When the ceasefire agreement in Gaza was not yet reached, something even more shocking happened in the Israeli parliament. In a speech in Jerusalem, U.S. President Trump publicly called for amnesty for Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is facing a corruption trial.
On October 13, 2025, U.S. President Trump suddenly turned to Israeli President Herzog during an hour-long speech, pointing to Prime Minister Netanyahu beside him and laughing: “Give him a pardon, come.”
This improvised statement made the five-year corruption case of Netanyahu instantly a global focus.
The investigation began in 2015 and was formally prosecuted for three charges of bribery, fraud, and defamation in 2019, after a 2020 trial, which has stalled due to the outbreak of the conflict in Gaza.
Now that a cease-fire agreement has been reached, the "war shadow" has quietly fallen, and the Jerusalem district court has explicitly asked Netanyahu to attend hearings three times a week from November, a case expected to be ruled in 2026, such a "wartime prime minister" and a "tribunal defendant" dual status that is unprecedented in Israeli history.
Netanyahu’s legal trouble is by no means a simple judicial case.Accusation papers show that he is suspected of receiving $28,000 worth of cigars, champagne and jewelry from businessman Arnon Mileham in return for providing policy facilities to his media group.
Although he repeatedly claimed in public that this was a "political persecution" planned by left-wing forces, the more than 2,000 pages of evidence submitted by the Israeli Attorney General's Office, including telephone recordings and email exchanges, directly pointed to his alleged use of his power for personal gain.
More controversially, opponents have publicly questioned the prime minister’s intention to extend military operations to delay the trial during the Gaza conflict, while Netanyahu’s Likud group has responded that the judiciary system is becoming a tool of political struggle, an offensive that has deeply divided Israeli society.
Trump's cross-border intervention made the situation worse. In fact, this is not the first time he has intervened. In June 2025, he called the trial a "political witch hunt" on the "Truth Social" platform, calling for the immediate cancellation of the lawsuit or the initiation of a pardon.
This direct interference from outside forces has sparked a strong rebel inside Israel, with former Prime Minister Olmert saying in an interview with the National Interest that "the pardon will destroy the foundations of the rule of law established in Israel in the past 75 years," a recent poll showed 66% of the Israeli population opposed to foreign leaders' interference in domestic affairs.
While President Herzog has publicly stated that “no one can be above the law,” the constitutional amnesty gives the situation a variation – if an amnesty procedure is initiated, Israel’s judicial independence will face unprecedented challenges.
If the trial is persisted, Netanyahu and his supporters may incite a larger social opposition on the grounds of "political persecution". At present, Likud has organized a number of solidarity rallies of 10,000 people to confront the protests of opponents.
The sharp political turmoil coincides with the sensitive moment of deep adjustment of the Middle East pattern, and Netanyahu’s trouble is becoming a key variable in the regional game.
The change in Saudi Arabia's attitude is particularly obvious. In his speech to the UN General Assembly in September 2025, Foreign Minister Faisal not only condemned Israel's military actions against Gaza, but also clearly regarded recognition of the Palestinian state as a prerequisite for normalizing relations with Israel. This is in sharp contrast to the "Deal of the Century" negotiations that will be actively promoted in 2023.
Saudi King Salman subsequently stressed at the Riyadh summit that "the Palestinian issue is at the heart of the Arab world," a shift in stance that directly weakened Netanyahu's regional strategic code.
At the same time, Iran continues to expand its deterrence through proxy forces. Since October 2025, the frequency of attacks by Hezbollah in Lebanon on Israel's northern border has increased by 40% compared with the previous month.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr. Baghe, said at a routine press conference that “Israel’s internal fragmentation is a warning for regional stability,” a superposition of external pressure and internal unrest that greatly narrowed Israel’s strategic choice space.
While Trump’s “remission call” was aimed at domestic conservative voters, it seriously damaged relations with traditional U.S. allies, an Israeli Jerusalem Post poll showed that 72% of Israelis thought the move “destroyed the basis of mutual trust” between the two countries.
What is even more difficult is that Israel's far-right forces have taken the opportunity to expand their say. National Security Minister Ben-Gwier and Finance Minister Smotrih have publicly stated that if Hamas refuses to disarm during the second phase of the ceasefire, they will withdraw from the coalition government and promote the resumption of military operations.
This cabinet split has brought the U.S.-led "Middle East Security Architecture" plan to a standstill. Secretary of State Blinken admitted at a recent congressional hearing that "the uncertainty of Israel's political situation poses challenges to regional stability", reflecting the U.S. strategy towards the Middle East. out of control worries.
The reason why the chaos in Israeli politics affects China is that a deeply bound network of pragmatic cooperation has long formed between China and Israel.
This cooperation is not a simple economic and trade exchange, but a stereotypical layout covering multiple strategic areas such as infrastructure, scientific and technological innovation and energy security.
On August 31, 2025, the Tel Aviv Green Line Light Rail G3-2 project, built by Chinese buildings, achieved a full-line shield tunnel, and Ambassador Xi Jinping and President of the National Metropolitan Railway Transportation Company of Israel, Itamar, jointly attended the joint ceremony, which will run through Tel Aviv's core commercial and residential district, and will increase the efficiency of the city's transportation by 35%.
But now political unrest could lead to the blocking of subsequent electrical installation projects, and the project manager revealed in an interview that he was "watching political changes closely and formulating emergency plans to respond to possible policy adjustments."
Also faced with uncertainty is Givatt's 106 housing projects, as the Chinese enterprise is in the first housing development project, its approval process has been delayed for two weeks because of the parliamentary session, this policy swing could trigger the risk of contract change.
The indirect impact of energy security cannot be ignored either. Israel's Leviathan natural gas field development project in the Mediterranean has technical cooperation with China energy companies. In 2025, the two sides originally planned to start the construction of liquefied natural gas export facilities to expand China's diversified energy import channels.
However, since October, the approval process has been delayed by a month due to the Israeli government’s priority to address the domestic crisis.
More importantly, after the Israeli reopening of Rafah Border Crossing, humanitarian relief and energy supply restoration in the Gaza Strip have become the focus, which may further divert the government's attention from energy cooperation projects.
In an interview with Financial Times, Chinese energy experts analyzed that “any fluctuation in the Middle East energy pattern will be transmitted to China through international markets, and Israeli political unrest has increased uncertainty in the energy supply chain.”
When Netanyahu is tired of running between court and parliament, when the Middle East landscape is washed off by a partial split within Israel, what China shows in this shift is not a mere interest claim, but a multilateral cooperation philosophy.
From the day-to-day hanging of the dragon doors at the Haifa Newport container terminal to the equipment decommissioned by engineers in the Innova Park, these pragmatic cooperation results are far more vital than political slogans.
In this land of uncertainty in the Middle East, China is linking the Belt and Road initiative to transform short-term project risks into long-term strategic opportunities, a cooperation model based on mutual respect and common development that may be the key to breaking the geopolitical trouble.
With the advancement of the Israeli judicial process and the evolution of the regional pattern, China-Israel cooperation faces both challenges and the possibility of deepening in the change.
The reference information:
Trump Calls for President’s Amnesty for Netanyahu – Reference News