By Nick O’Malley
Trump went so far as to link US military aid to the issue. “The United States of America spends Billions of Dollar a year, far more than on any other Nation, protecting and supporting Israel. We are not going to stand for this.”
Then, on Sunday, an Israeli court announced that it had accepted a request from Netanyahu to defer hearings to be held next week after meeting with the prime minister and security officials. “Following the explanations given … we partially accept the request and cancel at this stage Mr Netanyahu’s hearings scheduled” for this week, the Jerusalem district court said in its ruling, subsequently posted by Netanyahu’s Likud party.
In truth, says Jonathan Rynhold, a professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv, the decision had nothing to do with Trump. Netanyahu has been successfully slow-walking his trial on bribery and fraud charges for half a decade so far. The case has even dragged in the Australian James Packer, named as one of the suppliers of $US195,000 worth of champagne and cigars, though not accused of any wrongdoing.
“The reason the trial takes such a long time is because he’s always got some reason why he can’t testify,” says Rynhold. “And some of it is justified because, you know, there are a lot of important things going on.”