Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued at a hearing in his criminal trial on Tuesday that his connecting billionaire Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan to former Communications Ministry director-general Shlomo Filber about the option of buying into a media company merger, and himself holding conversations with Milchan on the subject, was not very exceptional or irregular.
The hearing, which was sandwiched between the fresh onslaught in Gaza City and the strikes on Houthi targets at Hodeida port in Yemen, concerned Case 1000, where Netanyahu is on trial for a conflict of interest relating to Milchan, who was his close friend and confidant while he served as communications minister from 2013 to 2015.
Allegedly, the prime minister received thousands of dollars’ worth of champagne and cigars from Milchan and from Australian billionaire James Packer, who was a friend to both. Netanyahu allegedly pushed for legislative and regulatory changes that would have been beneficial to Milchan during that time. The prime minister is charged with fraud and breach of trust in the case.
Per the indictment, Netanyahu pushed to secure a US visa for Milchan after his had been canceled, and also worked to advance legislation for tax exemptions for returning citizens, which Milchan was.
The prime minister has said in the past that he was unwilling to get involved in the personal or business concerns of his close friends.
The fateful meeting that is one of the bedrocks of the case took place in June 2015, at around 11 p.m. Present were the two couples: the Netanyahus and the Milchans.
Netanyahu – consistent with his defense position – said that these meetings happened often, as the families were close. Prosecution representative Yehonatan Tadmor argued that, per Netanyahu's calendar, this wasn't the case, and there were actually only two such meetings that entire year taking place at such a late hour. Netanyahu responded that most weren't recorded in his personal calendar.
A conflict of interest
Tadmor argued that this is precisely a conflict of interest. Netanyahu responded, “This is nonsense; I committed no act of a regulatory or administrative nature – what are you wasting precious time of mine and of the State's?”
The prime minister stood on the stark difference between encouraging people that he knew to invest in the Israeli media market and pushing for regulatory changes. The deal on the table was a merger between media companies Reshet and Keshet, which Milchan was eyeing.
Netanyahu even insisted on Tuesday that he clarified to Milchan that “there won't be any administrative act here,” but that he could certainly take advice with the man who headed the communications ministry at the time.
PER TADMOR, the fateful late-night meeting took place very close, time-wise, to an offer Milchan received to join Reshet. “This is exceptional treatment – advising a private businessman if he should buy shares. Milchan, in barely any time, received access that no one else got,” said Tadmor, arguing that this only happened due to the close personal relationship that Netanyahu and Milchan had: “the friendship and the gifts that were accepted for years on end.”
Netanyahu responded that the meeting had been preplanned, and he had no idea when Milchan took the offer.
He added that he told Milchan right from the start that all he could do for his friend is advise, and that he cannot push for any regulatory changes that would be beneficial to him, which is the prosecution's argument.
That act, he argued – of advising under these specific circumstances – “is a crime in your book. This [breach-of-trust clause, which pertains specifically to acts like these] is a disgusting law that should've been done away with. It doesn't exist in the United States.”
Earlier in the hearing, Tadmor asked about the legislative advancements on tax exemptions for returning citizens – when Netanyahu knew that his friend had the status of a returning citizen, and so would benefit from such regulatory changes.
The prime minister said on Tuesday that he only knew about it in 2014, and that “it didn't interest me; not his exemption and not his visa. The only thing that concerned me was how to avoid a diplomatic scuffle with the US.”
Netanyahu opened his testimony on Tuesday morning by decrying the lengthened timing of the hearing that day, which was scheduled to last until 6:00 p.m. – due to schedule limitations on Wednesday, but in actuality was cut short due to the Houthi attacks.
“You don’t need a closed-door hearing to understand that the State of Israel is at a critical point [in the war against Hamas]. The demand for these hearings is unbelievable,” said the prime minister. Last week, the judges in the case, Jerusalem District Court Judges Rivka Friedman-Feldman, Moshe Bar-Am, and Oded Shaham, finalized the decision to increase the number of hearings to four times per week, starting in November.