Israel’s Netanyahu seeks pardon to end corruption trial

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00:00Netanyahu Aaron is still supposed to testify in trial tomorrow. His trial has

00:05not yet been cancelled, although as you correctly said that is de facto what he's

00:10requesting. Netanyahu more than anything else has once again thrown a big

00:16flaming hot wrench into the Israeli political system and his statement

00:21today and his letter and his lawyers 111 page submission to the president of

00:27Israel are as much political a kind of defiant political statement as a legal

00:34effort. Let me explain why that is. Under the law of the state of Israel in order

00:40to be pardoned you have to be a convicted criminal. That is the the current law.

00:47The president in fact doesn't really have the ability to pardon anyone who is not

00:53a convicted criminal and Netanyahu not only is trying to prevent his trial from

00:59going to term and for there to be any verdict but has been trying de facto to

01:05cancel his trial as you alluded to for even longer than this war. His efforts to

01:11cancel this judgment began at least a year before the war when he was re-elected to

01:19power and launched what has been called the reform of the administration of the

01:23state. His so-called judicial reform kind of civilian coup d'etat to change the

01:30balance of power between the judiciary the executive and the legislation in

01:38Israel. That is what we're seeing. So Netanyahu has not accepted any

01:42responsibility for any of the crimes of which he's accused and in fact his

01:47letter submitted to the the president of Israel which is a required phase you

01:52have to personally request a pardon in Israel does not ask for pardon. The word

01:57pardon isn't listed there. So we are going to have to take a step back and see how

02:03the president responds and how the legal system responds because the president

02:07though he is the titular head of state doesn't have absolute power. There is

02:13still a system through which requests for pardons have to go and Netanyahu has a

02:18long way to go before I believe we will see any real resolution following this very

02:25dramatic request announced today.

02:28So it sounds like Noga that a lot of things have to fall into place in order for

02:31him to be eligible so to speak for pardoning but as we wait for that to happen I

02:37mean if all of those things do happen rather what are his chances in your

02:40view of his being pardoned?

02:42So this is the you know million dollar question right now to what extent has

02:51Netanyahu already submitted the institutions of the Israeli state after

02:56many years of an effort to take over the levers of power to what extent has he

03:01already succeeded? There were some indications today in the reaction the

03:06initial reaction that appeared coordinated with Netanyahu's request the

03:11reaction from the president of the state who said and I'm quoting that he will

03:14take very seriously that he will seriously examine this request. The

03:21president of course had the ability from the first minute to say this is not an

03:25actual request for pardon it doesn't mention pardon the prime minister isn't

03:30taking responsibility I'll wait and see what else he does. The president left it

03:35understood that he will take this request seriously so we may actually see a

03:41complete about-face and a precedent in which the prime minister in fact is

03:46determined not to be subject to the rule of law in Israel. That is what Netanyahu is

03:51asking and that is what the entire population of Israel is now waiting to see.

03:56There are already protests on the street in front of the president's home

03:59demanding that he reject this outright there is a tremendous amount of concern

04:05and the leader of the Democrat Party the the Labor Party in Israel has already said

04:12quoting President Trump that only someone guilty requests a pardon. I mention this

04:19because Netanyahu provided two reasons for this request in a videotape statement he

04:24made today. In one he said that he was making this request so as to give peace

04:29to the people of Israel. He said it was his own interest to pursue the trial and

04:33to prove his innocence but the people of Israel need a respite. The second reason

04:37he gave is that he said President Trump has already requested that he be

04:42pardoned and so he is respecting that request. That is the very precipice where

04:48things stand right now and I think we're going to have to wait to see how legal

04:53matters develop over the next few days before we can really gauge what

04:57Netanyahu's chances are to annul his corruption trial that has threatened his

05:01rule on power.

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