Prime Minister Netanyahu orders attack amid ceasefire agreement
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire agreement and ordered the military to “carry out a strong offensive” in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on November 30 asked the country’s president to pardon him in a long-running corruption trial, arguing that the criminal proceedings were hampering his ability to govern and that a pardon would be good for Israel.
Netanyahu, the country’s longest-serving prime minister, has long denied charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. In a letter to the presidential palace, his lawyers said they still believed the prime minister could be fully exonerated through the legal process.
“Today, my lawyers have sent a request for pardon to the president. I hope that everyone who cares about the country’s interests will support this measure,” Netanyahu said in a short video statement released by his Likud party.
President Isaac Herzog’s office announced early on November 30 that the request had been received and released the lawyers’ letter.
President Donald Trump sent a letter to Herzog earlier this month calling the case against him a “political and unwarranted prosecution” and urging him to consider pardoning the prime minister.
Herzog’s office said the request would be forwarded as usual to the Department of Justice’s pardons division to gather input, which would then be forwarded to the president’s general counsel, who would make a recommendation to the president.
Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin is a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party and a close ally of the prime minister.
In the letter, Netanyahu’s lawyers argued that the criminal case against him was deepening social divisions and that it was necessary to end the case in order to achieve national reconciliation. They also write that increasingly frequent court hearings are becoming a burden to the prime minister as he attempts to govern.
“I am required to testify three times a week… That is an impossible request that no other citizen can make,” Prime Minister Netanyahu said in a video statement, stressing that he has earned the public’s trust through a series of election victories.
Neither the prime minister nor his lawyer admitted guilt. Pardons in Israel are traditionally granted only after the legal process has concluded and the defendant has been found guilty. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s lawyers have argued that when national interests are at stake, as in this case, the president can intervene to repair divisions and strengthen national unity.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said Netanyahu should not be pardoned unless he admits his guilt, expresses remorse and immediately retires from politics.
Prime Minister Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 in three separate but related cases centered on accusations that he granted favors to prominent businessmen in exchange for gifts and sympathetic media coverage.
The prime minister has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
Coalition allies, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, issued statements supporting Netanyahu’s request for amnesty.
Former deputy head of the armed forces and opposition politician Yair Golan called on the prime minister to resign and called on the president not to grant amnesty.
Prime Minister Netanyahu is one of the country’s most polarizing politicians and was first elected prime minister in 1996. He then served in both the government and opposition parties, before returning to the prime minister’s office after the 2022 election.
The next election is due by October 2026, and many polls show that his coalition government, the most right-wing in Israel’s history, will struggle to win enough seats to form.
Throughout his career, Prime Minister Netanyahu has cultivated a reputation for prioritizing security and economic issues, but he has also been plagued by corruption charges. He was prime minister when Hamas launched its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in what is widely considered the most shocking event in the country’s history and the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
Since then, he has overseen the devastating Gaza war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and leveled much of the territory, drawing widespread international criticism and condemnation. Israel has significantly weakened Hamas and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and launched a war against Iran earlier this year, destroying critical military infrastructure.
(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell, Tamar Uriel-Beer and Omri Tassan in Jerusalem; Additional reporting by Steven Scher and Menna Alaa El-Din; Writing by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Giles elgood)
