Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a blistering rebuke to prosecutors Wednesday, calling their bribery case against him “outrageous” and built on “nonsense” as he testified for a fourth day in a Tel Aviv courtroom.

While judges pressed for faster testimony, Netanyahu insisted on examining each example of the prosecution’s case thoroughly. His account of snatching only brief late-night moments with his wife to discuss family matters painted a picture far removed from the prosecution’s portrait of a prime minister orchestrating favorable coverage from telecom tycoon Shaul Elovitch on his Walla news site.

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Defense attorney Hadad hammered this point home by highlighting Walla’s coverage of Sara Netanyahu’s 2013 visit to West Point.

As the prime minister’s wife paid respects at the grave of Col. Mickey Marcus, an American officer killed fighting for Israeli independence, Walla simply reported her momentous gesture as merely “an outing while her husband delivers a speech.” Even after complaints, the best Netanyahu’s team could get was a removal of the article rather than a new one published with favorable coverage.

“It’s not only negative, it’s contemptible. She wasn’t on an outing; she went to do something fitting for the wife of a prime minister to do. She wasn’t going shopping, she placed a bouquet for the State of Israel on the grave of a hero of Israel,” Netanyahu fumed.

Walla’s treatment of Netanyahu’s inner circle proved equally harsh. When his chief of staff Gil Sheffer resigned in 2013, Walla issued a headline “The abandonment continues” with coverage Netanyahu noted was more hostile than even perpetual critic Haaretz’s reporting of the same event.

“This is what they say is bribery, these non-stories. This nonsense, this ‘intense and unusual connection’ which doesn’t exist,” insisted Netanyahu. “I had no hand in this, not a finger, not a fingernail, because I was very, very busy.

“If only I could be an attentive ear to my wife. Unfortunately, the type of life we live, the job I have, this is not possible. We meet late at night for a few minutes, we talk about the children and the family,” he continued. “There is no possibility of going over all the events of the day, it doesn’t exist.”

Israel’s longest-serving prime minister also expressed particular outrage that police never questioned him about of the favorable coverage allegations during their investigation.

    A December 19, 2024 3:02 pm

    Politics in Israel is as dirty or dirtier than it is in the US. Look at the corruption of Senile Joe Biden with Hunter Biden’s involvement in drug paraphernalia of 1000’s of children overdosing from all the drug junk he was involved in & the kickbacks Joe was getting in fake corporations. Netanyahu did nothing even 1% of what Biden did. No slap on the wrist but okay

    Jeremy Zeid December 19, 2024 3:24 pm

    What is particularly egregious is that these so-called “judges” are seemingly appointed activists and highly selective in their application of what passes and fails as “justice”.
    That these same unelected activists can strike down laws and legislation passed by the democratically elected government is a travesty of democracy and natural justice.
    It’s an indicator as to how and why Israel politics and governance is so fraught and toxic.
    It must be changed, this inversion and corruption of a supposed impartial legal system needs to be changed.
    That these activist “judges” are carrying on like this while Israel is fighting for its very existence, to score cheap, but potentially very expensive, political points and shenanigans is not just scandalous, but drags Israel into the swamp.
    Once the war is over bar the shouting, Netanyahu needs to go after these people and rebalance the establishment with the balance always put towards the elected Knesset and if the “justices” object, they need to be fired and replaced as even they cannot be above the Law and the security of Eretz Yisrael.
    Time to drain the Leftist legal swamp

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