Herzog Admits A Netanyahu Pardon Would Spark Outrage, Destabilize Israeli Society

Israeli President Isaac Herzog acknowledged this week that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for a pardon in his corruption trial is generating significant debate and division within Israeli society. Herzog said that Netanyahu’s formal petition for the charges and case to be dismissed “will be addressed with full care and precision,” and pledged his decision will be guided solely by “the good of the state and Israeli society.”

He in the Monday comments admitted that Netanyahu’s move “unsettles many people across different sectors of the public and has sparked considerable debate.”

But Herzog tried to calm rising public anger, dismissing aggressive or heated public discourse as having “no impact” on his judgment.

PM Netanyahu formally submitted the pardon request to Herzog on Sunday, sparking opposition backlash demanding that the president quickly shoot it down. Local media says that Netanyahu’s request immediately unleashed a firestorm of controversy, as it was accompanied with another denial that’s he’s guilty:

As if the country were not already laboring under enough legal and constitutional crises, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took Israel into a new minefield on Sunday when he filed a request to President Isaac Herzog asking for a pardon for the criminal charges against him in the three cases for which he is currently standing trial.

In a brief, personal letter to Herzog, Netanyahu made the case that bringing the trial to a close would benefit the public by ending national divisions over his prosecution.

He then published a message pledging to heal the nation’s divides should his trial be halted, but in the same breath enflamed the rift by arguing that not only is he innocent but that the he’d been framed and the indictment against him was concocted by hostile elements in law enforcement agencies.

Indeed he took the denial further by saying he’d been ‘framed’ by his political enemies. Thus if Herzog were to suddenly go along with dismissing the case, outrage among the opposition as well as long-running anti-Netanyahu protests in the streets related to handling the hostage crisis in Gaza would explode.

Times of Israel concludes of the dilemma, “Rather, experts say, it is Netanyahu’s glaring omission of an admission of guilt or wrongdoing that puts his request on legally shaky ground, making it highly unlikely that president will grant him an outright pass, and inviting the possibility of court intervention if he does.”

Back in January, Netanyahu began interrogation sessions connected to a series of cases – all of which he’s asserted his innocence in. For a review:

• Case 1000 concerns allegations that Netanyahu and his wife accepted luxury gifts, such as cigars and champagne, from wealthy businessmen in exchange for political favors.
• Case 2000 involves claims that Netanyahu negotiated with Arnon Mozes, publisher of Yedioth Ahronoth, to secure more favorable press coverage.
• Case 4000 — viewed as the most serious — centers on accusations that Netanyahu provided regulatory and financial benefits to Shaul Elovitch, the former owner of the Walla news site and Bezeq telecommunications, in return for positive media treatment.

Netanyahu has also long faced accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity – but pressure over this has mainly been on the international and European front, related to international criminal court probes. President Trump has still firmly had his back, and has weighed in vocally in the case, asking Israel to dismiss all charges.