From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
On witness stand, Netanyahu says he has received ‘awful press coverage’ while juggling pressure
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
Appearing on the stand at his corruption trial inside the Tel Aviv District Court, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has long experienced negative press coverage while dealing with critical national affairs.
During the Obama administration, he says, the then-US president “turned to the Muslim world in his appeasing speech in Cairo. And he turned to Iran as not a big threat but an opportunity.” Netanyahu says there was also “a demand for a total freeze in settlement construction. Massive pressure.”
“There was awful press coverage of this,” he says.
“There was the stabbing intifada [in 2015-2016], there were the social protests, starting with the cottage cheese protest [in 2011], we needed to deal with it and we dealt with it… needed to deal with Obama, Iran, political challenges, social protests — this is just a taste of what I was dealing with.”
His wife, Sara, “has undergone a terrible character assassination. She goes to visit cancer patients, lone soldiers,” the prime minister says.
Netanyahu steps out of the courtroom to deal with a national security issue after receiving a note while on the stand.
