Netanyahu can still shout innocence, but the untouchable act now needs a pardon and now he's been told he's not getting it. Right, so as we know Benjamin Netanyahu had, at the urging of Doanld Trump and on top of Trump himself laying it on thick, asked Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog for a pardon while Netanyahu is very much still on trial over those corruption charges, and after a not insignificant amount of hand wringing it would seem, goodness what other reason there is for Herzog to have taken so long, Herzog has not given in and given Netanyahu a way out. Oh dear, how sad, never mind. Herzog has not lifted the trial off him, has not handed him a nice little escape route. Herzog has said all parties involved should first try to reach an agreement outside the courtroom. In other words meaning plea-deal territory, meaning prosecutors, conditions, admission, guilt, and the bit Netanyahu was clearly trying to keep away from at all costs – a confession. Netanyahu wanted mercy without saying why mercy was needed. He who is without mercy for others is what sprang to my mind. He wanted this pardon to float above his trial as if it was a national necessity, and Herzog has not saved him; has instead dragged it back down into a place where the charges sit, where lawyers negotiate, and defendants have to decide what exactly they are prepared to admit to.