Testifying in corruption trial, PM says he’s too busy to speak with his wife about events of the day

Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter

Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu addresses supporters at the party's campaign headquarters in Jerusalem early on November 2, 2022, with his wife Sara at his side, as votes are counted in the general elections. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu addresses supporters at the party's campaign headquarters in Jerusalem early on November 2, 2022, with his wife Sara at his side, as votes are counted in the general elections. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu testifies that serving as prime minister he has been unable to be an “attentive ear” to his wife Sara, and that in his role he is unable to speak with her in detail about the events of the day.

Netanyahu makes these remarks in reference to allegations that he, his family members, or other intermediaries demanded and received favorable coverage of the prime minister from the Walla news website in a quid pro quo with its owner.

“Your honors – if only I could be an attentive ear to my wife. Unfortunately the type of life we live, the job I have, this is not possible, we meet late at night for a few minutes, we talk about the children and the family,” Netanyahu says addressing the Jerusalem District Court judges directly.

“There is no possibility of going over all the events of the day, it doesn’t exist,” he continues, insisting that he was not party to the messages Sara sent to Rubinstein about such coverage since he had neither the time or a phone with which to be updated about such messages.

Netanyahu’s comments reference specifically the allegation in the indictment that he was directly involved in a request to Walla relating to the coverage of a visit his wife made to the grave West Point military cemetery of Israeli general Mickey Marcus, who beforehand had been a US colonel.

Walla covered Sara Netanyahu’s visit negatively, describing it as “an excursion,” so Zeev Rubinstein requested from Walla CEO Ilan Yeshua that it be changed. The indictment alleges that Netanyahu was personally involved in the request, and that Walla responded positively.

“I had no hand in this, not a finger, not fingernail, because I was very, very busy,” says Netanyahu, who has also repeated throughout the day that he believes Walla to have been an “unimportant” and “marginal” website that was not on his radar.

Rubinstein’s message to Yeshua was also written in a pleading manner, which Netanyahu argues contradicts the claim that he had a quid pro quo agreement with Walla owner Elovitch, since if that was the case his alleged go-between would not need to plead for better coverage but would rather demand it.

Hadad also points out that the alleged positive “response” from Walla to Rubinstein’s request was simply to remove the article from the website, 11 hours after Rubinstein’s message to Yeshua, and not to reframe the item.

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