2 days ago
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Trump Tries to Issue a Pardon—in Israel
President Trump has taken up a new cause: the Benjamin Netanyahu innocence project. 'It is a POLITICAL WITCH HUNT, very similar to the Witch Hunt that I was forced to endure,' he wrote on Truth Social on Saturday, one of three posts against the Israeli Prime Minister's trial, which has dragged on since 2020. 'LET BIBI GO, HE'S GOT A BIG JOB TO DO!'
The President isn't the first to wonder, 'How is it possible that the Prime Minister of Israel can be forced to sit in a Courtroom all day long, over NOTHING'? At issue are vague breach-of-trust charges over his alleged receipt, from 2007 to 2016, of gifts of cigars and champagne valued at some $200,000 in total, plus a novel legal theory that construes positive news coverage as an illegal bribe.
But the workings of Israel's overactive legal system and domestic politics aren't within a U.S. President's purview. We doubt Mr. Trump is familiar with the details of the Netanyahu case, nor should he be. It isn't America's place to say, as Mr. Trump has, that 'Bibi Netanyahu's trial should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY,' or to threaten, 'We are not going to stand for this' after mentioning U.S. military aid. That aid furthers a strategic purpose, as all the world saw this June in Iran, not a political one.
We criticized Joe Biden in 2023 for intervening in Israel's judicial debate. That looked like an effort to topple Mr. Netanyahu, whereas Mr. Trump's is to prop him up. Neither is appropriate for an ally, and neither is in the long-term interest of the U.S.-Israel alliance.
