After Trump brands him ‘weak and pathetic,’ Herzog indicates that Netanyahu should have pushed back

After US President Donald Trump on Wednesday called him “weak and pathetic” in his handling of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pardon request, President Isaac Herzog says that Israel’s “dignity, independence and sovereignty” are not for sale.

Netanyahu was asked about the insults during a press conference last night, and said that “US presidents are entitled to say what’s in their hearts,”  while blasting the trial as a political witch hunt and telling Herzog to “do the right thing” and end it.

The prime minister should have pushed back on Trump, Herzog indicates.

“There is a difference between political and legal disagreements that have continued for decades on various issues — even with our allies — and a blatant attack on the symbols of governance and sovereignty of the State of Israel,” says Herzog. “A statement must be said on this issue.”

The usually staid head of state intimates that Trump’s repeated insults over the pardon request are “a blatant attack on the symbols of governance and sovereignty of the State of Israel.”

“I am not seeking my own honor, but the honor of the state,” he says at the site of an Iranian missile strike in the Bedouin town of Beit Zarzir.

“Our dignity, independence and sovereignty are not for sale to anyone,”
he says.

“I will, of course, address the request for a pardon when it arrives, in the most independent and free manner — without pressure and without noise from any direction — with a clear mind and clean hands,” Herzog says.

“He doesn’t need any legal opinions,” Trump said of Herzog in a phone interview on Wednesday. “He is full of crap. He is a weak and pathetic guy. I want Bibi [Netanyahu] to be focused on the war — not on bullshit.”

Trump has repeatedly blasted Herzog over his failure so far to issue a pardon to Netanyahu in his ongoing criminal corruption trial. Just last week, Trump called Herzog a “disgrace” for not pardoning the prime minister.