In an unprecedented request, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked President Isaac Herzog for a pardon. If granted, it would absolve him of criminal charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust in three separate but related cases. Netanyahu claims that a positive response from Herzog would have a beneficial effect on healing divisions in Israeli society and help “promote broad reconciliation that our country so desperately needs.”
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, was indicted by his hand-picked attorney general six years ago. Since 2020, he has strenuously denied any wrongdoing through the maelstrom of the Covid-19 pandemic and Israel’s wars with Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.
Due to repeated delays, his trial has moved along at a glacial pace.
In his formal 111-page submission to Herzog on November 30, Netanyahu argued that the charges against him were fabricated by his enemies. Admitting neither guilt nor remorse, he said that Israel’s “security and political reality,” plus the onerous demands of his job, make it impossible for him to appear in court regularly to prove his innocence.
Several of Netanyahu’s cabinet colleagues, including Defence Minister Israel Katz, have sprung to his defence with similar arguments.
U.S. President Donald Trump has called for an immediate end to his trial. During his whirlwind trip to Israel last month, he publicly urged Herzog to pardon Netanyahu. And in a letter to Herzog earlier in November, he dismissed the cases against him as “political, unjustified prosecution.”
Herzog’s office, having promised to consider Netanyahu’s plea “responsibly and sincerely,” has sent it to the Ministry of Justice for an evaluation. It will then be examined by Herzog’s legal advisors. This could be a lengthy process. In the meantime, Netanyahu will continue to perform his duties, as if nothing is amiss.
Netanyahu’s request should be denied.
As Micah Fettman, his former defence attorney, said a few days ago, a pardon cannot be granted unless Netanyahu admits guilt. “A pardon is given to an offender — that’s what the law stipulates,” he noted.
Israel’s opposition leader, Yair Lapid, has forcefully urged Herzog to deny his request. In a video statement, he said, “You cannot grant Netanyahu a pardon without an admission of guilt, an expression of remorse, and an immediate withdrawal from political life.”
Naftali Bennett, Israel’s former prime minister, wrote on X that he would support “a binding agreement” that would include Netanyahu’s “dignified withdrawal from political life, alongside the end of the trial.”
Avigdor Lieberman, once a close ally of Netanyahu and a former minister of defence, said he would back a pardon if Netanyahu retires entirely “from public life.”
Gadi Eisenkot, a former commander of Israel’s armed forces who served in Netanyahu’s short-lived national unity government following Hamas’ invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, thinks that a pardon would set a bad precedent. In a statement directed at Netanyahu, he said, “Israel is a state governed by the rule of law. There cannot be one legal system for ordinary citizens and another one for you.”
Eliad Shraga, the chairman of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, concurs with Eisenkot. “A pardon in the middle of a legal process constitutes a fatal blow to the rule of law and the principle of equality before the law — the lifeblood of Israeli democracy.” A pardon, he added, would send “a clear message that there are citizens who are above the law.”
Suzie Navot, the vice president of research at the non-partisan Israel Democracy Institute, said that presidential pardons apply only to convicted felons. In her view, Netanyahu is “trying to bypass all the usual procedures” and attempting to exploit Herzog’s authority to dispense pardons.
At the end of the day, this much is clear. Netanyahu should have stepped aside right after his indictment in 2019. That he stubbornly remained in office is a telling reflection on his character and a dire commentary on Israel’s political system.
In addition, Netanyahu’s quest for a pardon is hypocritical.
When one of his scandal-ridden predecessors, Ehud Olmert, asked for a pardon in 2008 after being forced to tender his resignation, Netanyahu upbraided him. “A prime minister who is up to his neck in investigations has no moral or public mandate to make such fateful decisions for the State of Israel,” said Netanyahu. “There is a real and well-founded fear he will make decisions based on political survival, not the national interest.”
Seventeen years on, Netanyahu has conveniently forgotten or set aside the tongue lashing he inflicted on Olmert.
Netanyahu’s claim that a pardon will enable him to unite the country is implausible, given his lamentable record as a divisive politician.
He divided Israel into two irreconcilable camps in 2023 by attempting to overhaul the judiciary and diluting the powers of the Supreme Court. The nation-wide protests that followed emboldened four of Israel’s external enemies, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and the Houthis of Yemen.
Much to the outrage of many Israelis, he refuses to establish an impartial investigative committee to establish what went wrong on October 7.
And now Netanyahu is backing unpopular legislation that would exempt yeshiva students from military service, this at a moment when the army is coping with a severe manpower shortage.
If decency prevails, Netanyahu will admit his guilt and resign. He has had his day in the sun and should leave the political arena once and for all.
Only after he complies with these two conditions should Herzog consider giving him a pardon. Otherwise, Netanyahu should face justice in a courtroom and let the dice fall where they may.