On 1st day in witness box, Netanyahu switches from divisive wartime leader to defiant accused criminal

From the moment he stepped back into the prime minister's job over two years ago, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to do whatever he could to stop, defer or otherwise avoid this day.

On Tuesday, the 75-year-old became the first sitting Israeli leader to appear as a defendant in a criminal case when he took the witness stand and began testifying in his own defence.

Netanyahu was charged in 2019 with fraud, bribery and breach of trust but his trial was repeatedly delayed — first for the COVID-19 pandemic, then for the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and subsequently because his lawyers argued Israel's ongoing wars against Hamas and Hezbollah made Netanyahu too busy to attend.

But with his final appeals exhausted, a combative Netanyahu showed up surrounded by supporters at a high-security Tel Aviv courthouse Tuesday and proceeded to launch volley after volley of incendiary attacks against the media,  prosecutors and his political foes. 

Answering softball questions from his own defence lawyer, Israel's longest-serving prime minister spent most of his time as a witness railing against 'leftist" media, saying they are so irrelevant he'd never waste his time trying to gain their favour — a key aspect of the prosecution's case against him.

On the three counts of corruption he's facing, he said it was "simply absurd" that he and his wife, Sara, accepted almost $200,000 Cdn in gifts — cigars, champagne and jewelry — from rich businessmen in exchange for political favours.   

On the charge that he traded favours with the owners of a prominent Israeli newspaper to get positive coverage,  Netanyahu went on another tirade, accusing reporters and media publications of "bias" and being a "great danger" to Israeli democracy.

And finally, on the question of whether he used his position as the head of Israel's government to bestow regulatory favours on an Israeli telecommunications firm to — again — get more positive media coverage, he denied any wrongdoing.

"There was no 'understanding,' no corruption, no nothing," he said, suggesting the entirety of the cases against him were politically motivated.

'Witch hunt'

The evening before, at a combative press conference, Netanyahu called the trial a "political witch hunt" that had "ruined the lives of dozens of people" caught up in it.

For Israel's longest-serving prime minister and leader, the personal and political risks of the trial could not be greater.

If found guilty,  the criminal penalties could be up to 10 years in prison. 

But as he began what's expected to be a month of testimony, it appeared that Netanyahu was most concerned with his political legacy.

"For sure, he would not want his legacy to be … him on a defendant's seat in a courtroom,  but rather as a leader who instructs commanders of the military in a strategic point in the Golan Heights," said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem-based political think tank. 

Plesner told CBC News that although Netanyahu got off to a predictably combative start, it's unclear how his belligerence will play once he faces cross-examination by prosecutors or has to speak directly to the panel of judges.

"Netanyahu is the most divisive figure in the country's history," said Plesner.

His supporters frame him as a defender of Israel, who is tough on security and espouses a strong sense of Jewish national identity, Plesner said. 

However, Netanyahu's many detractors blame him for eroding Israel's democratic institutions, bringing about record levels of polarization in society and "overseeing the worst security catastrophe in the country's history" with the Oct. 7 attacks, Plesner added. 

As his testimony unfolds over the next month that he's expected to be on the witness stand, observers expect Netanyahu will continue to attack the justice system for putting him on trial while at the same time trying to drag out the proceedings as long as possible. 

Defence strategy 

"There are two layers of his defence," said Gayil Talshir, author of a book on the politician and a professor at Jerusalem's Hebrew University.

"One is to say, 'The courts are just persecuting me because they are part of the opposition and the opposition cannot win in elections,'" she said.

"The other line is that Netanyahu is going to say that he was not part of it ... that he didn't know a lot about the issues that the state is actually prosecuting him for, [that] he has more important security issues to deal with."

Talshir also told CBC News that Netanyahu will likely continue to draw out the case as long as possible.

"He doesn't want to get to the verdict," she said. 

Indeed, Netanyahu's political rivals repeatedly accused him of dragging out the war in Gaza and sacrificing the lives of both Israeli hostages and Palestinians in Gaza to give him an excuse to avoid taking the witness stand.

Netanyahu's Likud party is part of a coalition of far-right Jewish parties whose members have been vocal about their desire to continue with the war, arguing that the best outcome for Israel would be to push much of the Palestinian population out of Gaza and resettle the territory with Jews.

Both sides of Israel's highly polarized society were on display outside the Tel Aviv courtroom where Netanyahu was testifying. 

Yael Navon was among the protesters demanding he resign immediately, saying being the defendant in a major criminal trial and leading the country are fundamentally incompatible. 

"All of us want our hostages out and in his position, he can't do it," she told CBC News.

Meanwhile, Asaf Sokolowski said he believed the charges against Netanyahu were politically motivated.

"We see this as an attack on us, his supporters. An attack on at least half of Israelis," he said. 

Netanyahu will face legal troubles if ever leaves Israel, too. 

Last month,  the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him, accusing Netanyahu of crimes against humanity in relation to Israel's 14-month war in Gaza.

He has also been accused by rights groups, such as Amnesty International, of leading a genocide against Palestinians and waging an immoral war against civilians.

But as Netanyahu settled in for what will be a marathon of thrust-and-parry with prosecutors over the next month, the prime minister's focus appeared exclusively on winning over a domestic audience.

In the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Canadian-Israeli columnist Dahlia Scheindlin wrote that Netanyahu gave long-winded answers to present himself as a "global statesman" and the only person able to stand up to the "nefarious forces" challenging Israel.

It's a line of defence that may have little relevance to the criminal charges he's facing. But it could be very important in solidifying his position with Israeli voters at election time.