OPINION
Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel's longest-serving prime minister.
He was first elected to the country's highest political position in 1996 and has served intermittently for a combined 18 years as Israel’s chief executive.
But great longevity often breeds great animus, and no other Israeli public figure exemplifies this better than Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu.
From the far left all the way to pockets of the centrist-right, Israel's "opposition camp" pines for the day he will finally leave office.
Vilified by his opponents at home and persecuted internationally, Netanyahu has nevertheless emerged as one of the world's most resilient politicians, repeatedly entrusted by the Israeli electorate with the honor of leading the country over the course of three decades.
But what could not be achieved at the ballot box has been pursued with fervor through far more nefarious means, and it was only a matter of time before Israel's administrative "deep state" decided to take action.
Beginning in late 2016, the police opened investigations into suspicions of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust by Netanyahu, dating back decades and eventually through 2017.
While Netanyahu's adamant pronouncements that the investigations would reveal nothing because there was nothing to be found weren't entirely accurate, when indictments were finally issued in November 2019, the results were shockingly petty, strained, and spiteful.
The trial has dragged on for six years, and things haven't been going especially well for the prosecution. Out of an original list of 333 witnesses, only about a third ever took the stand.
Dates crucial to substantiate the alleged crimes collapsed under scrutiny. Evidence emerged showing that investigators deployed Pegasus spyware against witnesses.
And most damning: the presiding judges themselves felt compelled to issue a written statement – made public – recommending the state reconsider the charge of bribery.
Despite this cascade of failures, Israel's Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara continues her crusade against Netanyahu and his government, refusing to acknowledge the glaring defects in the case and rejecting calls for a plea bargain or compromise of any sort.
All of which demonstrates the mind-boggling anomaly Israel contends with, whereby this role – officially titled "Legal Advisor to the Government" – simultaneously serves as head of Israel’s criminal prosecution system.
Unwilling to comply with the advisor's "advice"?
Don't be surprised to find yourself charged with heinous criminal offenses such as "fraud," "breach of public trust," "government corruption," and the like.
Arguably the most formidable post in the country, the government is not allowed to appoint its own legal advisor; rather, a nomination committee led by a retired Supreme Court justice is endowed with such authority.
More than any of her predecessors, the current attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, personifies this gross perversion of democratic principles, making it her singular aim to thwart even the most rudimentary decisions, acts, and appointments by Netanyahu and his coalition.
Nor has Netanyahu been able to benefit from the assertion of immunity, in stark contrast to accepted practice in the United States, where the question of criminal prosecution for professed official acts by a president was settled by the U.S. Supreme Court in its landmark decision Trump v. United States, 603 U.S. 593 (2024).
In a 6–3 ruling, the Court determined that a former president is entitled to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his "conclusive and preclusive" constitutional authority, as well as at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all official acts. Netanyahu could only dream of such judicial deference.
For the past six years, Netanyahu has had to devote endless hours defending himself in court while simultaneously steering Israel through some of the most momentous and precarious events in its history.
From the epochal Abraham Accords, through the unrelenting retaliation against the murderous attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, to the overwhelming retribution inflicted upon Israel's most lethal enemy, Iran – in addition to the myriad pressing matters a prime minister must otherwise attend to – Netanyahu has been forced to divide his duties as chief of state with unyielding efforts to fend off spurious accusations thinly camouflaging an unbridled deep state coup d’état.
This odious injustice was aptly assessed by President Trump, who openly implored Israel's President, Isaac Herzog, "to let Bibi unite Israel by pardoning him, and ending that lawfare once and for all," astutely referring to the trial as no more than "a political, unjustified prosecution."
But here too, the granting of pardons in Israel differs strikingly from the procedure encoded under Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, where the president's authority has been recognized as sweeping and virtually unlimited, including the privilege to intervene in cases that have not yet reached prosecution, halt criminal investigations, and prevent indictments.
While Israel's Basic Law: The president of the state authorizes the president to grant pardons, the rabid anti-Bibi left demands that such clemency be conditioned on Netanyahu's categorical admission of guilt, leading to his conviction on all counts and permanent expulsion from public life.
Herzog – whose own father served as Israel's president and in 1986 courageously granted pre-conviction pardons to top security officials involved in the infamous Bus 300 Affair – has so far shown no inclination to provide Netanyahu with similar beneficence.
Rather, he seems to prefer serving as yet another deep-state puppet, professing a feigned "statesmanship" in the face of an ongoing legal travesty.
Clearly, President Trump is entirely correct in advocating for Netanyahu's pardon, and he should feel assured that the sane segments of the Israeli electorate appreciate and support his efforts wholeheartedly.
While Netanyahu is by no means perfect, it is simply unconscionable that the Israeli legal establishment allows this divisive, transparent prosecution to continue against a sitting prime minister expending all his energies to secure the safety and success of the Jewish state.
Adv. A. Amos Fried, a native of Chicago, is a licensed member of both the Israel and New York State Bar Associations and has been practicing law in Jerusalem for over 34 years, specializing in civil litigation, criminal representation, and commercial law.