Israel is rotten and he has no chance of receiving a fair trial.
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Because a deal of this sort includes an admission of guilt, and because it can be done at a later stage of the legal process, and because relinquishing the premiership would be his most important bargaining chip for a convenient plea deal, it makes sense for the prime minister to hold on to this chip until he is convinced his trial is headed toward a conviction.
Amid this backdrop, we can understand the calls (rather few, for the time being) from the right for the prime minister to accept a plea deal and not repeat Moshe Katzav's dire mistake of rejecting a plea deal that could have spared him prison time. From the perspective of the right, which hasn't forgotten his declaration of rapprochement with Yasser Arafat, the Hebron Agreement and his speech at Bar-Ilan University, Netanyahu is a far cry from Yitzhak Shamir. His excitement for the Trump plan, which proposes a Palestinian state in 70% of the West Bank and another 14% of sovereign Israeli territory, rather exacerbates this lack of enthusiasm. Not to mention the recent polls indicating the rise of another right-wing leader, much younger and supposedly far more committed to applying Israeli sovereignty and rejecting this type of peace deal.
The liberal camp in the government and Knesset, which spearheaded the call for Netanyahu's resignation in recent years because of suspicions, which became indictments, is in a completely different situation. The election results created a situation where the Right and ultra-Orthodox lacked the mandates to form a government. To establish a Netanyahu-led government, therefore, the Likud had to pay a heavy price by offering Blue and White equality and a rotation.
Blue and White's decision to join the coalition and its willingness to forego its flagship goal of removing Netanyahu, swallowing its pride over the indignity of not being informed of the normalization deals with the UAE and Bahrain; not being invited to the signing ceremonies in Washington; or not involving its members in the decision to appoint Prof. Ronni Gamzu as corona commissioner; stems from the fact that any other candidate from the right can form a government without it -- with no veto right and no rotation on the horizon. The question is whether Netanyahu will be able to handle, for an extended period of time, being flanked from left and right.
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