OPINION:
President Trump’s recent posts on Truth Social urging the Israeli courts to cancel the criminal proceedings against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu surely broke a deadlock. After many failed attempts by Mr. Netanyahu’s lawyers to seek a postponement of his testimony in the government’s cases against him for bribery, fraud and breach of trust, the Israeli courts yielded this week by granting the prime minister a two-week delay. Sometimes it takes an outsider to see things with clarity.
Mr. Trump didn’t waste a minute. Within days of the U.S.-Israel tour de force strike on Iran’s well-ensconced nuclear facilities, Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social, “It is terrible what they are doing in Israel to Bibi Netanyahu…He is a War Hero…who did a fabulous job working with the United States to bring Great Success in getting rid of the dangerous Nuclear threat in Iran.” Explaining that the U.S. and Israel are in the throes of intense hostage negotiations to end the war in Gaza and that Mr. Netanyahu, as prime minister of the Jewish state, is urgently needed for these talks, Mr. Trump followed up his post the next day with an ultimatum: “LET BIBI GO, HE’S GOT A BIG JOB TO DO!”
In response, the Israeli courts granted Mr. Netanyahu a postponement of his testimony, citing diplomatic and security issues. As an American citizen, I am certainly very proud to have a president who can show courage when the situation calls for it.
But Mr. Trump went further. In his social posts and his statements to the press, he generously expressed gratitude to Mr. Netanyahu for working so closely with him on such an important mission. Mr. Trump recognized how, in strategically degrading and weakening Iran’s defenses (destroying missile launchers, eliminating nuclear scientists and military commandoes and taking control of its skies), Israel prepared the most favorable setting for the U.S. to put on display before the world its 30,000-pound bomb capable of penetrating the thickest of geological structures. The structures it penetrated housed IR-6 centrifuges, which are the most advanced ones used to enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels.
We see that Mr. Trump’s appeals to Jerusalem were indeed heeded. Now it’s time for the Jewish state to question itself. Why is it engaging in a witch hunt against its own prime minister? Are we not our brother’s keeper? Or have we sadly devolved into our brother’s prosecutor?
AMY NEUSTEIN
Fort Lee, New Jersey
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