Grandfather of slain soldier yells at Netanyahu at defense trial in Tel Aviv

Kleinman referenced an article Netanyahu gave to Ynet in 2019, which, when he won the elections at the time, he struggled to form a coalition. 

At the time, he went on a media blitz. During the interview, Kleinman presented, he had asked the interviewer to take her earpiece out, “because they’re bugging you back there to bother him [Netanyahu].” 

Kleinman asked if his subjective impression of Ynet had changed at all by that point, if he saw it as less left-wing. Netanyahu responded that the bigger question is whether he should’ve gone to the interview at all - meaning that his stance and impression hadn’t changed.

Referencing the recorded fourth meeting between Netanyahu and Mozes, which contains the line that the prosecution based the bribery charge on - “I will do my utmost” in English - per Kleinman, she asked Netanyahu what he understood Mozes’s intention to be with this line.

“I never took this as bribery. I saw it as a general statement that he would try to get to it, not at all something specific. I didn’t take it that seriously, nor did anybody else,” Netanyahu said on Tuesday.

Kleinman presented an article, including an interview, in 2015, that Netanyahu gave to a Russian-language publication under the auspices of Yediot, and asked how this tracks with the media ban Netanyahu allegedly had on Mozes’ corporation.

Netanyahu said that it was so insignificant, he doesn’t even remember it.

Asaf Agmon, the grandfather of slain soldier Gur Kehati, who was killed when the IDF scoured southern Lebanon in November 2024, yelled towards Netanyahu as he exited the room during a break, “Take off the hostage pin! I brought you flip flops that I bought with my own money, not with Qatari money!”

Netanyahu supporters scuffled with Agmon. Kehati was killed when a group of soldiers fought Hezbollah fighters, and archaeologist Ze'ev Erlich was killed; Kehati was nearby.

Criticism later arose towards the IDF for allowing the entry of a civilian into an active war zone, and particularly by Kehati's family, which saw the decision as what cost Gur his life. 

"My interest when it came to Israel Hayom was to have a place for right-wing opinions and editorial stances to exist, which there was no landing spot for at the time,” Netanyahu said.

“Objectivity doesn’t exist in journalism. Papers are always personal, and that’s not a bad thing; there should be space for the entire political spectrum,” he said.

Netanyahu said he didn’t track the growth in print of Israel Hayom in real time, and that he of course didn’t assert that Mozes stood behind the legislation against the tabloid. 

“I knew it bothered Mozes, but it didn’t reach those levels. Either way, it wasn’t something I dealt with,” he said. 

“In the broader media landscape, any legislation didn’t matter. Israel Hayom was a beast in the media that wasn’t getting stopped by anything,” he added.

Netanyahu repeated what he said in previous testimonies, that he saw Mozes as the person truly leading the emerging alliance between his two rivals at the time, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid. 

Kleinman focused her questions on the relationship between Netanyahu and Sheldon Adelson, the late Israel Hayom owner, as well as the paper’s then editor-in-chief Amos Regev, with specific focus on the circumstances in place when the paper started. 

She presented testimony of Netanyahu having gotten an invite to Adelson’s wedding in 1991. 

“I tried to pivot anyone I knew to the Israeli media scene. I told him [Adelson], ‘Try to invest as much as you can in Israeli journalism,’” said Netanyahu. He added that he tried to broaden it as much as possible, especially in print news. “The situation was ridiculous then, as it is today,” he said. 

Separately, following a slew of objections and repeated clashes between the prosecution and the defense over the past few trial sessions, lead Judge Rivka Friedman-Feldman called for calm, and asked the prosecution to be “flexible,” and if the defense questions don’t stray too much from their intended format, that the prosecution let it slide. 

The criminal trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened in the Tel Aviv District Court on Tuesday. Today the prime minister will be questioned, in the direct-examination section of the trial, by Sharon Kleinman, the attorney of Arnon “Noni” Mozes. 

Kleinman will question Netanyahu on behalf of Mozes, the owner of Yediot Aharonot. Allegedly, Mozes offered a bribe to Netanyahu by proposing positive coverage of him and his family in the prominent daily and negative coverage of political opponents, in exchange for the advancement of legislation that would force restrictions on Yediot’s rival daily tabloid, Israel Hayom. Netanyahu was charged with fraud and breach of trust, while Mozes was charged with attempted bribery.

This series of questioning, by the representatives of the three other defendants in the trial - Mozes, and Shaul and Iris Elovich, which took place last week - is set to conclude this week. The trial will then head into cross-examination by the prosecution. 

This next stage will determine the course of Netanyahu’s legacy and political future. 

Outside the courthouse, protesters chanted, “Netanyahu, you abandoned the hostages!”