Proposal Creates Perverse Incentive to Restart Gaza War
October 15, 2025—As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu testified today in court over longstanding corruption charges, a key political ally advanced plans to tie an exemption from that trial to wartime.
It comes just days after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war signified a “historic dawn of a new Middle East.”
Netanyahu Ally: No Trial During War
Yariv Levin is not just the Justice Minister, he is also the deputy prime minister, minister of the Interior, and minister of Religious Services. He’s also a key Netanyahu ally who, in January 2023, led the judicial overhaul plan to restrict the authority of the Supreme Court. It was a highly controversial reform that critics said posed a threat to Israeli democracy.
Today, Levin is pushing legislation to authorize the country’s defense minister to reduce or limit the corruption trial of Netanyahu “during a time of war or emergency,” according to reporting today in the Times of Israel. (The GER is not including a link due to a suspected malicious link associated with the website page.)
The proposal, not yet sent to the Knesset, is sponsored by Likud-party hardliner MK Ariel Kallner. Kallner is a hardliner who repeatedly condemned calls to bring hostages home and in August denied that people in Gaza faced hunger and famine.
The existence of the proposal is a sign that hardliners in the government may be more committed to restarting the war than to maintaining a ceasefire. Trump negotiated the cessation of hostilities in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza.
Trump’s role as mediator goes deep into domestic politics and the system of justice itself. In a speech to the Knesset on Monday, Trump called on Israelis to exonerate Netanyahu from all charges.
Netanyahu faces a series of charges related to bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. He also faces a set of investigations related to relations with Qatar and the failure to prevent the October 7 attack.
