(January 29, 2025)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested on Wednesday to cancel all hearings in his trial scheduled for next week after announcing his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, slated for the same time.
(January 29, 2025)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested on Wednesday to cancel all hearings in his trial scheduled for next week after announcing his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, slated for the same time.
(January 28, 2025)
The Tuesday and Wednesday hearings for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s corruption trial testimony were canceled due to one of the three judges presiding over the cases falling ill, the Jerusalem District Court ruled on Tuesday morning.
A few hours before the Tuesday hearing was set to begin, the testimony was canceled, soon followed by the Wednesday session, because Judge Moshe Bar-Am fell ill with the flu.
“The IDF has no reason to stay in Gaza, besides fulfilling messianic wishes of settling there,” the letter alleged, pushing back against Netanyahu’s stance that continued military action would free the 98 hostages believed to remain in Gaza, almost all of them kidnapped on October 7.
They charged the fighting in Gaza was “a war without a horizon, unlike anything in our history, solely in the interest of your own political survival.”
n a letter addressed to the premier, the relatives accuse him of leading “a war without a horizon, unlike anything in our history, solely in the interest of your own political survival.” “Our sons and daughters set out on a necessary war brought upon us by your actions. Our children are cannon fodder”, they claim. “They lost many friends and are continuing to die and get injured, mentally and physically.
Now, after more than a year of war, they assert the only way for the returning of the hostages is as part of a deal with Hamas, alleging that the war is being extended aimlessly and that the Israeli army “has no reason to stay in Gaza, besides fulfilling messianic wishes of settling there.” “We accuse you of abandoning the hostages and the soldiers,” the parents write, threatening to launch an “all-out struggle,” beginning in dozens of cities next Saturday.
Liat Ben Ari complained she hadn‘t received sufficient backing from the State Prosecutor and his deputy, according to a source in the prosecutor‘s office told Haaretz
(December 24, 2024)
According to a poll published by Maariv on Friday, a substantial 74% of the public says Israel should pursue a comprehensive deal to secure the return of all hostages, even if it requires halting the fighting in Gaza. Among opposition voters, support reaches 84%, while 57% of coalition voters agree. In contrast, only 16% favor a partial deal, and 10% remain undecided.
In addition, text messages published Thursday purport to show that Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Prime Minister Netanyahu, was instrumental in efforts to combat those perceived as enemies of the family, going so far as to instruct her husband’s secretary to send activists of his Likud party to hurl obscenities at their neighbors, the parents of a fallen military pilot, who were active in demonstrations against the premier.
The correspondence of Benjamin Netanyahu’s late aide Hanni Bleiweiss, published by Channel 12 investigative program “Uvda” (facts), indicated that the premier’s wife and son were active in efforts to dig up dirt on his political rivals; intimidate key actors in his corruption trial; and sic law enforcement on protesters against him, while seeking the promotion of police officers who complied with the request.
(December 23, 2024)
From the beginning it was clear that the only feasible post-Hamas arrangement would be a return of the Palestinian Authority, which now runs the West Bank autonomy zones, back to Gaza, from which Hamas expelled it in 2007 by force. Israel itself once yearned for this, back when rational people governed the country. The proposals pushed by President Joe Biden for more than a year now envision versions of this, with the PA rejuvenated and assisted by Arab and perhaps other forces.
An Israel that wanted this would have ensured that Hamas is out of the way, publicly and persistently offering its remaining troops exile. Arab pressure on the group would have been overpowering. Israel would possibly get peace with Saudi Arabia as part of the bargain.
Instead, Netanyahu’s goons flooded the airwaves arguing that Israel cannot pull out of Gaza and end the war because Hamas would regain power.
“I have been waiting for eight years for this moment to tell the truth,” Netanyahu told the three judges hearing the case. “But I am also a prime minister … I am leading the country through a seven-front war. And I think the two can be done in parallel.”
He smiled confidently when he entered the Tel Aviv District Court.
Outside the courthouse, he is one of the most powerful men in the Middle East, overseeing Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, its occupation of southern Lebanon and recent strikes in Syria.
As he stepped into a cramped and sweltering underground courtroom in Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel morphed into the defendant in Case 67104-01-20 — charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the witness stand for the first time on Tuesday in his long-running corruption trial, saying he was being hounded for his hawkish security policies.
(…)
Last week judges ruled that Netanyahu, indicted in 2019, must testify three times a week, forcing the longtime Israeli leader to juggle between the courtroom and the war room at Israel’s Defense Ministry, minutes away from the courthouse.
Lord Michael Levy, the former Middle East adviser to Tony Blair, told BBC Radio 5 Live yesterday: “The whole Middle East is potentially in a blow-up situation. And if that happens … how much further can that go for all of us in the world today, there must be a way forward.
“I don’t think there’s any hope for peace with [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu in power,” he added. “I would like to think that Netanyahu could be part of a positive way forward. Regrettably, I just don’t think that is possible at all.”
According to the Zionist news website „Ynet“: „Netanyahu said in a special session of the government on the first anniversary of the October 7 attack that he wants to rename the „Iron Swords“ war to the „Resurrection War“.
„We choose to keep up the fight in a long war of attrition, one that is painful and costly for the enemy,“ said Abu Obeida, spokesman of the militant group‘s armed wing.
He also warned that scores of people taken captive into Gaza on October 7 last year were enduring a „very difficult“ situation.
His statement, broadcast on Al Jazeera, came on the one-year anniversary of the Aqsa Flood operation.
He now has the political capital for negotiations that could set the country‘s next budget and allow him to continue to call the shots for at least another year in the multi-front regional war Israel is fighting.
„He feels he is winning,“ one of Netanyahu‘s aides told Axios.
The six-time prime minister will outlast President Biden, who has largely failed in his attempts to contain the conflict in the Middle East and rein in Netanyahu.
Even more surprising is the Israeli public’s near-total embrace over the last three weeks of Netanyahu’s declared desire to prosecute a war for “total victory”. Prior to this, hundreds of thousands of people were out on the streets, demanding a “deal now” and accusing the prime minister of prolonging the war for his own ends.
Now, it seems the majority of Israel’s Jewish public, from Ben Gvir supporters to fans of the centre-left Zionist Yair Golan, wants a never-ending war. Even the first casualties from the ground invasion of Lebanon are not shifting this support – at least so far.
Despite presiding over numerous failures – including Iran, the economy, the cost of living and October 7 – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still worshipped by over a quarter of Israelis. The gap between his failings and his support has all the attributes of a cult
The Prime Minister‘s Office denied these allegations, saying: „Prime Minister Netanyahu did not receive a warning about the war in Gaza not on the date in question not before October 7. On the contrary, all security officials made it clear that Hamas is deterred and strives to reach an agreement. Also, a few days before October 7, the Shin Bet assessed that Gaza‘s stability is expected to be maintained for a long time.“
The Shin Bet did not comment on the Prime Minister Office‘s response.
In the weeks that followed, Lapid continued, he viewed classified intelligence provided to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that indicated that deterrence had indeed eroded. He also viewed highly classified material made available to him as a former prime minister. On September 18, 2023, there was “a further warning. For me, what was written there was unmistakable: Israel’s deterrence has eroded dramatically; our enemies think they have a rare opportunity to harm us,” Lapid said.
“During the months leading up to the disaster, the prime minister and cabinet ministers received a series of serious, unprecedented warnings. From the middle of 2023 there were more and more voices within the terrorist organizations that said that the moment they had been waiting for had arrived,” he says.
Lapid recalls asking Bar “if these warnings were also brought before the prime minister and cabinet ministers, and the answer was: ‘Of course they were.‘”
„I want to refute the statement that is made time and time again by the current government that, somehow, the political echelon was not aware that Hamas was not deterred,“ Lapid told the paper.
„It was indeed informed. I was informed,“ he said, adding that the intelligence material he saw „was of course, also seen by the prime minister and ministers of the Cabinet.“
„It was clear what they [Hamas] wanted,“ he said.
In a heated exchange, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Yair Lapid clashed over the handling of Hamas’ October 7 attack. Lapid accused Netanyahu of ignoring critical warnings that eroded national security, claiming the PM failed to act despite knowing a violent eruption was looming. In response, Netanyahu fired back, accusing Lapid of ‚spreading lies.‘ Watch for more.
(today)
And therefore, as was the case when he insisted on continuing to run the country while in the midst of a corruption trial, and as was the case when he pressed on with his assault on Israeli democracy and briefly fired that defense minister, so too, now, it falls to a potential few good men and women within his own coalition base to tell him that his presence is harming Israel, that his policies empowered and emboldened Hamas, and that far from being uniquely capable of ensuring Israel has the practical and diplomatic room to destroy Hamas, he is almost uniquely incapable of doing so.
(09.04.2024)
Israel must destroy Hamas as a military and political force in the territory while minimizing harm to civilians. It must do what it can to rescue its hostages without jeopardizing the overriding goal of destroying Hamas. It must, by diplomacy or force, push Hezbollah back from Lebanon’s southern border, so that 60,000 Israelis can return safely to their homes in the north. It must take the battle directly, as it did last week in Damascus, to Hamas’s and Hezbollah’s patrons, whether in Syria, Qatar or Iran.
And for all of that to happen effectively, Benjamin Netanyahu must go.
(21 February 2023)
Our Declaration of Independence promises that the State of Israel “will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture…”
As of today, those foundational commitments and guarantees are under direct and tangible threat, from the very government charged with upholding them.
7 October 2023, 9:02 am
Organizers of protests against the judicial overhaul scheduled for Saturday night announce the cancellation of the weekly demonstrations.
“We stand with the residents of Israel and give full support to the IDF and the security forces,” the protest organizers say in a statement.
(June 25, 2021)
„Our beloved country faced the greatest threat since its inception — The dismantling of the democratic system and it becoming a dictatorship,“ the statement reads.
The movement claimed that former prime minister and current opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu — which they refer to as the „criminal defendant“ due to his ongoing bribery trial — „kidnapped the state and embarked on a campaign in which he planned to dismantle the judicial authorities, use the Israeli police as an executive arm of his government and make us all his subjects.“
(14.03.2024)
„As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me: The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7. The world has changed — radically — since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past,“ he said.
„At this critical juncture, I believe a new election is the only way to allow for a healthy and open decision-making process about the future of Israel, at a time when so many Israelis have lost their confidence in the vision and direction of their government,“ he said.
(…)
He also called for a two-state solution.
(…)
Schumer also called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to step aside.
“In short, the longer he’s embroiled in war, the longer he can put off some kind of domestic political shift,” Zonszein said.
Netanyahu is playing up the challenges of holding elections during wartime and has made dramatic assertions like: “Hamas and Hezbollah want Israel to go to early elections, it would be a victory for them”.
However, the majority of Israelis still believe that Netanyahu’s wartime decision-making is primarily motivated by political interests, according to an opinion poll conducted by the Israeli Channel 13.
The warnings against a razor-thin vote, which would tear the people apart in a time of war, turned out to be mendacious manipulation. Netanyahu is more interested in the next decision: the law preventing the attorney general from declaring him unfit for office
„Die Frage ist, ob dieses Urteil ein Scheitern ist oder der Beweis dafür, dass das System reformiert werden muss“, sagt er. „Dass die Notwendigkeit noch größer ist als bisher angenommen. Wir werden uns aus einem einfachen Grund jetzt nicht damit beschäftigen: Der Feind steht vor unseren Toren. Wer sich jetzt mit der Frage beschäftigt, hat den Bezug zur Realität verloren.“
(01.01.2023)
Monday’s ruling comes at a sensitive moment for Netanyahu, who remains embroiled in a corruption trial and is facing calls for his resignation over his government’s failure to thwart the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas, as well as its handling of the hostage crisis.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that Israel‘s war on Hamas in Gaza will continue for „many more months,“ pushing back against persistent international cease-fire calls after mounting civilian deaths, hunger and mass displacement in the besieged enclave.
Owing to the massive demonstrations that drew hundreds of thousands of Israelis into the streets, Netanyahu succeeded in passing only one law, aimed at neutering the highest court’s powers of judicial review. After a delay caused by the war, Israel’s supreme court is scheduled to hear petitions against this law in January. The protests “saved Israel,” Peled Nakash said. “We were the nation’s safety net.”
A lieutenant commander in the naval reserves, Peled Nakash was one of hundreds of senior officers who announced they would refuse to serve if Israel ceased to be a democracy — all of whom reported for duty when called after October 7. Her group, Brothers and Sisters in Arms, vociferously denounced Netanyahu for risking Israeli security by dividing society so deeply.
Journalist Noga Tarnopolsky joins MSNBC‘s Ali Velshi to discuss the “fissures” emerging as the U.S. pushes Israel to transition to a new phase of the war with Hamas amid a worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, both with the U.S. and inside Israel, where Netanyahu is trying to gain support for his reelection and avoid prosecution.
In a recorded statement published on X, Netanyahu said he will not let Israel repeat the “mistake” of the Oslo Accords, and that Gaza will neither be “Hamastan nor Fatahstan”.
Earlier, he was quoted on the Israeli public broadcaster as saying that Israel was preparing for a possible war with the PA in the West Bank.
“It can’t be that after the enormous sacrifice of our citizens and fighters, we will let into Gaza those who teach terror, support terror, finance terror,” he said.
Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior PA and Fatah leader, said Netnayhu’s remarks “confirm his war against all Palestinians”.
(@channel13il)
Defense asked if pace can be slowed to 2ce a week & judges suggest upping to 4 x week.(No pics allowed in courtroom.)
An emergency order that Justice Minister Yariv Levin put in place for the courts when the war with Hamas began expired last week, and most courts have been ordered to resume normal operations.
Netanyahu is currently exempted from attending the hearings but may be called to testify in a few months.
(Itzik Ben Levy)
(02.12.2023)
(05.03.2023)
The trial and the coup are now simultaneously underway, but while the first is lumbering along, the second is galloping forward. The hearings in the Jerusalem District Court will resume only after Passover. Until the judges return from their hiatus, the wings of the High Court of Justice might be clipped, the Judicial Appointments Committee might be under full control of the politicians, or Israel might be in the throes of a historic constitutional crisis.
(14.02.2018)
The police announcement Tuesday – that the investigations into two cases involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been completed – came 13 months after Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit decided that a “preliminary examination” of the allegations, which itself took six months, should become full-fledged criminal investigations.
(Oct 9, 2023)
(22.10.2023)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now counting on fatigue and public despair to help him stay in office, but he can‘t be trusted to manage a war and it won‘t save him from an enduring legacy of failure. When the war is over, whether in three weeks or three months, all political hell will break loose
Hamas, for Zionist leaders, is controlled opposition. It’s not controlled like a puppet, but funded and kept in power by Israel because its aims, like those of the corrupt Palestine Authority, are to dominate and control ordinary Palestinians in the name of supposedly standing up against Israel while not doing anything that can actually defeat Israel.
The latter would require waging the class war against the billionaire ruling class of Israel. Hamas and Israel’s leaders need each other; each helps the other keep a grip on its own people, providing the other a perfect enemy with which to frighten its “own people” into obedience.
(11.10.2023)
Plus on a personal level, it appears humiliating and degrading for anyone to be forced to „kneel“ and serve as Bibi‘s powerless slave ministers. Gantz wants to be PM, not spend what remains of his political career pouring Miss Piggy‘s pink champagne for her.
As national attention is on the High Court hearing on the reasonableness law, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial is continuing at the Jerusalem District Court.
Avi Alkalay, the former editor of the Walla news site, says that in 2015-2016, the outlet’s editorial staff underwent “very aggressive mental coercion regarding the content relating to the Netanyahu family.”
The compromise, as reported, aimed to freeze all further judicial overhaul legislation in return for granting the coalition more power on the Judicial Selection Committee in the form of veto power on the selection of the Supreme Court president and lower court judges.
But today’s report says Netanyahu was adamant that any freeze still allow a potential “override clause” to be legislated with a regular majority, in the event that the High Court of Justice nullifies the government’s law shielding the premier from being ordered by courts or the attorney general to step down.
The first hearing was held on Thursday. The court was presented with arguments by the law’s critics, who fear that the amendment was designed to personally protect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from potential impeachment as he is facing several corruption cases.
The justices instructed the state to respond to these arguments and scheduled a follow-up hearing for September 28. According to the court’s statement, the case will be heard by an expanded panel of 11 justices, up from three justices.
Supreme Court President Esther Hayut observed that the “fingerprints” of a plan designed to prevent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from being ordered to recuse himself were “very clear,” while her fellow panel member Justice Uzi Vogelman said simply that “the fact is the law is personal.”
The court’s three most senior justices presided over Thursday’s five-hour hearing, in a case in which, for the first time ever, the attorney general has joined petitioners in asking for a Basic Law to be canceled.
Attempting to imagine an escape route which also includes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s acquittal of criminal charges, is a result of the painful realization that the hawkish factions on both sides – even though one can‘t compare the governmental sadism led by Justice Minister Yariv Levin and the most rigid and militant anti-overhaul protesters – ignore the will of the majority and charge onward, almost with lust, to the very dangerous disagreement known as a constitutional crisis.
This hope, however, whether you want to surrender to it or to resist it in disgust, is in no way realistic. For now. According to knowledgeable sources, Netanyahu is simply not interested: not in stopping the judicial overhaul nor in a unity government.
The bill, she pointed out, was submitted to the Knesset just days after the petitions were filed against Netanyahu, and observed that just hours after the legislation was passed into law the prime minister announced he was directly involving himself in the judicial overhaul agenda.
As such, it was designed specifically to allow Netanyahu to evade the conflict of interests agreement he signed back in 2020 which was authorized by the High Court, in order to allow him to continue serving as prime minister.
The conflict of interest agreement, signed in 2020, states that Netanyahu has conflicts of interest concerning appointments in the law enforcement system, given his trial for bribery, fraud and breach of trust. This means Netanyahu is barred from making judicial appointments, or getting involved in legislative matters that may impact his ongoing trial. Netanyahu signed the arrangement three years ago when then-attorney general Avichai Mandelblit drew up the arrangement to prevent Netanyahu from being declared unfit for office.
After passing the law, Netanyahu publicly stated that he would not stop his judicial overhaul and would be directly involved in the process despite the conflict of interest agreement.
Today, 8:33 pm
A top law enforcement official tells Channel 12 he believes the government’s aim in eliminating the reasonableness standard is now to appoint “a general prosecutor who is ‘one of ours.‘”
“It’s all about who will close [Netanyahu’s] criminal case,” the unnamed official says.
“This is what the country has lost its democracy for. Awful.”
It will allow „liars, thieves, or maybe even rapists and murderers“ to be elected to the Knesset, form a coalition, and run as president, Ayalon, formerly commander of the navy and the Shayetet 13 navy commando unit, said. „Yigar Amir, the murderer of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, will be pardoned and it‘s likely that he‘ll run for the Knesset.“
Obviously, spies are trying to infiltrate Israel´s Democracy Movement that resists the judicial coup of Benyamin Netanyahu´s extreme right-wing government. That spies agenda seems to follow some „broad consensus“ of Mossad and CIA, demanded by US state leadership, to keep situation under control and safequard geostrategic goals.
An analysis and prognosis.
(20. April 1997)
Netanyahu told CNN‘s Walter Rodgers he was „glad that the truth came out,“ and said the entire incident was „blown out of proportion and twisted out of shape.“
„It‘s politics,“ he said in an interview shortly after the attorney general released his report. „Of course there were people out to get us. But this is going nowhere. It‘s done. It‘s finished.“
“There already are legislative initiatives meant to increase political involvement in appointing judges, as well as curtailing the Supreme Court’s authority, apparently for the purpose of preventing judicial review of government actions…all I can say is this: first, this is a crude threat, unseen heretofore by the judiciary, meant apparently to influence its rulings; second, these steps are a surefire recipe for critically damaging democracy and for perpetuating corruption.”
These pointed words were written in 2008 by Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levi, who was part of the panel hearing a petition against a decision by then-Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to grant a lenient plea bargain to former President Moshe Katsav.
The petition, filed on April 19, 2023, is supported by a number of former political and military leaders, including former Chief of Staff Dan Halutz.
The Supreme Court’s decision comes amid Netanyahu’s attempts to bring about changes to the judiciary, even though he is on trial in three criminal cases.
Attorney General Ghali Bharav Miara warned Netanyahu last March against interfering in amendments to the judiciary, as he is prohibited from doing so due to his appearance in corruption cases.
The petition was filed by 39 senior figures from various fields, including Israel Defense Forces former Chief- of-Staff Dan Halutz.
On Thursday afternoon, it was announced that the High Court agreed to hear the petition.
US President Joe Biden on Thursday formally extended an invitation for President Isaac Herzog to visit the White House on Tuesday, July 18, in an embrace of Israel’s head of state as Washington’s ties with the current government in Jerusalem remain icy.
Herzog will be in Washington to give an address on Wednesday to a joint session of Congress in honor of Israel’s 75th anniversary.
(July 11, 2023)
Whenever people ask me what I do for a living, I tell them that I’m a translator from English to English.
With careful consideration, it is plausible to suggest that Milchan‘s decision may have been influenced by the judges‘ proposal to withdraw the bribery charge in Case 4000, which was presented just before his testimony. The witness perceived this case to overshadow his own involvement, often remarking that the magnitude of „hundreds of millions of dollars“ cannot be compared to indulgences in cigars and champagne. This positioning allowed Milchan to assume a supporting role in the unfolding narrative, but an unexpected turn of events thrust him into the spotlight. Being fluent in the language of power, it appears that Milchan recognized Netanyahu‘s resurgent influence and chose not to risk challenging him.