It is not entirely clear why Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, had to testify, which would take at least two days of hearings. With the exception of one essential element, his testimony in court was consistent with his testimony to the police, including the use of identical forms of expression. Naturally, the prosecution highlighted certain statements from the interrogation of the former communications minister, while the defense emphasized those to the contrary.
In the end, both are in his testimony, and the parties' attempts to portray Erdan as the ambassador for the prosecution or defense were not quite successful. From the legal point of view, his testimony is quite milky and it was enough to submit his interrogation to the police.
Get the job done
Nonetheless, an examination of Erdan's testimony to the police compared to his testimony in court reveals one substantial discrepancy. Erdan said that after Netanyahu informed him that he could no longer serve in two ministries simultaneously – home front defense and communications – and that he wanted him to replace Gideon Sa'ar in the Interior Ministry, Erdan asked for two more weeks to complete tasks in the Ministry of Communications.
During those two weeks, Erdan managed to sign the wholesale market reform against Bezeq. Netanyahu's lawyer, Boaz Ben-Tzur, asked Erdan whether, when he asked Netanyahu for more time, he shared what he wanted to do. A positive answer would have been very beneficial to the defense, since it follows that Netanyahu authorized Erdan to act against Elovitch in complete contravention of the alleged bribery deal. Erdan stuck to police testimony and claimed that he did not share.
Where did Erdan testify differently from his testimony to the police? In court, he said that he asked for two weeks because he wanted to complete the reforms so that the credit for them would be in his name, and to the police he provided another reason: "I know the attempts by Bezeq and Shaul Elovitch to stop it."
The Special Interview
The defense had an interest in not being satisfied with submitting Erdan's testimony to the police. In the past, I exposed correspondence between Erdan during his time as Likud's campaign manager in the 2013 elections and Ilan Yeshua, which allegedly indicate a juxtaposition between Walla's coverage of Walla and Walla Mardan's requests for publication. Erdan expressed his displeasure with two publications and wrote to Yeshua: "You stuck us all day with Bennett like Ynet."
He demanded that a propaganda video distributed by the party be posted as a news article, and was answered the same day. The next day, Yeshua spoke with Arden's assistant about money. "What should I do for 1.3 [million shekels, P.S.], I'm ready to commit suicide," he wrote, adding: "Help me brother." In addition to the request, an article was published on the same day in Walla covering a Facebook post by Erdan.
The next day he was invited to a "special interview" at the Walla studio with Yinon Magal, in which he laid out the campaign's messages. The incident took place on December 25, two days before the famous meeting between the Netanyahu couple and Elovitchim. Some of the correspondence has already been slammed into a tree of salvation, and it is possible that they will still surface today.
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