I, (Bella) am a member of the Likud party and attended many of the party’s functions, including speeches by Netanyahu. The following is my observation and analysis from the information I gathered from the inside and also the news. I prayed a lot before, during and after the election. I am writing this to you, dear friends of Israel and prayer partners, to seek the Lord’s guidance on how to pray for both Israel and the US at this critical time.

In all the months before the election, the Israeli public was influenced significantly by the left-wing media feeding them Netanyahu’s failures and shortcomings while completely ignoring his achievements. [Read more about Netanyahu’s Achievements.]

Thanks to Netanyahu’s leadership over the last ten years, Israel is now the 8th superpower in the world and a major High-Tech nation with many Israeli innovations used worldwide.

Netanyahu has formed an unofficial alliance between Israel and most of the moderate Sunni Arab nations, led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, in dealing with the growing Iranian and Jihadi threats.

Together with President Trump, Netanyahu has implemented strategic plans in the interest of both counties. Trump relied on our dependable Israeli leader with a strong army. In return, Netanyahu relied on strong backup from the American President. In strategic partnership with Israel, President Trump pulled out of the deal with Iran and began a series of tough sanctions while Netanyahu prevented Iran from gaining a foothold in Syria by bombing Iranian ammunition bases there with little or no interference or retaliation.

Trump and Netanyahu were a force to reckon with which the enemies of both countries recognize.

Both Trump and Netanyahu have been waiting for an opportunity to strike Iran’s nuclear installations (the Revolutionary Guards bases, missiles and ammunition targets) which would significantly weaken the Iranian threat and give Israel more deterrent power. The current strike on Saudi Arabia’s oil installations could have been that opportunity, now halted by Israel’s lack of government due to the election stalemate. There is a real danger that Israel could lose its position of power gained over the last few years as well as the collaboration of President Trump.

One of the greatest achievements for an American president would be to bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Trump greatly desires (in cooperation with Netanyahu) to be the one to succeed where all other US presidents have failed. This opportunity is now on hold. Before the elections, Netanyahu announced his intention to apply Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley after the elections. Netanyahu hinted it was in cooperation with President Trump: “I will apply for sovereignty of the settlements and other areas with maximum cooperation with the United States.” 

No US administration has ever supported Israel’s right to assert its sovereign rights in Judea and Samaria without Palestinian permission, Trump may be the first.

Then came the elections of September 17, 2019.

Many in the US and other parts of the world don’t understand the election system in Israel. Even a few days after the elections, while results were not complete, it was obvious that Netanyahu was not a clear winner, but neither was the other major candidate.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, proclaimed to tens of thousands of Iranians at the end of Election Day: “This is a great day for Iran. Finally, after many years, we have achieved our goal – the left has come to power in Israel.”

The crowd cheered, “Death to Israel, death to the Zionists.” 

The Ayatollah continued: “Finally, a weak government that will allow us to rule in Tel Aviv, in Haifa and in all of the Middle East.”

The crowds cheered again, “Death to Israel, death to the Zionist.”

The radical Islamic nation regularly threatens the State of Israel with annihilation. It invests billions in Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza toward that end. Removing the hawkish Netanyahu would be a great gift to Tehran.

The battle is really between the left and right world views. The left will do everything in its power to take over control of Israel and the US.

In Israel, Netanyahu’s big rivals are Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, the head of the Kahol Lavan party. They appealed to the center-leftist Israelis who are mainly secular. To fight the right-wing bloc, they targeted its leader, Benyamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu, even though not religious, believes in the Word of God in the Old Testament and the right of the Jews to the land of their forefathers. He announced never to divide Jerusalem again. He opposes the elite progressive left, which has never accepted the majority vote for Netanyahu and the right bloc during the last 10 years. They have targeted Netanyahu as being the danger to their progressive, liberal future.

These leftists in politics, media, and economic powers have been able to put doubts in the mind of the public about Netanyahu’s integrity by accusations and innuendos through the media, and by leaking lies and half-truths from police interrogations. They influence leftists in the prosecution and judicial systems who desire to destroy Netanyahu and prevent him from ever being elected again.

That influence created immense waves of anti-Netanyahu sentiments. The anti-Netanyahu campaign proved to be quite effective and many of these accusations, that Netanyahu claims are “fake news” have stuck in the minds of voters who see Netanyahu as being corrupt even though not proven guilty. As far as the left is concerned, like Trump, Netanyahu is guilty until proven innocent. Even after Netanyahu is found not guilty, they will never admit his innocence, leaving doubts in people’s minds.

The media and Netanyahu’s opponents have completely ignored all of Netanyahu’s achievements over the last ten years and have embarked on an all-out war against him, with the slogan “Anyone but Bibi”.

Finally the “Big Guns”

After many months of interrogations, before the April elections, Attorney General Mandelblit announced in February that he intended to file criminal charges against Netanyahu in cases 4000, 1000 and 2000, pending the outcome of hearings. Netanyahu has denied all allegations and claims that he is the victim of a politically orchestrated “witch-hunt” by the media and the left to oust him from office.

Netanyahu won the April elections but was unable to form a coalition because Liberman and his party, Israel Betyenu, pulled out of the coalition. [Click here for details.] This led to the September election. In the months before the last election, the media and the opposition intensified the attack on Netanyahu via continual leakage and messages of the cases against him, portraying him in the minds of the public as being corrupt, even though the cases were pending hearings. They did not give him a chance to refute the allegations or present his side.

Netanyahu still has the mandate to form a coalition while the hearings were in progress last week, between the prosecution and Netanyahu’s attorneys, permitting the defense to argue against the prospective charges and to convince the attorney-general to either scrap or reduce them. After listening to the arguments, the attorney-general will decide by the end of the year whether there is cause for indictment and whether Netanyahu should stand trial.

The most serious charge against Netanyahu is bribery, of which he has been accused in Case 4000. This charge involves allegations that Netanyahu, when he was the minister of communications, granted regulatory favors, and/or financial benefits to Israel’s leading telecommunications company, Bezeq Telecom Israel (BEZQ.TA), in return for positive coverage of himself and his wife Sara on a news website controlled by the company’s former chairman. The charges in this case were reviewed last week. Netanyahu states the decisions he made regarding the Bezeq Corporation were supported by expert advisers and that they had nothing to do with his family’s ties to the primary shareholder, Shaul Elovitch.

CASE 1000 alleges that Netanyahu and his wife wrongfully received lavish gifts (including expensive champagne and cigars, jewelry, flights, and hotel rooms) from billionaire friends, mainly the prominent, Israeli-born, Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan, and Australian billionaire businessman James Packer. Netanyahu is accused of lobbying for retaining a returned citizen’s benefits law, favorable to the wealthy that would provide tax relief for Milchan worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In Case 2000, Netanyahu is accused of fraud and breach of trust for allegedly conspiring with the publisher of the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper (the largest newspaper in Israel, hostile to Netanyahu) Arnon “Noni” Mozes, to limit the circulation of Israel Hayom (the largest newspaper that is distributed free of charge) in exchange for favorable coverage in the Yedioth publication. The charges were scheduled to be reviewed on Sunday, October 6, 2019.

If Netanyahu is indicted it could take many months before his trial begins. Netanyahu could also seek a plea bargain rather than stand trial. In the case of bribery, he can get a sentence of up to 10 years in jail and/or a fine. In the case of fraud and breach of trust, the sentence is up to three years in prison.

According to Israeli law, a Prime Minister must step down if ultimately convicted, but can stay in office throughout legal proceedings including appeals.

Netanyahu’s supporters in the legislature have said they would support granting him parliamentary immunity from prosecution, hopefully, enough Knesset members will back such a move.

“What’s going on here,” noted retired Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, “is that vague, elastic, and open-ended laws are being stretched so as to target a particular individual, even though the ‘crime’ in question is something that is actually normal political conduct and not some nefarious plot.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu called the corruption allegations a “witch hunt” orchestrated by the media and left-wing to topple him.

“For the past three years, they have been carrying out an unprecedented witch-hunt which has one aim: to topple the right-wing government which I lead.”

Netanyahu, insisting on his innocence, said his family has “gone through hell” as he questioned whether it was fair to consider “two-and-a-half articles on the Internet” of positive news coverage a benefit amounting to bribery. “There’s no precedent in history which determines that positive coverage is a bribe,” Netanyahu said.

“Walla, (an Israeli internet company headquartered in Tel Aviv owned by Bezeq, accused in case 4000) remains an extreme-left website that is hostile to me!”

“Unilateral publication of the attorney general’s announcement just a month before the elections, without giving the Prime Minister an opportunity to refute these false accusations, is a blatant and unprecedented intervention in the elections,” said a right-wing party official ahead of Netanyahu’s statement. He said, “The cases were brought for the sole purpose of toppling the dominant right-wing government in favor of a left-wing government led by Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid’s Blue and White party.”

Netanyahu claims that the apparent strains of evidence are “fake news”, hearsay and other purportedly specious proof on which the cases are based. “It is regrettable that the High Court of Justice did not prevent the left from blatantly interfering in the elections”.

Netanyahu counts some 22 probes into their household conduct. One investigation was about whether Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, were overspending on ice cream! Another targeted Sara Netanyahu for supposedly enriching herself with the proceeds from returned bottle deposits.

Nothing came of these investigations but they created an image of the couple’s overspending lifestyle, and that Netanyahu is being controlled by his wife, just as the “witch-hunt” in Washington over President Trump’s alleged “collusion” with Russia has been used to batter the President.

Interestingly, both Netanyahu and President Trump are being targeted by the powers of the left to inhibit and deny their chances to lead their respective countries. President Trump’s political enemies from the left have targeted him for impeachment, even criminal indictment. The same forces work day and night, just as they do against Netanyahu, to eliminate President Trump from power. They are also working in the US to turn the country against Israel, and the most pro-Israel President in history. Anti-Israel, even anti-Semitic voices are gaining influence on Capitol Hill.

It is urgent now to pray for both leaders who are so important to Israel’s future.

The prosecution in Israel has made itself into a court. Waiting for the result of the hearing is like waiting for sentencing. That all of this is accepted practice in this country doesn’t mean it’s a process that meets democratic constitutional standards. Especially when in the last two elections, a very large sector of the public voted to reject law enforcement’s stance regarding the prime minister. It’s not about whether or not Netanyahu is innocent; it’s about the fact that law enforcement officials must not be the ones to decide whether or not he can continue to serve as prime minister.

In this critical situation, prayer and supernatural intervention is the only solution. We believe in the sovereignty of God Almighty, doing wonders. Let’s pray in faith and power, led by the Holy Spirit. To God be the glory.