Netanyahu says Trump entitled to excoriate Herzog over pardon, says Israeli president should ‘do the right thing’ and end trial

After US President Donald Trump called President Isaac Herzog “weak and pathetic” and criticized him repeatedly for not yet pardoning the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu says in a press conference that “US presidents are entitled to say what’s in their hearts.”

He says that the trial is a political witch hunt, and Trump agrees with his position.

Netanyahu repeats his assertion that he never asked Trump to raise the pardon issue.

The trial, he says, “should never have come about, and certainly should have been closed once we encountered extortion and threats against witnesses, crimes, fabrication of protocols, rummaging, threats to destroy families, peddling of the personal data of Israeli citizens in the thousands — 13,000 — and not a small part of that targeted my personal circle.”

“It should have been closed, and President Trump has the right to say his piece,” he continues. “I am not responsible for the words he chooses, and you can certainly ask yourselves whether he speaks from the heart. The answer is yes.”

Netanyahu asserts the trial is “collapsing and everyone sees it.”

He claims that foreign ambassadors and ministers tell him, “We can’t believe what we’re seeing.”

Netanyahu says that the case “does not show equality before the law — it shows inequality before the law, because they wouldn’t do this to ordinary citizens if they weren’t trying to topple a right-wing government under my leadership.”

Herzog “is free to make his decision,” he says, “and should not be subject to pressure. He should simply do the right thing.”

Netanyahu says that he is referring to both international pressure and domestic pressure. “He should do the right thing, and the right thing today is to stop, end this absurd circus, give Israel the time — and me the time — to do what’s necessary both to defeat our enemies and to generate huge opportunities for peace, prosperity and alliances in our region.”

Asked about a potential Supreme Court ruling that would require him to fire National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, he says it would be “beyond madness” for Israel to have to face a constitutional crisis when it is in the middle of a campaign “for its existence and future.”

He also says he has only shelved, rather than abandoned, controversial legislation regarding ultra-Orthodox service in the IDF, because he needs to get the state budget passed as a priority by the end of this month.

Now that he anticipates being able to do so, he says he expects his coalition to serve out its full term, or nearly its full term, with elections “in September or October.”