At his trial, PM claims ex-IDF top prosecutor and others received large sums while in office yet weren’t probed

Giving testimony in his criminal trial earlier today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attempts to defend against accusations that he received illicit gifts from wealthy benefactors by arguing that many other public officials have received large amounts of cash as gifts during their time in office, including former Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi and other figures who are frequently criticized publicly by him and his political allies.

At the Tel Aviv District Court, Netanyahu alleges that Tomer-Yerushalmi, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and former Mossad director Yossi Cohen received such gifts, according to Hebrew media reports.

“We’re talking about the military advocate general [Tomer-Yerushalmi] now. She received gifts of tens of thousands of dollars from a friend of hers when she was in her post… but I don’t have any claims against her on this,” he says.

He then claims that while the law enforcement system saw “no problem” with those alleged instances, it “changed the law and stitched up a case” in order to indict the premier.

The prime minister is referring to the charges accusing him of having received hundreds of thousands of shekels worth of luxury goods from billionaires Arnon Milchan and James Packer, while having sought to advance their interests on several fronts in return.

Judge Rivka Friedman-Feldman tells Netanyahu to concentrate on the specifics of his case, however, saying that “everything else will not help us make a decision in this case.”