Legal correspondent Avishai Grinzaig weighed in Wednesday on the emerging election picture, in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc appears to fall short of 61 seats but decisively defeats the change camp.
Greenzweig dismissed speculation that began circulating late Tuesday night about a possible deal in which Gadi Eisenkot would serve first in a rotation arrangement with Netanyahu in exchange for a pardon.
"The following is an opinion," he wrote. "The possibility raised from 10:01 PM onward of a deal in which Eisenkot would be first in rotation in return for a pardon for Netanyahu is based on a conception held by people who listen too much to themselves and to their own hopes. Netanyahu's trial has for two years now become plainly irrelevant. It is not convening for anything. In a year and a half, the head of the panel retires, and the case is still very far from completion."
He added that the judges have already indicated they believe the bribery charge should be struck, and that the case deals with events from ages ago, while neither Netanyahu nor Elovitch is getting any younger. "You can replace her with another judge, and you can appoint her as a colleague judge. Everything is theoretically possible. But in practice, this case is already dead. That is the reality."
"The risk to Netanyahu from continuing to conduct the trial is so negligible," he wrote, "that the thought he would agree to give up the premiership in exchange for a pardon is truly a thought of people who interpret reality based on hopes and fantasies."
