LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has requested a pardon to put an end to his corruption trial. Netanyahu has been fighting bribery and other corruption charges for nearly six years. He's accused of granting favors to media moguls and in return getting champagne, cigars and positive press coverage. Now Netanyahu is asking Israel's president to grant him a pardon even before the trial is over. President Trump has been calling for that, too. NPR's Daniel Estrin is on the line from Tel Aviv to talk about this. Good morning, Daniel.
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: OK, so help us put this into context. Why is Netanyahu seeking a pardon now after all these years?
ESTRIN: Netanyahu has always said he's innocent, and now he says the court is taking too much of his time. He is being asked to testify in court three days a week. And now after two years of war, he says he has security and diplomatic moves that he wants to pursue with President Trump. He is not asking for a usual kind of pardon.
FADEL: Oh.
ESTRIN: He's asking to cancel his trial before a verdict is issued without professing remorse, without offering to step down from public office. And his other argument here is that canceling the trial would unify Israelis. In fact, this whole question of a pardon is polarizing Israelis now. And analysts here think that Netanyahu is doing this to help win reelection. There's an election coming up in the coming year and focusing on his trial actually energizes his right-wing base. It distracts from his Achilles heel, which is his role in Israel's biggest security failure in history, the Hamas attack October 7, 2023.
FADEL: So now it's up to Israel's president to decide whether Netanyahu gets this pardon. Do you have a sense of what he's likely to decide?
ESTRIN: Well, you have to understand who is the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog. He's from the center left. So ideologically, he is Netanyahu's opposite. Netanyahu is on the right. But he is president. He plays a ceremonial role, and he seeks consensus. We do know that he has long called for some kind of deal to end Netanyahu's legal saga. So there is a lot of speculation that he will yes to a pardon, but kind of a yes-but.
FADEL: OK.
ESTRIN: That he would agree to a pardon, but he would make sure Netanyahu would have to pay a price for it, like perhaps finally agreeing to an official inquiry into Netanyahu's role in the October 7 security failure. I spoke to a source close to the president in Israel on condition of anonymity who said that he's been consistent on the need for an October 7 inquiry, which Netanyahu has resisted this entire time. And he's been consistent on the need for a broad consensus on how to move Israel forward post-October 7. But we don't know yet if he'll tie that issue to the question of a pardon. It's going to take many weeks for the president to decide.
FADEL: Right, and this is all happening amid a lot of uncertainty about what happens next in Gaza. What's the latest there?
ESTRIN: A ceasefire was declared eight weeks ago in Gaza, but despite that, Israeli forces have killed hundreds of Palestinians - militants, civilians and children. And this weekend, Gaza health officials said an Israeli drone strike killed two boys around 9 and 10 years old as they were crossing into Israeli-controlled territory, where the dividing line is not clearly marked. The military declined comment about them being children but said they were suspicious and threatening troops.
So there really is no clarity on the next steps in the ceasefire. Hamas is supposed to lay down its weapons. An international stabilization force is supposed to be sent to Gaza. We don't know when that will happen. And there are concerns about a significant escalation on Israel's border with Lebanon. There's a U.S. deadline for the Hezbollah militia to disarm by the end of the year and that's unlikely to be met.
FADEL: NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv. Thank you, Daniel.
ESTRIN: You're welcome.
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