Israeli President Wants Netanyahu to Seek Plea Deal Before Potential Pardon

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on April 26 that he is not ready to consider a pardon for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Herzog said he first wants Netanyahu to make every effort to reach a plea deal in the long-running corruption trial.

“The President therefore believes that before addressing the pardon request itself, efforts should first be exhausted to reach an agreement between the parties, outside the courtroom,” ​Herzog wrote in a statement.

Netanyahu faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.

The Epoch Times contacted Netanyahu’s office for comment on Herzog’s statement on April 26 but did not hear back by publication time.

Netanyahu has denied all of the charges and, in November 2025, requested that the president pardon him, which is allowed under Israeli law.

“I expect that anyone who wishes for the good of the country [will] support this step,” Netanyahu said in a video statement released by his political party, the Likud, in November 2025.

Netanyahu, who recently revealed that he quietly beat early-stage prostate cancer earlier this year, is the first sitting prime minister in the country to be charged with a crime, although former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resigned in 2008 following recommendations by the Israeli police and was subsequently charged.

Netanyahu’s trial started in 2020 but was repeatedly delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and conflicts in the Middle East that required him to focus on his official duties.

There is no clear path forward on whether a president can issue a pardon in the middle of a trial, before a verdict or plea deal has been reached.

Still, Netanyahu’s lawyers suggested last year that a pardon would heal divisions in the country and strengthen national unity.

The request has received full support from close ally U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly requested that Netanyahu be pardoned.

“He’s a wartime prime minister who’s a hero. How do you not give a pardon?” Trump said while standing next to Netanyahu after a meeting in Florida in late December 2025.

At the time, Trump said that a pardon for Netanyahu was “on its way.”

The two world leaders have been working very closely during Operation Epic Fury, which started on Feb. 28 as U.S. and Israeli forces targeted the Iranian regime.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid previously requested that Herzog deny Netanyahu’s pardon request unless he admits guilt and permanently leaves political life.

Lapid also shared well wishes after learning of the leader’s cancer diagnosis.

“I wish Prime Minister Netanyahu good health, complete recovery, and long life,” Lapid wrote in an X post on April 24.

Reuters contributed to this report.