Jeremy Sharon
Times of Israel, Dec. 12, 2024
“It’s not good to be a friend of Bibi; it doesn’t help,” Netanyahu said.”
On his second day of testimony in his criminal trial, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted repeatedly that he never came to any give-and-take arrangement with business tycoon Shaul Elovitch and asserted that the allegation he received positive media coverage from Elovitch’s news website Walla was demonstrably false.
Netanyahu acknowledged in court that he had tried to get Elovitch to change the political orientation of Walla in a right-wing direction, and even went so far as to advise him to fire its staff, but maintained that the news outlet never became more favorable to him and was in fact actively hostile.
And during his testimony, the prime minister did concede that his wife Sara Netanyahu had made requests to Elovitch through a mutual friend by the name of Ze’ev Rubinstein regarding specific aspects of Walla’s news coverage, as alleged in the indictment.
But he insisted there had never been any agreement or understanding with Elovitch through which he would get positive press on the news website, describing the allegation as “ridiculous” and “absurd.” …SOURCE