{"id":288531,"date":"2026-02-13T01:50:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T01:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/288531\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T01:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T01:50:07","slug":"president-isaac-herzog-ponders-trumps-benjamin-netanyahu-pardon-request","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/288531\/","title":{"rendered":"President Isaac Herzog ponders Trump&#8217;s Benjamin Netanyahu pardon request"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ABU DHABI &#8211; President Isaac Herzog was en route back to Israel from Australia on Thursday night when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/middle-east\/iran-news\/article-886533\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">United States President Donald Trump<\/a> publicly urged him to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he should be \u201cashamed\u201d for not doing so.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">\u201cI think the people of Israel should really shame him. He\u2019s disgraceful for not giving it. He should give it,\u201d Trump said during a White House event.<\/p>\n<p>The comments reached Herzog mid-flight, aboard a commercial airliner carrying him and his delegation home after a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/diaspora\/article-886288\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">four-day visit<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">On the flight, Herzog gathered his advisers and staff to help formulate a response at 30,000 feet.<\/p>\n<p>In a written statement issued from the plane, the President\u2019s Residence\u00a0stated that the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\/politics-and-diplomacy\/article-876684\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">prime minister\u2019s pardon request<\/a> is currently with the Justice Ministry for a legal opinion and that only after this\u00a0process is complete will Herzog consider it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">\u201cOnly after the process is concluded will the president examine the request in accordance with the law, the good of the state, and his conscience \u2014 and without any influence from external or internal pressures of any kind,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n<p>It added that Herzog \u201cappreciates President Trump for his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/international\/article-886531\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">significant contribution<\/a> to the State of Israel and its security,\u201d while stressing that Israel is \u201ca sovereign state governed by the rule of law\u201d and that no decision has yet been made.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Asked by one of the reporters traveling with him for his personal reaction, Herzog replied: \u201cTo the best of my recollection, I am the president of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Asked repeatedly during his trip about the pardon, Herzog replied that it was currently being examined according to the recognized practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ABU DHABI &#8211; President Isaac Herzog was en route back to Israel from Australia on Thursday night when&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,54,85,2894,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-288531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-isaac-herzog","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}