From the second he stepped again into the prime minister’s job over two years in the past, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to do no matter he might to cease, defer or in any other case keep away from at the present time.
On Tuesday, the 75-year-old grew to become the primary sitting Israeli chief to seem as a defendant in a legal case when he took the witness stand and commenced testifying in his personal defence.
Netanyahu was charged in 2019 with fraud, bribery and breach of belief however his trial was repeatedly delayed — first for the COVID-19 pandemic, then for the Hamas assaults on Oct. 7, 2023, and subsequently as a result of his attorneys argued Israel’s ongoing wars in opposition to Hamas and Hezbollah made Netanyahu too busy to attend.
However together with his last appeals exhausted, a combative Netanyahu confirmed up surrounded by supporters at a high-security Tel Aviv courthouse Tuesday and proceeded to launch volley after volley of incendiary assaults in opposition to the media, prosecutors and his political foes.
Answering softball questions from his personal defence lawyer, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister spent most of his time as a witness railing in opposition to ‘leftist” media, saying they’re so irrelevant he’d by no means waste his time attempting to realize their favour — a key side of the prosecution’s case in opposition to him.
On the three counts of corruption he is dealing with, he stated it was “merely absurd” that he and his spouse, Sara, accepted nearly $200,000 Cdn in presents — cigars, champagne and jewellery — from wealthy businessmen in trade for political favours.
On the cost that he traded favours with the house owners of a distinguished Israeli newspaper to get optimistic protection, Netanyahu went on one other tirade, accusing reporters and media publications of “bias” and being a “nice hazard” to Israeli democracy.
And at last, on the query of whether or not he used his place as the pinnacle of Israel’s authorities to bestow regulatory favours on an Israeli telecommunications agency to — once more — get extra optimistic media protection, he denied any wrongdoing.
“There was no ‘understanding,’ no corruption, no nothing,” he stated, suggesting the whole thing of the instances in opposition to him had been politically motivated.
‘Witch hunt’
The night earlier than, at a combative press convention, Netanyahu referred to as the trial a “political witch hunt” that had “ruined the lives of dozens of individuals” caught up in it.
For Israel’s longest-serving prime minister and chief, the non-public and political dangers of the trial couldn’t be larger.
If discovered responsible, the legal penalties could possibly be as much as 10 years in jail.
However as he started what’s anticipated to be a month of testimony, it appeared that Netanyahu was most involved with his political legacy.
“For positive, he wouldn’t need his legacy to be … him on a defendant’s seat in a courtroom, however somewhat as a frontrunner who instructs commanders of the navy in a strategic level within the Golan Heights,” stated Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem-based political assume tank.
Plesner instructed CBC Information that though Netanyahu bought off to a predictably combative begin, it is unclear how his belligerence will play as soon as he faces cross-examination by prosecutors or has to talk on to the panel of judges.
“Netanyahu is probably the most divisive determine within the nation’s historical past,” stated Plesner.
His supporters body him as a defender of Israel, who is hard on safety and espouses a powerful sense of Jewish nationwide identification, Plesner stated.
Nevertheless, Netanyahu’s many detractors blame him for eroding Israel’s democratic establishments, bringing about file ranges of polarization in society and “overseeing the worst safety disaster within the nation’s historical past” with the Oct. 7 assaults, Plesner added.
As his testimony unfolds over the subsequent month that he is anticipated to be on the witness stand, observers anticipate Netanyahu will proceed to assault the justice system for placing him on trial whereas on the identical time attempting to tug out the proceedings so long as doable.
Defence technique
“There are two layers of his defence,” stated Gayil Talshir, writer of a ebook on the politician and a professor at Jerusalem’s Hebrew College.
“One is to say, ‘The courts are simply persecuting me as a result of they’re a part of the opposition and the opposition can not win in elections,'” she stated.
“The opposite line is that Netanyahu goes to say that he was not a part of it … that he did not know lots concerning the points that the state is definitely prosecuting him for, [that] he has extra vital safety points to take care of.”
Talshir additionally instructed CBC Information that Netanyahu will seemingly proceed to attract out the case so long as doable.
“He does not wish to get to the decision,” she stated.
Certainly, Netanyahu’s political rivals repeatedly accused him of dragging out the struggle in Gaza and sacrificing the lives of each Israeli hostages and Palestinians in Gaza to offer him an excuse to keep away from taking the witness stand.
Netanyahu’s Likud celebration is a part of a coalition of far-right Jewish events whose members have been vocal about their need to proceed with the struggle, arguing that the perfect consequence for Israel can be to push a lot of the Palestinian inhabitants out of Gaza and resettle the territory with Jews.
Either side of Israel’s extremely polarized society had been on show exterior the Tel Aviv courtroom the place Netanyahu was testifying.
Yael Navon was among the many protesters demanding he resign instantly, saying being the defendant in a serious legal trial and main the nation are basically incompatible.
“All of us need our hostages in and out his place, he cannot do it,” she instructed CBC Information.
In the meantime, Asaf Sokolowski stated he believed the fees in opposition to Netanyahu had been politically motivated.
“We see this as an assault on us, his supporters. An assault on at the very least half of Israelis,” he stated.
Netanyahu will face authorized troubles if ever leaves Israel, too.
Final month, the Worldwide Legal Courtroom (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him, accusing Netanyahu of crimes in opposition to humanity in relation to Israel’s 14-month struggle in Gaza.
He has additionally been accused by rights groups, equivalent to Amnesty Worldwide, of main a genocide in opposition to Palestinians and waging an immoral struggle in opposition to civilians.
However as Netanyahu settled in for what might be a marathon of thrust-and-parry with prosecutors over the subsequent month, the prime minister’s focus appeared solely on profitable over a home viewers.
Within the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Canadian-Israeli columnist Dahlia Scheindlin wrote that Netanyahu gave long-winded solutions to current himself as a “international statesman” and the one particular person in a position to stand as much as the “nefarious forces” difficult Israel.
It is a line of defence which will have little relevance to the legal prices he is dealing with. Nevertheless it could possibly be crucial in solidifying his place with Israeli voters at election time.
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