What happened
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu testified Tuesday at his corruption trial, becoming Israel’s first sitting leader to take the stand as a criminal defendant. The trial has been underway for four years.
Who said what
Allegations of Netanyahu’s corruption have “defined and disrupted Israeli public life for nearly a decade,” The New York Times said. His legal perils have “bitterly divided Israelis and shook Israeli politics through five rounds of elections,” Reuters said, though Hamas’ Oct. 7 surprise attack pushed the allegations “off the public agenda as Israelis came together in grief and trauma.”
Netanyahu derided the bribery, fraud and breach of trust allegations in a bid to “dwarf the events described in the indictment and present them as minor details unworthy of a leader of his stature,” Haaretz said. Netanyahu testified he was glad to “refute the ridiculous charges” against him, while complaining that he was busy “managing a country” at war “on seven fronts.”
What next?
Beginning next week, “Netanyahu will be required to testify three days a week, six hours per day, for several weeks,” The Washington Post said. Initially, he will “answer open-ended questions from his own attorneys,” and “political observers say Netanyahu may try to avoid” the subsequent grilling by prosecutors “for as long as possible.”