US President Donald Trump did Israel and the free world a tremendous favor Sunday by ordering bunker-buster bombs dropped on key Iranian nuclear installations. But four days later, he did Israel no favors when he grossly overstepped by intervening in its internal affairs, calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trials to be “CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY”—capital letters his.
No matter how friendly or supportive a US president may be, it is not his place to insert himself into the workings of Israel’s judiciary.
That said, not everything Trump wrote in a long social media post was off-key, especially his assertion that Israel deserves “much better than this.”
It does. Israel deserves better than an ongoing legal saga that has consumed its attention and torn it apart since December 2016, when criminal investigations into Netanyahu first began.
On Friday, the Jerusalem District Court rejected Netanyahu’s request to postpone his trial by two weeks so he could focus on “diplomatic, national, and security issues of the first order.” The court said he didn’t give sufficient justification for suspending the proceedings.
Netanyahu needs to resign, now
Years from now, when historians look back at this period, they will surely marvel at the absurdity of the situation: in the midst of making life-and-death decisions, the prime minister could not devote his full attention to leading the country because he was busy answering questions in court about cigars, Bugs Bunny dolls, and conversations that took place over a decade ago.
There is plenty of blame to go around. A credible argument can be made that the cases against Netanyahu should never have made it to court.
A parallel argument can be made that once they did, Netanyahu should have resigned. You cannot be both a defendant fighting to stay out of jail and the prime minister of a country facing the challenges that Israel faces. Both are full-time jobs.
Yet, here we are – nearly a decade since the investigation began, years into the trial, and weeks into the prosecution’s arguments – still torn apart by this issue, perhaps more than any other.
The sane, wise, and statesmanlike course of action would be to bring this saga to an end. That could take the form of a plea bargain in which the charges are dropped or reduced and Netanyahu agrees to step down, or it could come via a presidential pardon, likewise contingent on his departure from office.
At first glance, this seems far-fetched. Netanyahu, who has maintained from the beginning that “there will be nothing because there is nothing,” is unlikely to resign, as doing so would imply an admission of guilt.
Likewise, the prosecution, having invested so much time, money, and institutional prestige into this case, is unlikely to back down since that could be seen as an admission that the entire process was a waste of time and energy.
And yet, that is exactly what is needed – for the good of the country.
For much of his political career, Netanyahu has cast stopping the Iranian nuclear threat as his life’s mission. And for now, it appears he has succeeded. If he were to step down at this moment, that crowning achievement – not the October 7 failures or the internal divisions that swelled during his tenure – would be the closing chapter of his legacy.
The country could say: “Thank you, Bibi. You eliminated the existential Iranian threat. We can take it from here.”
It’s time for Israel to move on. That means wrapping up the war in Gaza, bringing the hostages home, and yes – allowing Netanyahu to exit the stage with dignity. A plea bargain or presidential pardon tied to his resignation could provide the country with that opportunity.
Former US president Gerald Ford will not be remembered as one of America’s great presidents. He inherited the office after Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace and lost the next election two years later. But he did one thing for which history will praise him: he pardoned Nixon – a controversial, high-stakes decision that probably cost him his political career.
Ford’s rationale was simple: the country needed to move past Watergate, and endless litigation would prevent that from happening. His pardon brought the scandal to a close just 29 months after the original break-in at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters.
Netanyahu’s legal saga, by contrast, has dragged on now for 102 months. It’s time to close this chapter now – so we, too, can move on.