As the Knesset prepares to vote on its dissolution, concerns are mounting over the erosion of public trust in state institutions and the electoral system itself – alongside growing claims that Benjamin Netanyahu will seek to delay the process, reshape the election timetable, and consolidate networks of political loyalty around him.

Trust is the most valuable currency in a democracy. More important than power, the police, the army, the Shin Bet, the Mossad, or the courts. All of these institutions matter, but none can sustain a free society on their own. They function only so long as the public believes they operate in its name, for its benefit, and according to the law; only so long as citizens believe that public servants are loyal to the state rather than to a prime minister, or to the interests of a criminal defendant willing to subordinate the country to his personal survival.

And that is precisely what is now breaking in Israel. Not merely trust in Netanyahu – that fracture happened long ago. What is collapsing now is something deeper and more dangerous: confidence that the institutions themselves are still capable of standing up to him.

Israel is entering one of the most sensitive periods in its history while led by a prime minister who has lost the confidence of most of the public, trails badly in the polls, carries the burden of both the October 7 catastrophe and his ongoing criminal trial, yet continues to wield state power. At the same time, he surrounds himself with appointees who understand one simple fact: a different government would likely remove them from office. Some may be qualified, some may even be talented – that is beside the point. The point is that they assume their roles under the patronage of a man who has already demonstrated that, in his view, the state, its institutions, the war, the hostages, the budget, the draft law, and even elections themselves are all pieces on the chessboard of his personal survival.

Under normal........

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