By Rabbi Dow Marmur
JERUSALEM–Binyamin “Bibi” Netanyahu isn’t the only prime minister who avoids the media out of fear of exposing his unpopular policies; Canadians, for example, are also familiar with the phenomenon. It was, therefore, surprising that Wednesday, March 30, he offered himself to a half-hour live interview “in the hot seat” by a skilled journalist on Israel’s Channel Two TV. The questions came via YouTube from all over the world.
Though they covered a range of issues, the obvious reason why Netanyahu decided to modify his usual practice of issuing statements rather than answering questions was an investigative programme on another TV station, Channel Ten, that accused him of allowing himself and his wife – when he was in the Knesset but before he was in government – to be treated to expensive trips by rich individuals – “friends” – who had invited him to address one or another Jewish organization abroad.
The media coined the term “Bibi Tours” echoing the alleged multiple billing for the same trip by previous Prime Minister Ehud Olmert through a travel agency called “Rishon Tours.” The implication was that Netanyahu, too, went beyond the rules of parliamentary ethics and worse, because some of his sponsors had business interests in Israel and the relationship could be construed as influence peddling.
As so often before and like prime ministers in other countries – Brian Mulroney comes to mind – Netanyahu styled himself as the victim of contriving hostile journalists bent on removing him from office. He wouldn’t be specific, but he has filed defamation suits against Channel Ten and the Ma’ariv newspaper.
To stress the degree of victimhood, he gallantly told the viewers that he didn’t mind the attacks on him, but he was very upset about what was said about his wife Sarah. Indeed, she’s a favorite target of media attacks. In the wake of the latest accusations papers again printed allegedly “true” old stories about her meanness and callousness. Her husband referring to her work as a child psychologist (in a school I believe) said that many of the children she deals with were distressed by what they had heard about their beloved Sarahle. His description of his wife doesn’t tally with what others have to say.
But all that is very trivial compared to the attack on Netanyahu and his policies in the March 21 issue of the New Yorker by its influential editor David Remnick. “In the midst of a revolution in the Arab world,” he writes, “Netanyahu seems lost, defensive, and unable or unwilling to recognize the changing circumstances in which he finds himself.” The article suggests that Bibi has inherited his right-wing intransigence from his father Benzion, the 101-year-old unrepentant reactionary.
Remnick continues: “The occupation – illegal, inhumane, and inconsistent with Jewish values – has lasted forty-four years. Netanyahu thinks that he can keep going, secure behind a wall.” And later in the piece: “Smug and lacking in diplomatic creativity, Netanyahu has alienated and undermined the forces of progressivism in the West Bank and is, step by ugly step, deepening Israel’s isolation.”
I’d find it easier to overlook the alleged financial peccadilloes by the Netanyahus had Bibi been the statesman he seems to aspire to be and the leader Israel so desperately needs. Perhaps it’s this general disappointment in the country that has now prompted the State Comptroller to investigate the Bib Tours affair.
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Rabbi Marmur is spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. He now divides his year between Canada and Israel. He may be contacted at dow.marmur@sdjewishworld.com