Khaberni - Israeli media reported on Saturday that U.S. President Donald Trump has intensified his pressure in recent weeks on his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog to push him to issue a pardon for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the corruption cases he is being tried for.
In response to the American president's pressures, Herzog was quoted as saying, "I respect Trump but Israel is a democratic country."
Last Sunday, Netanyahu - who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Gaza - asked the Israeli president for a pardon for the corruption charges against him, but without admitting guilt or retiring from political life.
Since the beginning of his trial in Israel for corruption charges, Netanyahu has refused to admit guilt, and Israeli law only allows the president to grant a pardon after a guilty plea.
Intense Pressure
Channel 12 Israel reported that Trump has intensified his "direct messages, starting from his address before the Knesset urging Herzog to pardon Netanyahu, through media positions and statements on social networks, to an official letter he sent to the President of Israel urging him to End the judicial files against Netanyahu".
It indicated that Trump's intervention has become part of a "broad political and media pressure campaign," supported by prominent figures in the Israeli right, to push Herzog to make a decision that might stop Netanyahu's trial on corruption files.
The channel mentioned that Herzog is indeed considering a practical path for dealing with the pardon request submitted by Netanyahu, and it includes multiple scenarios, including forming an official investigative committee on the attack of October 7, 2023, as part of a comprehensive settlement that paves the way for granting the pardon.
In November 2023, Netanyahu's government decided to form an unofficial investigative committee on the events of October 7, which was severely criticized by the Israeli opposition, considering that the government is "evading the truth" and refusing to form a committee with powers.
Netanyahu opposes moves to form an official investigative committee on his government's failure to address the attack by the Islamist Resistance Movement (Hamas), and refuses to take any responsibility for the failure.
Potential Settlement
According to Channel 12, Herzog is "also exploring the possibility of pushing a settlement between Netanyahu and the public prosecution, or another legal formula that could release the judicial file from deadlock, convinced by those close to him that the case suffocates the political system and has a toxic effect on Israeli society."
According to the same source, these developments come amidst a tense domestic scene, and sharp criticisms launched by prominent judicial figures, including former Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut, who warned of a "serious decline in the democratic rules of the game" if Netanyahu were to be pardoned.
Observers - according to the channel - believe that combining the overt American pressure and the search for an internal settlement makes Herzog's anticipated decision among the most sensitive decisions in his tenure, amid wide political anticipation of the possibilities that the pardon, if granted, would mark a turning point in Israel's political map.
An opinion poll conducted by the "Lazar" Institute in Israel showed a clear division regarding the pardon for Netanyahu, with 38% of respondents supporting granting Netanyahu a pardon without conditions, while 27% said they support granting him a pardon on condition of admitting guilt and retiring from political life.
Meanwhile, 21% of respondents opposed granting him a pardon at all, and 14% of them said that they did not have a specific opinion.
