Netanyahu's trial: Tadmor probes prime minister's relationship with Milchan

Tadmor asked to clarify the inconsistency: “If you had no plans to return to politics, why allow such an amendment to proceed?”

Netanyahu responded that he pushed against it, despite his threats to pull out of the Likud primary race at the time if it were to proceed. 

“From 1999 until 2002, I was out of the political picture, both because I couldn’t get back in, and I also didn’t want to,” he explained. 

Tadmor pointed out that Netanyahu viewing and calling himself a “political carcass” is not an account he told police in his interrogations, and also that one month after he lost the Likud primaries in 2002 to Sharon, he was made finance minister and later foreign minister - how could he have asserted that his political career was over when he jumped right into it? 

Netanyahu stood on his response, that in between the years 1999 and 2002, he never wanted to return to politics, and that this was clear to his close circles, people like Milchan. 

Tadmor insisted that this wasn’t true in 2002. 

Netanyahu responded, “What was I returning to? Sharon offered me the finance ministry, followed by the foreign ministry. At the time, Israel was in its worst financial position it had been in years. I knew that if I took these positions, they would bury me, and even more than that - I never stood a chance to become prime minister.” 

He continued, “So I asked myself: If I were to become prime minister again, why would that be? I saw the Iranian challenge, the financial one - I knew that the price for it though would be massive. But, I figured I would fulfill at least one of my goals - to shift the financial situation.” 

He added that he knew, going into it, that it was political suicide. 

What this does is underscore the prosecution’s position, that his political reality changed or was influenced by his friendship with Milchan. 

Prosecution representative attorney Yehonatan Tadmor picked up from where he left off yesterday, surrounding the “Bibi Law,” which passed in 2002 but the government quickly fell soon after. 

The defense immediately pushed back on the question, arguing that the prosecution cannot use evidence outside the court materials in the testimony. Tadmor argued that what he was presenting isn’t contradictory to the evidence; it is material that is common knowledge. 

Lead Judge Rivka Friedman-Feldman noted that this is clearly a way for the prosecution to get the same result it wants - the answers it is angling for - just in a roundabout way. Tadmor argued that he has no way to present his own thesis without using outside materials. 

Judge Oded Shaham insisted that the decision issued by the three yesterday - “which we all remember clearly” - specified that submitting evidence during cross-examination is not within the accepted legal framework. 

The case in focus is Case 1000, or the “Illegal Gifts” affair, where Netanyahu is on trial for advancing legislation favorable to his former friend-turned state's witness - Hollywood producer and billionaire Arnon Milchan - while receiving gifts from him in the form of cigars and champagne, worth thousands of shekels.

Tadmor’s thesis is that an attempted amendment to Basic Law: The Government - which would have allowed for the election of a prime minister who had already been prime minister to run again - was advanced with Netanyahu in mind. The bill, dubbed the “Netanyahu Law,” passed initial readings in the Knesset December 18, 2000, in a 63-45 vote. 

In the end, Ariel Sharon won those elections, and the proposed amendment never saw the light of day. 

Tadmor explained that the law could have only applied to him, as he was the only relevant public figure it would have related to at the time. The question then, regarding those years, is the relevance of the friendship with Milchan at the time - around 1999, when it would have carried political consequences.

Tadmor asked Netanyahu what he knew of the public’s perception of the law itself. “I understood at the time that some people wanted me back, but I knew that I had no intention to, a sentiment I shared with Arnon Milchan.”

He added, pointedly, “I said this to you yesterday: I had no intention to return to politics.”

The cross-examination of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began on Wednesday, the second day of testimony hearings in the Tel Aviv District Court, as reports emerged of a coalition schism that could bring about the downfall of the government.