Herzog under pressure: Debate over Netanyahu’s pardon
AMONG THE long-held laws and legal principles that have been violated and canceled is the Buzaglo Law, which does not distinguish between public officials and the average man or woman when it comes to applying the law.
Any ordinary person suspected of committing the crimes for which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is standing trial, or those of which he has been suspected but not indicted, would, at the very least, be under house arrest, if not behind bars.
The crime for which former prime minister Ehud Olmert was convicted and imprisoned was of a much lesser nature than those for which Netanyahu is being tried. In addition to corruption charges, Olmert was castigated for mishandling the security situation, and in his letter of resignation to then-president Shimon Peres in July 2008, he wrote that he was stepping down for the sake of the nation and the state.
It should be noted that for a year prior to that, Netanyahu had several times called for Olmert to quit but does not abide by the same standard when it comes to himself. Many people who have worked with the prime minister over the years have lost their own influence and have been publicly humiliated. Netanyahu has a certain finesse when he does that to people.
US President Donald Trump has another way of doing it. The accolades that he piled on Netanyahu were not in the nature of darkness before the dawn but the light before the dark. For well-informed Israelis, it was embarrassing, and judging by the expression on Netanyahu’s face, it was also embarrassing for him. When Netanyahu is happy, his face literally radiates, and the joy is reflected in his eyes. There wasn’t much of that in the press conference.
Now, to make matters worse, pressure is being applied on President Isaac Herzog to find a way to let Netanyahu off the legal hook and clear his name.
Herzog has been on the side of the families of the victims and hostages of Hamas since day one. If he gives in to the pressure, he will be yet another victim whose reputation is soiled on the altar of Bibism. If the prime minister is acquitted in court, well and good, but if there is some finagling going on to prevent his conviction, it makes a mockery of the Buzaglo Law.
Likud MK Ariel Kallner, who is in favor of a commission of inquiry composed of members of Knesset, has declared that Herzog, as the president of all the people, should not oppose such a measure. But Herzog was also the president of all those who could have been saved and were not and for that reason is more likely to act in accordance with the wishes of the bereaved families and those of surviving hostages.
Somaliland recognition: Why health came before diplomacy
ISRAEL GOT to the heart of Somaliland long before recognizing it officially and establishing diplomatic relations. Actually, Somaliland is not the first country in Africa in which Israel got to the heart of the matter prior to entering into diplomatic relations. Humanitarian needs often take precedence over diplomacy.
Organizations such as Save a Child’s Heart (SACH), IsraAID, ZAKA, Doctors Without Borders, and others engage in search and rescue missions, help hapless villages connect to water, electricity, and communication systems, treat serious illnesses and injuries regardless of the nationality or religion of the patient, set up field hospitals, and do much more.
Israel is not the only country from which NGOs provide services but is frequently the first foreign team that arrives to render assistance.
Israel has a particularly outstanding record in pediatric cardiac care, and SACH was repairing the damaged hearts of children from Somaliland as far back as 2004, in what it calls Heartbeat Diplomacy.
SACH does not allow territorial borders to impede its dedication to children with cardiac problems and, since its founding 30 years ago, has treated more than 8,000 children from 75 countries, free of charge.
In some cases, this has led to connections in other spheres and eventually to diplomatic relations.
In addition to providing life-saving treatments for children, SACH trains doctors and nurses from around the world, including countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel, and its physicians and nurses also travel to those countries to examine and diagnose children, treat them, and, if necessary, bring them and one of their parents to Israel.
Since 2004, SACH has performed surgeries in Israel on 49 children from Somaliland with complex heart problems. The surgeries have been performed at the Sylvan Adams Children’s Hospital in the Wolfson Medical Center. Of these children, 19 were treated in 2025 despite the ongoing security situation in the region.
The first young patient from Somaliland who was treated by SACH in 2004 was the child of a diplomat based in Ethiopia. The diplomat, whose child needed life-saving cardiac care, had heard of SACH and approached the Israeli embassy, which helped him make the connection.
The child’s life was saved, but the diplomat paid a price – he was dismissed from his position as punishment for visiting Israel. He expressed no regret for prioritizing his child’s life over politics.
SACH executive director Simon Fisher met Somaliland’s head of its diplomatic mission in Ethiopia in 2004. Fisher had never heard of Somaliland before, but in their conversation, the ambassador expressed appreciation for SACH’s work and said that he hoped that one day there would be diplomatic relations between Somaliland and Israel so that more children could be treated and given a better chance in life.
That day has finally arrived.
In Somaliland, SACH currently works in partnership with the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital, founded by iconic nurse Edna Adan Ismail, the first woman to serve as foreign minister of Somaliland and former first lady of Somaliland.That, too, may have contributed to the establishment of diplomatic relations.
Rivlin on Netanyahu pardon: 'Only the Court can decide'
SOME PEOPLE simply cannot retire. They may leave a certain position, but they cannot remain idle. It’s important to them to remain active and involved. One such person is former president Reuven Rivlin, who has accepted a number of positions since completing his tenure in mid-2021.
Among these positions is that of honorary chair and distinguished fellow of the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for a Shared Society at the Israel Democracy Institute.
Rivlin, 86, a lawyer by profession and a former speaker of the Knesset, has been very vocal over the issue of a pardon for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and spoke out again at the IDI’s annual conference on shared society.
“A pardon is granted after a court judgment,” he said. “Under no circumstances is it an appeal against the court or its ruling. When we find ourselves in a situation in which a public figure is in confrontation with the public itself and with the authorities – both the judicial and investigative authorities – we are in an almost impossible situation: a person accuses the state of conspiring to persecute him, and the state has filed an indictment.
“When you are a defendant and you accuse the state, someone must determine who is right. Can the president of the state serve as a judge between the contending sides? Of course not. It is the court that must make that determination.”
That could let President Herzog off the hook in having to make a decision that could cause him grief either way.
There’s also the question of impartiality or otherwise on the part of the figures with whom Netanyahu and Justice Minister Yariv Levin are in confrontation. It’s going to become more complicated as the date of the Knesset elections draws closer.
Let’s not forget that Rivlin belongs to the same political party as Netanyahu, and there may be other members of the party who think as he does.
Jews for Judaism: Rabbi Kravitz speaks in Jerusalem
WHETHER ONE is religiously observant or not, one should be reasonably familiar with the rules and traditions of the faith into which one is born. In the case of Jews, this is particularly important because so much defamatory speech is directed against religious practice – not only by antisemites but also by some secular Jews. This is a case in which ignorance is anything but bliss and can lead to needless divisiveness.
As far as non-Jews are concerned, it’s flabbergasting to realize how, in 2026, there are still people who don’t believe that Christ was a Jew and that he was killed by the Romans and not by the Jews. This is a continuing example of centuries of fake history.
A prominent figure in setting the record straight about Jewish history and observance is Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz, founder of Jews for Judaism, who, for the past 40 years, has been refuting missionaries and religious coercion.
Kravitz will be speaking at the headquarters of Chabad of Rehavia and Nachlaot in Jerusalem on Tuesday, January 6, at 8 p.m. The address is 2 Ibn Ezra Street, Jerusalem, just off Keren Kayemet Street.
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