TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said he was being framed in an “attempted political coup” at the start of his corruption trial as he became the first Israeli leader to face criminal indictment while in office.“These investigations were tainted and stitched-up from the first moment,” Netanyahu told television cameras before entering the courtroom to face a three-judge panel. “Elements in the police and State Attorney’s Office banded together with left-wing journalists… to fabricate baseless cases against me,” he said of the the fraud, breach of trust and bribery charges facing him. “The goal is to oust a strong right-wing prime minister and to banish the right-wing camp from leadership of the country for many years.” “I’m not a poodle… and therefore they need to remove me by any means,” he said. “I am appearing here today, as your prime minister, standing tall and with head high,” Netanyahu added. Netanyahu charged the police of making trumped up claims against him. “These investigations were corrupted and fabricated from the start,” he said. He said prosecutors and police and the rest of the “Just Not Bibi Gang” were determined to see his ruling Likud party lose the elections and that is why police…