Frequently pausing the playback to point out important details her audience might otherwise have missed.
Tel Aviv, December 15 - Court proceedings regarding corruption allegations against Israel's prime minister have suffered repeated interruption, witnesses say, because the presiding justice has persistently stopped those proceedings to catch up on the latest video clips of Israeli airstrikes against military stockpiles and assets of the former Assad regime, lest they call into the hands of various jihadi rebel groups who also see Israel as an enemy.
Israeli premier Binyamin Netanyahu's trial for improper receipt of gifts, known in local shorthand as "Case 4000," began over the last week. Trouble began early, even as prosecutors began their opening statements, when, after about three minutes of the State Attorney starting to lay out the conceptual basis for the case against the prime minister, Judge Agatha Sidis of Tel Aviv-Yafo District Court ordered her to pause, as the time had come for an update on Israel's operations to destroy the remnants of Syrian naval, land, and air assets, as well as munitions, chemical weapons, and various other military facilities - with hundreds of airstrikes occurring just over the first night of the operation. Judge Sidis then spent fifteen minutes in her chambers before returning to the courtroom.
The phenomenon repeated itself six minutes later, just when the prosecutor felt she was hitting her stride. This time the recess lasted only twelve minutes, but the rhetorical momentum of the prosecution's opening statement had evaporated.
Netanyahu's attorney Amit Hadad fared little better. He got about thirty seconds into it before the judge again interrupted, this time inviting both attorneys into her chambers to view clips of the strikes together. The trio, plus two clerks and a bailiff, spent nearly half an hour reviewing footage of secondary explosions and of absolutely smashed naval vessels and Russia-supplied fighter jets, as well as images of tanks on fire and anti-aircraft batteries as charred wrecks.
Hadad restarted his spiel upon the reconvening of the session, only to face another interruption eight minutes later. This time, Judge Sidis ordered screens and speakers set up in the courtroom itself, and she then proceeded to show many of the videos she had already viewed in her chambers, while offering commentary and frequently pausing the playback to point out important details her audience might otherwise have missed.
She then ordered the bailiffs and clerks to make sure the audio and video equipment is already set up in advance of tomorrow's proceedings, so that no interruption of proceedings is necessary to get right to the important things.
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