Elinor Shirkani Kofman and Erez Linn
Israel Hayom, Dec. 10, 2024
“Netanyahu added that he could have gained favorable media coverage by simply “moving a few steps to the left” but chose instead to maintain positions he believed were “essential to ensure our existence.””
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the stand Tuesday in his long-running corruption trial, revealing stark disagreements with then-President Barack Obama administration over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and regional influence – disputes he described as central to his tenure during the period covered by the indictment.
In nearly three hours of testimony in the Tel Aviv District Court, Netanyahu pushed back against prosecutors’ portrayal of him as a leader preoccupied with media coverage and luxury gifts. Instead, he detailed high-stakes diplomatic confrontations that he said shaped Israel’s security landscape.
“Obama made it clear to me that US policy was going to take a sharp turn against the ideas I believed in,” Netanyahu testified, recounting his earliest interactions with the former US president. “He saw Iran not as a threat but as an opportunity and saw a vital need for us to return to the ’67 lines and establish a Palestinian state here.”
The testimony offered a rare glimpse into the diplomatic tensions that marked US-Israel relations during that period. Netanyahu recounted a particularly pointed exchange with then-Secretary of State John Kerry over security arrangements in the West Bank. According to his testimony, Kerry dismissed Israeli security concerns by citing American training of Palestinian forces. “Kerry explained to me that my fear of placing security in Judea and Samaria in Palestinian forces’ hands was unfounded because the Americans were training Palestinian forces and we could withdraw. Obama suggested I make a secret visit to Afghanistan to see how American forces were training local forces. I told him the moment you leave Afghanistan, these forces will collapse under Islamist forces, and that’s exactly what happened.”…SOURCE