Netanyahu is set to take the witness stand for the first time in his corruption trial in Israel

Netanyahu is set to take the witness stand for the first time in his corruption trial in Israel
File photo of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, arrives at the District Court in Jerusalem, Israel, June 25, 2023. (AP)
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Updated 09 December 2024
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Netanyahu is set to take the witness stand for the first time in his corruption trial in Israel

Netanyahu is set to take the witness stand for the first time in his corruption trial in Israel
  • The Israeli leader faces charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate affairs
  • The trial began in 2020, and a verdict is not expected until at least 2026.

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to take to the witness stand Tuesday for the first time in his trial on corruption allegations, a pivotal point in the drawn-out proceedings that comes as the leader wages war in Gaza and faces an international arrest warrant for war crimes charges.
At home, Netanyahu is on trial for accusations of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate affairs. Netanyahu denies wrongdoing, but his appearance on the witness stand will be a low point in his decades-long political career, standing in contrast to the image of a sophisticated, respected leader he has tried to cultivate.
The trial will take up a chunk of Netanyahu’s time at a crucial point for Israel. While he makes his case for weeks from the stand, he will still be tasked with managing the war in Gaza, maintaining a fragile ceasefire with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and keeping tabs on threats from the wider Middle East, including Iran.
It will be the first time an Israeli prime minister has taken the stand as a criminal defendant, and Netanyahu has repeatedly sought to delay the proceedings, citing the ongoing Gaza war and security concerns. The judges ordered the trial to resume Tuesday, moving the proceedings to an underground chamber in a Tel Aviv court as a security precaution.
Netanyahu’s appearance in the courtroom will also draw attention to other legal issues in the Israeli leader’s orbit. Close advisers in his office are embroiled in a separate series of scandals surrounding leaked classified information and doctored documents. While Netanyahu is not suspected of direct involvement in those, they could weaken his public image.
Here is a look at the ongoing trial.
Where does Netanyahu’s trial stand?
The trial, which began in 2020, involves three separate cases in which prosecutors say Netanyahu exchanged regulatory favors with media titans for favorable press coverage and advanced the personal interests of a billionaire Hollywood producer in exchange for lavish gifts.
Prosecutors have called roughly 140 witnesses to the stand — fewer than the 300 initially expected to testify.
Those witnesses have included some of Netanyahu’s closest former confidants who turned against him, as well as a former prime minister, former security chiefs and media personalities. Lawyers have submitted thousands of items of evidence — recordings, police documents, text messages.
A new documentary, “The Bibi Files,” has shined new light on the cases by obtaining footage of Netanyahu being questioned by police, as well as interrogations of his wife and some key witnesses. In a glimpse of what can be expected in the courtroom, Netanyahu appears both combative and anxious at times, accusing police of unfairly picking on him and denigrating other witnesses as liars.
The prosecution called to the stand its final witness over the summer, bringing to an end three years of testimony and setting the stage for the defense to lay out its case, with Netanyahu its first witness. Netanyahu’s appearance will give Israelis a chance to see the long-serving Israeli leader answer to the charges before the three-judge panel.
What are some notable moments from Netanyahu’s trial?
The prosecution has sought to portray Netanyahu as media-obsessed, to push its narrative that he would break the law for favorable coverage.
Witness accounts have shed light not only on the three cases but also on sensational details about Netanyahu’s character and his family’s reputation for living lavishly on the backs of taxpayers and wealthy supporters.
One former aide and a key prosecution witness called him a “control freak” over his image. Another witness described expensive gifts for Netanyahu and his wife.
Arnon Milchan, an Israeli producer of Hollywood blockbuster films such as “Pretty Woman,” took the stand last year by videoconference, describing how he routinely delivered tens of thousands of dollars of champagne, cigars and other gifts requested by the Israeli leader.
One key witness, a former top aide to Netanyahu, stunned prosecutors by backtracking from his earlier claims against the prime minister, opening the door for the defense to erode his credibility as a witness. The trial was jolted by Israeli media reports that police used sophisticated phone-hacking software to spy on this witness.
What happens next in Netanyahu’s trial?
The prosecution formally rested its case in July, and the court recessed for the summer and fall. The defense has repeatedly asked for delays in Netanyahu’s testimony, which have mostly been denied.
Like other witnesses, Netanyahu will testify three days a week, for hours at a time, and his testimony is expected to last weeks. The defense will seek to depict Netanyahu as a law-abiding leader who was a victim of careless and biased police investigations.
Netanyahu’s critics have sought to draw a clear line between the cases and the war in Gaza. They say the allegations led Netanyahu to promote a contentious judicial overhaul plan last year that bitterly divided the country and created an image of weakness that encouraged the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that triggered the war.
Netanyahu’s critics, including families of hostages held by Hamas, now accuse him of dragging out the conflict — and risking the lives of their loved ones — to avoid an embarrassing investigation and new elections that could force him from power.
If he is eventually voted out of power, being away from the prime minister’s seat would make it harder for Netanyahu to rail against the justice system and delegitimize the verdict in the eyes of the public.
A verdict isn’t expected until 2026 — at least — and then Netanyahu can choose to appeal to the Supreme Court. Israel’s courts are notoriously sluggish, and the case was further delayed last year when courts went on hiatus for two months after war broke out following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
Once the defense rests, each side will summarize their cases before judges convene to deliberate over Netanyahu’s fate.


‘Dad, you’re home’: Israeli hostage who died in Gaza laid to rest

‘Dad, you’re home’: Israeli hostage who died in Gaza laid to rest
Updated 19 sec ago
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‘Dad, you’re home’: Israeli hostage who died in Gaza laid to rest

‘Dad, you’re home’: Israeli hostage who died in Gaza laid to rest
  • More recently, Lifshitz, an Arabic speaker, had been actively involved for years with Road to Recovery, an organization which helps Palestinians receive medical treatment in Israel

NIR ‘OZ, Israel: Hundreds of people gathered on Tuesday at a small cemetery in a southern Israeli community to bid a final farewell to Oded Lifshitz, a kibbutz founder who died in captivity in Gaza.
Palestinian militant group Hamas returned Lifshitz’s body to Israel last week, part of an ongoing truce deal that has halted the Gaza war — triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack in which the veteran journalist was abducted from his home.
“Dad, now you’re home,” said his son Arnon Lifshitz at the cemetery in Nir Oz.
Among the attendees at the funeral were lawmakers, activists, European diplomats and Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who asked for “forgiveness that the State of Israel did not protect you, your family and your kibbutz.”
“In the face of such inhuman cruelty, you were left to stand alone,” said the president.
Lifshitz, then aged 83, was taken hostage from his home on the kibbutz during Hamas’s 2023 attack. His wife, Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, was also seized but released by Hamas after 18 days.
Israeli officials said Oded Lifshitz was murdered by his captors from militant group Islamic Jihad, which has fought alongside Hamas in Gaza.
In addition to Lifshitz, the bodies of three other Nir Oz residents taken hostage and killed in captivity — Shiri Bibas and her two young sons — were returned last week.
The three members of the Bibas family will be buried on Wednesday.
At Lifshitz’s funeral, Hen Avigdori, whose wife and daughter were taken hostage from a neighboring kibbutz and released in the war’s first truce in November 2023, said that “it should have ended differently, he should be here with us.”
To Avigdori, seeing the row of graves “of people who were murdered here on October 7, and those who are waiting for their loved ones to be returned, is a difficult feeling.”
“This kibbutz has become a symbol of the neglect.”
Lifshitz had a long career with the now defunct, left-leaning newspaper Al Hamishmar, and was a long-time defender of Palestinian rights.
In 1972, he defended Bedouins who were expelled from the Sinai Peninsula by occupying Israeli authorities.
A decade later, during the Lebanese civil war and Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, he was one of the first journalists to report on the Sabra and Shatila massacres in which Israeli-backed Christian militias killed between 800 and 2,000 Palestinians in Beirut refugee camps.
More recently, Lifshitz, an Arabic speaker, had been actively involved for years with Road to Recovery, an organization which helps Palestinians receive medical treatment in Israel.
Shlomo Margalit, also one of the founders of Nir Oz and a friend of Lifshitz, said that “Oded was a man of peace.”
“All his life, he worked for the well-being of our neighbors.”
Yocheved Lifshitz said that in their 67 years together, she and Oded “fought... for social justice and peace.”
“Unfortunately, we received a terrible blow from those we had helped on the other side.”
Hamas and its militant allies took 251 people hostage during their October 2023 attack.
Of those, 62 are still being held hostages in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.
Bibas and her two sons, Kfir and Ariel, had become symbols of the ordeal suffered by the Israeli hostages.
Ariel was aged four at the time of the attack, while Kfir was the youngest hostage, just nine months old.
At the cemetery, one of Lifshitz’s grandsons Dekel Lifshitz told AFP that the cactus garden his late grandfather had cultivated on the kibbutz was a sign of his “determination.”
“It takes years to succeed in growing a garden like this, and it reminds me that he was always active.”


Low airplanes, series of blasts heard in Syrian capital, witnesses say

Low airplanes, series of blasts heard in Syrian capital, witnesses say
Updated 52 sec ago
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Low airplanes, series of blasts heard in Syrian capital, witnesses say

Low airplanes, series of blasts heard in Syrian capital, witnesses say

DAMASCUS: A series of blasts and the sound of airplanes flying low were heard over the Syrian capital, Damascus, late on Tuesday, residents of the city and Reuters reporters there said.

 


Israel spy chief says pager bombs ‘turned the tables’ on Hezbollah

Israel spy chief says pager bombs ‘turned the tables’ on Hezbollah
Updated 27 min 41 sec ago
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Israel spy chief says pager bombs ‘turned the tables’ on Hezbollah

Israel spy chief says pager bombs ‘turned the tables’ on Hezbollah
  • The bombs detonated all across Lebanon, including in shops and homes, and were called a violation of international law by the United Nation’s human rights chief Volker Turk

JERUSALEM: In a rare acknowledgement of the agency’s covert operations, Israel’s spy chief declared on Tuesday that last year’s “pager operation” against Hezbollah “turned the tables” on the Lebanese militant group in its war with Israel.
“This operation marked a turning point in the north, during which we turned the tables on our enemies,” said David Barnea, head of Mossad, speaking at a conference in Tel Aviv.
“A direct line can be drawn from the pager operation to the elimination of (Hassan) Nasrallah and the ceasefire agreement. Hezbollah suffered a devastating blow that shattered the organization’s spirit,” he added, referring to Israel’s assassination of the Hezbollah leader.
On September 17 and 18, an Israeli operation detonated hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah. Lebanese authorities reported that the attack killed 39 people and wounded thousands.
The bombs detonated all across Lebanon, including in shops and homes, and were called a violation of international law by the United Nation’s human rights chief Volker Turk.
Just days later, on September 27, Israel assassinated Nasrallah in a massive air strike on southern Beirut, which was swiftly followed by an Israeli ground offensive against Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon.
By late November, Israel and Hezbollah reached a ceasefire agreement, bringing more than a year of hostilities to an end.
However, Israel continues to hold five “strategic military positions” along the border inside Lebanese territory.
In a rare disclosure of Mossad’s tactics, Barnea provided new details of the pager operation.
Saying his agency had “devised an unconventional method to strike,” Barnea revealed that the groundwork for the operation began in 2022, with the first shipment of 500 pagers reaching Lebanon weeks before Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
“When the operation was finally launched, ten times that number of beepers were detonated than we had in the start of the war and twice the amount of radios,” he stated, adding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally approved the mission.
“The day thousands of pagers exploded in the hands of Hezbollah operatives will be remembered as the moment that changed the course of the war,” Barnea declared. “It was a day when deception in warfare proved more powerful than brute force.”
In a symbolic gesture earlier this month, Netanyahu presented US President Donald Trump with a golden pager, commemorating the operation’s impact on Hezbollah.


Two killed in Israeli strike on eastern Lebanon: state media

Picture taken from southern Lebanese region of Marjayoun, shows smoke rising from reported home demolitions by Israeli troops.
Picture taken from southern Lebanese region of Marjayoun, shows smoke rising from reported home demolitions by Israeli troops.
Updated 20 min 8 sec ago
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Two killed in Israeli strike on eastern Lebanon: state media

Picture taken from southern Lebanese region of Marjayoun, shows smoke rising from reported home demolitions by Israeli troops.
  • “An enemy drone carried out an air strike on the town of Shaara... near the eastern Lebanon mountain range, killing two people and wounding two” others: NNA

BEIRUT: Lebanese state media said that an Israeli air strike on Tuesday killed at least two people in the country’s east, where the military said it targeted Hezbollah militants.
“An enemy drone carried out an air strike on the town of Shaara... near the eastern Lebanon mountain range, killing two people and wounding two” others, said the state-run National News Agency.
Israel’s said that it “struck Hezbollah terrorists” who “were identified operating within a Hezbollah production and storage facility for strategic weapons.”
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israel fought a war last year that ended in a late November ceasefire, which has largely held despite mutual accusations of violations.
The Israeli military statement said that the activity in the site targeted on Tuesday “constitutes a blatant violation of the ceasefire understandings.”
Hezbollah was left weakened by a year of hostilities, including the two months of all-out war, in which its leadership was decimated.
Under the November 27 truce agreement, Israeli forces were to withdraw from southern Lebanon while Hezbollah was to remove its military infrastructure from the area. Troops remain in five points deemed “strategic” by the Israeli military.


Former Iraqi PM returns to Baghdad despite security threats

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi. (File/AFP)
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi. (File/AFP)
Updated 25 February 2025
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Former Iraqi PM returns to Baghdad despite security threats

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi. (File/AFP)
  • Al-Kadhimi left Iraq after his term as prime minister ended in 2022 and has been living in London and the UAE
  • Iraq is set to hold parliamentary elections later this year, raising possibility that Al-Kadhimi might be preparing to attempt political come-back

BAGHDAD: Former Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, known for promoting the rule of law, returned to Baghdad Tuesday for the first time in more than two years despite ongoing security threats.
In 2021, he survived an assassination attempt in which two armed drones targeted his residence in Baghdad’s Green Zone area. The attack came at a time of tensions sparked by the refusal of Iran-backed militias to accept parliamentary election results.
Al-Kadhimi left Iraq after his term as prime minister ended in 2022 and has been living in London and the United Arab Emirates.
The former prime minister did not immediately make any public statements upon his return.
Three officials with his office who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly said security threats against the former prime minister were still present. They said he had returned at the invitation of current Iraqi political leaders who hoped he could use his connections to help them confront a worsening economic crisis that threatens the country’s stability.
Al-Kadhimi has good relations with the United States and Saudi Arabia. Iraq is currently looking to strengthen ties with both countries.
He was Iraq’s former intelligence chief before becoming prime minister in 2020 following mass anti-government protests that toppled the previous cabinet.
Iraq is also set to hold parliamentary elections later this year, raising the possibility that Al-Kadhimi might be preparing to attempt a political come-back.