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'Birds of a Feather': Trump Urges Israeli President to Pardon Netanyahu in Fraud Case
One critic said such a move—which would require an admission of guilt—risks giving a "green light" to corruption.
Nov 12, 2025
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Wednesday that he had received a request from US President Donald Trump to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is currently on trial in Israel for alleged bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.
“I hereby call on you to fully pardon Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been a formidable and decisive War Time Prime Minister, and is now leading Israel into a time of peace," Trump wrote in a letter to Herzog.
While Trump said that he "absolutely respect[s] the independence of the Israeli Justice System,” he denounced the case against Netanyahu as “political, unjustified prosecution.”
"It is time to let Bibi unite Israel by pardoning him, and ending that lawfare once and for all," Trump added, using Netanyahu's nickname.
U.S. President Donald Trump, also a criminal, has formally requested Israeli President Isaac Herzog to grant a pardon to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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— Josep Goded (New Main Account) (@josepgoded2.bsky.social) November 12, 2025 at 2:54 AM
Herzog's office responded to Trump's letter with the following statement:
The president holds great respect for President Trump and repeatedly expresses his appreciation for Trump’s unwavering support of Israel and his tremendous contribution to the return of the hostages, the reshaping of the Middle East and Gaza, and the safeguarding of Israel’s security. Without detracting from the above, as the president has made clear on multiple occasions, anyone seeking a pardon must submit a formal request in accordance with the established procedures.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid noted in a social media post that "Israeli law stipulates that the first condition for receiving a pardon is an admission of guilt and an expression of remorse for those actions."
Amir Fuchs, a senior researcher at the Jerusalem-based think tank Israel Democracy Institute, told the Washington Post that “pardon is a word for forgiveness, a pardon without some kind of admission of guilt is very unusual and even illegal."
Fuchs added that any pardon based on Trump's request could be viewed as giving a "green light" to corruption and "undermining the rule of law."
Many social media users responded to Trump's letter with the same four words—"birds of a feather"—noting that the Republican president was convicted of 34 felony charges related to the falsification of business records regarding hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 presidential election.
In addition to his domestic trial, Netanyahu is also a fugitive from the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where he and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the Gaza genocide.
Herzog also faces criminal complaints filed in Switzerland alleging incitement to genocide over remarks including a suggestion that Palestinian civilians in Gaza were legitimate targets for Israeli strikes because "it is an entire nation out there that is responsible" for the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack.
Like former President Joe Biden before him, Trump has supported Israel with billions of dollars worth of US armed aid and diplomatic cover including vetoes of United Nations Security Council ceasefire resolutions.
In the first prosecution of a sitting Israeli prime minister, Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 for allegedly giving or offering lucrative official favors to media tycoons in exchange for positive news coverage or gifts valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars. The prime minister—who has also been accused of drawing out Israel's assault on Gaza to delay his case—denies any wrongdoing and, like Trump, has called his prosecution a "witch hunt."
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'All of Gaza Will Be Jewish,' Vows Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu
"The government is racing ahead for Gaza to be wiped out," Eliyahu said during a radio interview. "Thank God, we are wiping out this evil."
Jul 24, 2025
Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu asserted Thursday that the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is erasing Gaza, which Eliyahu said will be ethnically cleansed of Palestinians to make way for Jewish recolonization.
"The government is racing ahead for Gaza to be wiped out," Eliyahu, a leading member of the Jewish Power party, told the Haredi radio station Kol Barama. "Thank God, we are wiping out this evil. We are pushing this population that has been educated on Mein Kampf."
"All of Gaza will be Jewish," the minister vowed, adding that Arabs who are loyal to Israel may remain in the strip, because "we aren't racists."
Eliyahu took part in last year's "Preparing to Settle Gaza" conference, which preceded U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal to "level" Gaza, forcibly expel its Palestinians, and transform the coastal enclave into "the Riviera of the Middle East."
As the death toll from Israel's forced mass starvation of Gaza continued to rise, Eliyahu denied that Palestinians are dying as a result of Israel's blockade, asserting that "there's no hunger in Gaza."
"But we don't need to be concerned with hunger in the strip," he told Kol Barama during Thursday's interview. "Let the world worry about it."
Last month, Eliyahu called for the bombing of Gaza food warehouses, asserting that Palestinians in the strip "need to starve."
In November 2023, Netanyahu took the rare step of suspending Eliyahu after he endorsed the "option" of dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza to "kill everyone" there, because "there are no people uninvolved" with Hamas, which led the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Eliyahu's remarks were subsequently entered as evidence of intent in the genocide case filed by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Nine pages of South Africa's 84-page initial filing in the ICJ case contain statements of "genocidal intent against the Palestinian people" made by Israeli officials.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said Thursday that Eliyahu's comments "are a moral attack and a propaganda disaster."
"Israel will never convince the world of the justice of our war against terror as long as we are led by an extremist minority government with ministers who sanctify blood and death," Lapid argued.
"IDF soldiers do not fight, are killed, and injured to wipe out a civilian population," he added. "They fight to return the kidnapped and ensure Israel's security."
Nearly 60,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since October 2023, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Peer-reviewed studies have shown that the ministry's figures are likely a vast undercount.
More than 142,500 Gazans have also been wounded, and at least 14,000 others are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed buildings.
In addition to the ICJ genocide case, the International Criminal Court—also located in The Hague—has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including murder and forced starvation.
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Far-Right Israelis Mob Bases After Soldiers Arrested for Allegedly Raping Palestinian
Several Israeli lawmakers and one minister took part in the attempt to free the nine reservists, who were hailed as heroes by multiple Cabinet members.
Jul 30, 2024
Far-right Israelis including government officials stormed two military bases late on Monday, sparking clashes with troops and police over the arrest of Israel Defense Forces reservists who allegedly gang-raped a Palestinian prisoner.
Hundreds of protesters broke into the notorious Sde Teiman base in the Negev Desert in an attempt to stop the detention of nine reserve troops accused of sodomizing a Palestinian jailed there.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the victim is hospitalized with severe injuries and is unable to walk.
The nine suspects were then taken to the Beit Lid army base, which was also mobbed by at least dozens of demonstrators.
Base invaders included armed and masked members of Force 100, the military unit tasked with guarding prisoners at Sde Teiman. One of the nine arrested soldiers is reportedly a major in Force 100.
High-ranking Israeli government officials also took part in Monday's riots, including Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu of the Otzma Yehudit, or Jewish Power, party. Members of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, including Yitzhak Kroizer and Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit), Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism), and Tally Gotliv (Likud), were also present.
"The military advocate general is a criminal. The people of Israel will fight against enemies from outside and enemies from within," Har-Melech said during the protest.
Journalists including a woman who works for the state broadcaster Kan said they were attacked while covering the riot.
Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid), the Israeli opposition leader, called for the arrest and imprisonment of Knesset members who took part in invasions.
"This is not a riot, this is an attempted coup by an armed militia against a weak prime minister who is unable to control his government," Lapid said on social media.
"We are not on the brink of the abyss, we are in the abyss. All red lines were crossed today," he added. "MKs and ministers who participate in the invasion of violent militias into military bases are a message to the state of Israel: They are done with democracy, they are done with the rule of law."
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (Likud) urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud) to investigate allegations that National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) thwarted police intervention against the rioters.
"Backing and active participation of elected officials in riots at army bases, while issuing harsh statements against senior army officers, is a severe and extremely dangerous phenomenon that harms security, social cohesiveness, and Israel's international reputation," Gallant said.
Netanyahu said he "strongly condemns the break-in."
Ben-Gvir, on the other hand, condemned what he called the "shameful" detention of the nine soldiers, whom he described as "our best heroes."
He acknowledged that conditions inside Israeli prisons "have indeed worsened," adding, "I am proud of that."
Echoing Ben-Gvir, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism) called the nine detained reservists "heroic warriors."
In a heated Knesset exchange, Ahmad Tibi of the Arab Movement for Renewal party asked Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky if raping Palestinian prisoners is "legitimate."
"Yes! If he is a Nukhba everything is legitimate to do him!" Milwidsky thundered, referring to an elite Hamas commando unit.
MK Ahmad Tibi (TA'AL): To insert a stick in a person's rectum, is that legitimate???
MK Hanoch Milwidsky (Likud): Yes! If he is a Nukhba everything is legitimate to do him!
Some of you have probably already heard about the events in Sde Teiman concentration camp today: MPs came… pic.twitter.com/JynQZOqnDH
— B.M. (@ireallyhateyou) July 29, 2024
Erez Tadmor, a former speechwriter for Netanyahu,
claimed that Sde Teiman prisoners may have raped themselves.
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel denounced the alleged rape of the Palestinian prisoner in Sde Teiman.
"Since the beginning of the war, we claimed that the Sde Teiman was operating as an 'ex-territory', and the soldiers stationed there were acting outside any law—first in their treatment of detainees, and now towards military law enforcement agents," the group said.
"Instead of absolute condemnation, some Israeli far-right leaders have rallied to support the suspects of abuse, which is emblematic of the root causes that enable such abuse to happen in the first place," the group added.
Orit Sulitzeanu, executive director of the Association of Rape Crises Centers in Israel, told Haaretz she is "shocked" by the Sde Teiman rape allegation.
"There will never be any circumstances that would justify the use of this sickening practice, not even against the worst of our enemies," he said. "Sexual harm and sexual abuse are serious crimes and we must not remain silent when they happen."
Former prisoners including children and Israeli whistleblowers at Sde Teiman—often called "Israel's Guantánamo Bay"—have described rampant torture and abuse at the facility, which is used to imprison Palestinians captured in the Gaza Strip. According to their testimonies, prisoners have been raped, electrocuted, mauled by dogs, burned with cigarettes, severely beaten, starved, and subjected to 24-hour shackling sometimes leading to amputations.
The New York Times reported last month that one former Sde Teiman prisoner said he was forced to "sit on something like a hot metal stick and it felt like fire," and that another detainee "died after they put the electric stick" up his anus.
IDF officials told Haaretz last month that the IDF is investigating the in-custody deaths of dozens of detainees, including 36 who died or were killed at Sde Teiman since October.
Palestinians formerly held at Sde Teiman said groups of 10-20 Israeli civilians were allowed to record torture sessions in which the men, stripped nearly naked, were beaten with metal batons, electrocuted, and had hot water poured over their heads. The ex-prisoners said some of the Israelis laughed while filming their torture.
On Tuesday, Israel's High Court of Justice said it will hold a second hearing on August 7 regarding a petition seeking to close Sde Teiman over alleged torture and abuse committed there, The Times of Israel reported.
Also on Tuesday in a separate case from the nine arrests, an IDF reservist identified as Staff Sgt. Yisrael Zakaria Hajbi was indicted for allegedly using "severe violence against the detainees he was entrusted with guarding" at Sde Teiman and filming the abuse.
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