Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should receive a pardon to put an end to his ongoing criminal trial as part of a deal requiring him to step down from politics, former prime minister Naftali Bennett told The Jerusalem Post in an interview on Sunday, arguing that such an arrangement would allow the country to focus on national security.
“I wouldn’t waste political capital on a pardon and on personal things,” Bennett said.
Bennett, who also leads the B’Yachad party, is one of the leading figures in the opposition bloc seeking to replace Netanyahu in the October elections.
“I don’t want to see him [Netanyahu] in jail. I think he should go home,” Bennett told the Post at the B’Yachad party headquarters.
“I would use all the political capital for Israel’s national security interests and not for other stuff,” he added.
Bennett: Netanyahu’s political strategy is tearing Israel apart
“I would use all the political capital for Israel’s national security interests and not for other stuff,” he added.
When asked whether Netanyahu had used his political capital to advance the pardon issue with US President Donald Trump, Bennett indicated he believed that it was a possibility.
“Clearly, there’s something going on there,” he said.
Bennett also said he believed Netanyahu’s political strategy was “tearing us [Israel] apart.”
“And that’s the biggest danger,” he emphasized.
Bennett added that he believed the prime minister was the person most responsible for the 2023’s October 7 Hamas massacre.
“Not only because he was prime minister and it [the massacre] was under his guard, but because he initiated the whole strategy of feeding Hamas and growing this monster bigger and bigger on your border.”
“At some point, the monster attacked. It was just so huge,” Bennett said.
Elaborating on the terms of a potential pardon deal, he noted: “The deal is he departs politics and doesn’t go to jail.”
Netanyahu departure ‘an opportunity for renaissance’
He added that Netanyahu’s departure would give Israel “an opportunity for a renaissance.”
“I think for many Israelis, he’s [Netanyahu’s] a symbol. His supporters view him as more than just a politician […] we need to unite Israel,” he said.
The prime minister is on trial in three corruption cases and faces one bribery charge alongside charges of fraud and breach of trust, all of which he denies.
Netanyahu formally submitted a request for a presidential pardon in November 2025.
Under Israel’s clemency framework, the president is the formal authority empowered to grant a pardon, but Netanyahu’s request does not pass directly from the applicant to the president.
The case has unfolded against a highly political backdrop. Trump has repeatedly and publicly urged that Netanyahu be pardoned.
In March, Trump said that Netanyahu should not be distracted by anything other than the war with Iran and called for clemency to be granted immediately.
The US president pressed the issue for months, turning what might otherwise have remained a domestic legal matter into one with a pronounced international and diplomatic dimension.
Sarah Ben-Nun contributed to this report.
