Benjamin Netanyahu has thanked Donald Trump after the US president publicly called for the Israeli prime minister’s long-running corruption trial to be cancelled.
Trump on Wednesday posted a lengthy diatribe against the trial, which could lead to a prison sentence for his ally, describing a “ridiculous witch hunt” that was an “unheard of … horror show” and showering praise on Netanyahu for his leadership of Israel during the short war with Iran that was ended by a ceasefire earlier this week.
Netanyahu, whose relationship with Trump was reported to have been under strain until the recent conflict, thanked the president for his “heartfelt support for me and your incredible support for Israel and the Jewish people”.
“I look forward to continue working with you to defeat our common enemies, liberate our hostages and quickly expand the circle of peace,” Netanyahu wrote on X, sharing a copy of Trump’s Truth Social post.
Israeli opposition politicians criticised Trump’s unexpected intervention in one of the most controversial legal processes in their country for many years.
Yair Lapid, the leader of the Yesh Atid party, said Israel was grateful to Trump for support in the war with Iran, during which US planes bombed two Iranian nuclear facilities. But he criticised “interference in the legal process” and suggested Trump was offering Netanyahu support before pressuring him to make concessions to reach a new ceasefire in the 20-month war in Gaza.
Gilad Kariv, a parliamentarian from the Democrats party, said: “The Jewish tradition teaches us that no person is above the law. Not even a prime minister.”
In his post, Trump described Netanyahu as a warrior like no other in the history of Israel. “Bibi and I just went through HELL together, fighting a very tough and brilliant longtime enemy of Israel, Iran, and Bibi could not have been better, sharper, or stronger in his LOVE for the incredible Holy Land,” Trump said on Wednesday night, using a nickname for the Israeli leader.
Trump’s words contrasted with the rare rebuke he issued on Tuesday over Israel’s post-ceasefire strikes on Iran. “Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs … I’m not happy with Israel,” he told reporters. Iran and Israel, he added, had been fighting “so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing”.
In his post, Trump, who has himself faced an array of criminal charges and convictions that he argued were politically motivated, said he had “just learned that Bibi has been summoned to court on Monday” and suggested a pardon for the “great hero”.
“It was the United States of America that saved Israel, and now it is going to be the United States of America that saves Bibi Netanyahu,” Trump said.
In December, Netanyahu became the first Israeli prime minister to take the stand as the defendant in a criminal trial for corruption. He described the accusations against him as an “ocean of absurdity”.
Netanyahu, 75, was charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases. Allegations include accepting tens of thousands of dollars worth of cigars and champagne from a billionaire Hollywood producer in exchange for assisting him with personal and business interests, and promoting advantageous regulation for media moguls in exchange for favourable coverage of himself and his family.
Netanyahu denies wrongdoing, saying he is a victim of a hostile media and a biased legal system.
Trump’s intervention was welcomed by Netanyahu loyalists such as Shlomo Karhi, the minister of communications, and Miki Zohar, the culture and sport minister, who described the trial as “unimaginable injustice and personal persecution”.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right national security minister, backed Trump’s call, saying the trial had been “concocted” by the “deep state”.
But Simcha Rothman, another far-right politician who is chair of Israel’s parliamentary law and justice committee, said that though he believed the trial was “an example of the accumulation of … flaws” with Israel’s judicial system, it was not the “role of the president of the United States to intervene in legal proceedings in the state of Israel”.
Netanyahu’s trial has been delayed many times since it began in May 2020, with the prime minister requesting postponements due to the war in Gaza and later, conflict in Lebanon.
On Thursday, Netanyahu’s lawyer Amit Hadad said his client’s testimony, which began three weeks ago, should be delayed for two weeks in light of “regional and global developments”.
Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, has the power to pardon Netanyahu but has been quoted by the media as saying a pardon was “not currently on the table”.
