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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has requested that President Isaac Herzog pardon him of corruption charges in his five-year-long case, citing U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent request for the favor and saying that it’s necessary to advance the two leaders’ joint interests as they ravage the Middle East.

The prime minister made the request on Sunday, framing the trial as a “witch hunt” and a pardon as a way to unite Israel. In a video statement in Hebrew, he highlighted what he claimed were “tensions and disputes” between different factions of Israeli society, as a supposed result of his case.

“The continuation of the trial tears us apart from within, stirs up this division, and deepens rifts,” he said. “I am sure, like many others in the nation, that an........

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