Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to take the witness stand in his own defense on Tuesday in a criminal trial that his critics say is essential to the rule of law, and which his supporters say is a political prosecution.
Netanyahu’s lawyers asked for additional time to prepare for his testimony, given the exigencies of Israel’s ongoing war on several fronts. But the court refused, meaning that Netanyahu will take the stand, for the next several weeks.
The prime minister stands accused of several crimes involving alleged corruption. But the facts are almost laughable. In one case, Netanyahu is accused of asking for positive media coverage from a media company that was seeking tax and regulatory breaks. Netanyahu never received the positive coverage, but the company did receive the breaks that it sought — which, as Caroline Glick has noted, were also in the public interest, and produced better Internet access.
In another case, Netanyahu was similarly accused of seeking positive coverage in one newspaper if he would block the publication of another — Israel Hayom, a free newspapers. Again, he did not receive the positive coverage. Moreover, he actually brought down his government rather than restrict the press freedom of Israel Hayom. And in yet another case, Netanyahu is accused of extending an amnesty for repatriated Israeli assets in exchange for gifts, such as cigars.
The problem there, as Glick notes, is that “Netanyahu’s position reflects the same economic positions he has held for decades.” Bizarrely, the opposition leader, Yair Lapid, is a key prosecution witness, which has raised alarm bells.
The cases are playing out against the background of new claims that Netanyahu’s aides leaked military secrets to the press — secrets that explained the brutality of Hamas toward Israeli hostages, and showed how Hamas deliberately used propaganda to motivate the Israeli opposition to protest against Netanyahu. As in the earlier cases, the police put maximum pressure on Netanyahu’s aides in an apparent effort to force them to become witnesses against him.
Unlike the U.S. Department of Justice, which has a standard policy of not prosecuting the president while he is in office, the Israeli justice ministry has pursued Netanyahu doggedly, despite the weakness of the charges. Netanyahu’s supporters accuse Israel’s law enforcement fraternity and “deep state” of attempting to push him out of office.
The criminal cases have dominated Israeli politics for half a decade — yet Israeli voters keep reelecting Netanyahu.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
