JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was indicted Thursday on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in a set of long-running corruption cases, throwing his political future into doubt and heightening the uncertainty surrounding Israel's yearlong struggle to choose its next leader.
Netanyahu, 70, who in July became the longest-serving prime minister in Israel's history, now also has the distinction of being the first to be indicted while in office.
The cases against Netanyahu involve allegations of giving or offering lucrative official favors to several media tycoons in exchange for favorable news coverage or gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The indictment threatened to open a dangerous new challenge to Israel's democracy, as the nation's top prosecutor and its premier accused each other of subverting the rule of law.
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"The public interest requires that we live in a country where no one is above the law," Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said in a televised evening news conference.
In a speech an hour later, Netanyahu insisted that the case against him was built on lies and political animus. He declared that it was the police and prosecutors who should be called to account, urging Israel's citizens to "investigate the investigators."
He told Israelis that they were "witnessing an attempted coup."
"I will not allow lies to prevail," he vowed. "I will continue to lead this country."
Several dozen supporters and opponents of Netanyahu staged rival demonstrations outside the prime minister's official residence Thursday night. Police kept the groups apart, and there were no reports of violence.
Netanyahu is not legally required to step down. But with Israel's political system already in uncharted territory, having failed to settle upon a new prime minister despite two elections and three attempts at forming a government since April, the criminal case against him could make it far more difficult for him to retain power.
After his chief rival, Benny Gantz of the centrist Blue and White party, failed to form a government by the Wednesday deadline, that task shifted to Parliament. If no lawmaker is successful in assembling a 61-seat majority over the next three weeks, a third round of elections will be called.
"We've seen consistently that a big majority of the public, about two-thirds, do not think a prime minister can serve and at the same time try to clear his name in court," said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute.
There were already signs of unrest in Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, as a popular younger lawmaker, Gideon Saar, called Thursday for a primary contest for prime minister and said he would be a contender.
The decision by Mandelblit to prosecute the prime minister capped a drawn-out process that has loomed over Israel politics for two years, weakening Netanyahu politically and emboldening the center-left.
Netanyahu has fomented right-wing anger at Israel's judiciary and law enforcement community for months, accusing them of trying to take him down.
Alluding to that, Mandelblit warned against "violent and belligerent discourse against law enforcement officials," which he called "playing with fire."
"Law enforcement is not a choice," he added. "This is not a matter of left or right. This is not a matter of politics."
Netanyahu asked for the public's sympathy, saying "my blood has been spilled," along with that of his wife and son, in unfair attacks in the Israeli news media.
The corruption cases helped fuel the rise of the Blue and White party, led by Gantz, whose animating idea was that the allegations disqualified Netanyahu from continuing to serve.
Gantz issued a one-sentence statement late Thursday: "This is a very sad day for the State of Israel."
The No. 2 official in Blue and White, Yair Lapid, was more pointed: "If he still cares about the country, he should do one more thing for it," he said of Netanyahu. "Resign."
The cases have also slowly emboldened rivals within the Likud party.
Saar said he supported the prime minister's efforts to form a national unity government, but "if we do go to elections, it is not reasonable to think that he will be successful in forming a government after third elections."
He added, "I think I will be able to form a government, and I think I will be able to unite the country and the nation."
PARTISAN BIAS CLAIMS
Netanyahu has focused his energy on persuading his supporters that the investigations were motivated by partisan bias and on seeking to gain immunity from prosecution as long as he remains in office.
For months as the investigations dragged on, Netanyahu complained that the Israeli left, the news media and law enforcement agencies were conspiring to oust him by legal means because they could not defeat him at the ballot box.
Netanyahu has called the investigation a "witch hunt," and his allies have called it the product of a "deep state" conspiracy against Netanyahu -- though Netanyahu himself appointed many of the key law-enforcement officials investigating him. Mandelblit was once Netanyahu's Cabinet secretary.
The prime minister also seemed to work to use the legislative and political processes to aid his defense. Last December, he called a snap election for April, calculating that he might win a strong reelection mandate if the ballots were cast before Mandelblit announced whether he planned to seek an indictment.
Then, having scheduled the vote, he argued that Mandelblit ought to delay announcing his decision until after it, to avoid unfairly influencing the outcome.
Neither gambit worked: Mandelblit announced his intention to seek bribery and other charges 40 days before the April 9 vote.
After the April election ended inconclusively, Netanyahu's allies pushed a bill in Parliament to give all members, including Netanyahu, immunity from prosecution. It was abandoned when critics, including members of his party, called the idea authoritarian and anti-democratic.
He also reportedly discussed seeking legislation to give Parliament the power to override a potentially unfavorable ruling by the Supreme Court, if a law granting Netanyahu immunity were challenged.
Netanyahu also petitioned unsuccessfully to bar evidence in the corruption cases from being published before the do-over election on Sept. 17. Failing that, he called damaging reports about that evidence a "terror attack against democracy."
The most serious charges against Netanyahu were connected to so-called Case 4000, in which he is accused of passing regulations that gave his friend, telecom magnate Shaul Elovitch, benefits worth more than $250 million to his company, Bezeq. In return, Bezeq's news site, Walla, published favorable articles about Netanyahu and his family.
The relationship, it said, was "based on a mutual understanding that each of them had significant interests that the other side had the ability to advance." It also accused Netanyahu of concealing the relationship by providing "partial and misleading information" about his connections with Elovitch.
Two close aides to Netanyahu testified against him in the case.
The indictment also described billionaires Arnon Milchan and James Packer as a "supply channel" of champagne and cigars for Netanyahu. It estimated the value of the gifts at roughly $200,000.
It said Netanyahu assisted the Israeli Milchan, a Hollywood mogul, in extending his U.S. visa. It was not immediately clear what, if anything, Packer, who is Australian, received in return.
The final case accuses Arnon Mozes, publisher of the Yediot Ahronot daily, of offering positive coverage of Netanyahu in exchange for pushing legislation that would have harmed a free newspaper that has cut into Yediot's profits.
Information for this article was contributed by David M. Halbfinger of The New York Times; by Josef Federman and Aron Heller of The Associated Press; and by Steve Hendrix and Ruth Eglash of The Washington Post.
A Section on 11/22/2019