The president of Israel gives in to Trump’s pressure and considers pardoning Netanyahu “only for the good of the country”

Through a 111-page letter, the Likud leader asked the head of state to clear his gloomy judicial horizon. That is, to exempt him from the three separate corruption cases (for bribery, fraud and breach of trust) for which he has been on trial for five years to focus on governing or, as he explained in the letter, to “dedicate all his time, skills and energy to promoting Israel in these critical times.”

Netanyahu asks for immunity from prosecution. Only the brutal military campaign in Gaza, derived from the savage Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, interrupted his judicial via crucis. The prime minister’s defense alleges that his regular court appearances hinder his work. “I must testify three times a week… That is an impossible demand that is not asked of any other citizen,” the Likud leader victimized himself in a video broadcast this Sunday on social networks.

Netanyahu’s request is already on the table of the Ministry of Justice’s pardons department, but the deliberation process may take several weeks, according to the digital The Times of Israel. Herzog assured this Monday that he would only take into account “the good of the country and Israeli society” when issuing a final verdict on the pardon, and promised to conduct this matter “in the most correct and precise manner.”

The president acknowledged, in any case, that Netanyahu’s request for clemency “concerns many people in this country, in different communities, and generates debate.” Although at the same time he challenged the dozens of people who surrounded his official residence in Jerusalem the day before to protest against the measure: “One thing is clear to me: violent speeches do not influence me. On the contrary, respectful speech certainly stimulates discussion and dialogue.”

Along these lines, the president invited Israeli society to visit the official website of the Presidential Residence “to express their opinion and respond accordingly.” A kind of public consultation to find out the degree of social acceptance that the measure would have.

According to a public radio and television survey Can38% of Israelis would support it. Another survey of Canal 12 points out that 42% rule out any pardon that is not accompanied by a resignation. It is another issue that fractures Israeli society.

Trump gana

Herzog ended up yielding to the influence of Donald Trump. The US president launched the pressure campaign on Israeli institutions as he negotiated with Netanyahu the plan for the day after the war in Gaza. It was part of the deal.

During his triumphant speech in the Knesset in mid-October, dedicated to praising his “peace plan” for Gaza, the Republican president insisted to Herzog on the need to grant a pardon to the prime minister: “I have an idea, why don’t you give Netanyahu a pardon?” “Who cares about cigars and champagne?” he added. Trump alluded to some of the gifts that he had received in the form of bribes in one of the cases opened against him.

Trump took a step further in November, when he sent a letter to Herzog himself to formally request a pardon for Netanyahu, “a formidable and decisive prime minister in times of war,” in the words of the White House tenant.

“I absolutely respect the independence of the Israeli judicial system,” Trump stressed in the letter, later describing the case against Netanyahu as “political and unjustified persecution.”

Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s political environment increases the pressure on the head of the Jewish State. “If President Herzog does not decide in the best interest of the security of the State of Israel, for the good of the people, for reconciliation and unity, then I believe that President Trump could take additional measures and would be forced to intervene,” declared, in this sense, the Israeli Minister of Environmental Protection, Idit Silman in statements to the chain i24 news.

Silman herself, one of the visible faces of the Likud, slipped that these “additional measures” could be nothing less than “sanctions against officials of the judicial system.”

Denial

Netanyahu, who denounces judicial persecution, fears receiving a conviction that would force him to resign, according to Israeli law. There is also the possibility that, if convicted, he could end up in prison. Bribery charges carry up to ten years in prison and/or a fine, while fraud and breach of trust are punishable by up to three years in prison.

The prime minister always denied the charges for which he was indicted in November 2019. Crimes related to alleged improper manipulation of the press and the receipt of illicit gifts in exchange for Government favors.

It is true that, as a report by the Israel Democracy Institute explains, “no law requires an admission of guilt as a condition for a pardon,” but the Attorney General’s Office limits pardon measures to “exceptional cases.” There are not many precedents in the history of Israel. In fact, there is only one on the granting of an “exceptional” pardon before a trial.

It happened in 1984, and the protagonist, paradoxes of history, was the father of the current head of the Hebrew State, Jaim Herzogwhich decided to grant forgiveness to the Shin Bet agents who executed two Palestinians who had been arrested for hijacking a bus. The agents covered up the facts.

Division

Aware of their dependence on Netanyahu, the religious ultra-nationalist sector of the government coalition closed ranks with the prime minister. Pardon the Likud leader, said the Minister of Public Security, Itamar Ben True“would bring healing and reconciliation” to Israeli society.

Other voices, such as that of the former prime minister Naphtali Bennetttoday the favorite in the polls to succeed Netanyahu again at the head of the Executive, was open to accepting the grace measure in exchange for his political mentor (with whom he later broke ties) agreeing to withdraw from politics “to get Israel out of this chaos.”

The fiercest attack against the measure and, above all, against the figure of the president, a historical member of the Labor Party, came from the left. This Monday, the leader of the Democrats, Yair Golanquestioned the head of state from the Knesset: “His father, President Chaim Herzog, would have kicked Netanyahu out the door. There can be no pardon without an admission of guilt and without [Netanyahu] abandon political life.”