Nearly three decades after he first became Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu is now attempting to write the latest chapter of his unparalleled tale of political survival. Mr Netanyahu has formally appealed to Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, for a pardon in corruption cases that have shadowed him for years. Mr Herzog has not commented on the appeal yet but Mr Netanyahu’s plea is deeply controversial: protests have broken out against a prime minister who is deeply unpopular among many in Israel. Yet, in many ways, Mr Netanyahu’s latest attempt at political rehabilitation is a reflection of his remarkable ability to use national and global crises to serve his interests. His poll ratings were crashing and calls for him to quit were growing as the corruption cases against him were proceeding in the courts. But the horrific Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 and Israel’s brutal war on Gaza that started right after, gave Mr Netanyahu cover from that political fire. Each time questions were raised about his failures — whether it was the intelligence shortcomings that allowed the Hamas attack, Israel’s inability to bring back hostages abducted by the Palestinian group, or Israel’s growing international isolation — Mr Netanyahu was able to weaponise those very challenges and flip them into tools in his service.

Thus, hostages still stuck in Gaza became a justification to escalate the war. The conflict became the shield protecting him from tough scrutiny over the events that allowed the October 7 attack to take place. International anger over Israel’s war became the catalyst to portray the country’s critics as anti-Semites. Throughout it all, Mr Netanyahu utilised a fundamental contradiction in Israel: a country with a robust civil society and diverse polity otherwise willing to rise up against leaders seen as corrupt is, however, largely united when it comes to endorsing discrimination and violence against Palestinians. The Gaza war allowed Mr Netanyahu to avoid any serious political challenge even as he pushed through controversial judicial reforms. Now, with a ceasefire in place at least notionally — Israeli forces continue to attack Gaza — that wartime immunity will soon evaporate. Donald Trump, the president of the United States of America and an ally of Mr Netanyahu, has also personally sought a pardon for the Israeli leader. Israeli Opposition politicians have said that any pardon must be conditioned on Mr Netanyahu quitting politics. There is only one problem with that: Mr Netantyahu does not know how to quit no matter what the consequences are for Israel or its neighbourhood.