by David Frattini
Twenty-one thousand euros more than last year just to buy men’s suits and suits for his wife. And two restructurings to be paid for by taxpayers. This puts the Israeli Prime Minister and his wife in the crosshairs of satire (and the opposition)
“Expenses for the representative appearance” she calls the official document, the blue suits and cobalt blue ties (his favorites), the jacket and pants suits for her. 21,000 euros more per year – almost twice as much as before – for the prime minister couple, who the opposition newspaper Haaretz now draws in satirical caricatures and portrays in political analyzes as Roman empresses and empresses.
This makes the decision of the Finance Commission, in which the right-wing majority supported the boss’s proposals, a coincidence. The Netanyahus have also managed to get the family villa in Caesarea (on the north coast) and the apartment they own in Jerusalem renovated at taxpayers’ expense because the official residence on Via Balfour is a construction site, it will take time Years of work – and at least 30 million euros – before it is usable again. Sources close to the prime minister, who returned to power after 563 days of opposition, try to point out that his predecessor, Naftali Bennett, left the residence in an uninhabitable state and forced the intervention of architects and bricklayers. Except that Bennett isn’t the previous tenant (it’s always the Netanyahus): he had chosen to stay at his home in Ranaana and had been criticized for the investment prompted by the security apparatus’ move to the northern Tel Aviv suburb became. Right down to the decision to release the detailed list to show it costs the state a lot less.
With Israel mired in political chaos – protests have been raging for two months against the government’s plan to downsize the Supreme Court, judges and prosecutors – the Likud has asked allied lawmakers to present themselves compactly at the commission meeting and express their support for the prime minister to show. “What do you expect? Let them live in a tent,” one of them called out to opposition MPs. “The shekel is collapsing, inflation is rising, people are struggling to survive and the Knesset is finding time to fund the Netanyahus,” comments Yair Lapid, who along with Bennett is the only one to oust the Conservative leader in the last thirteen years.Remember that economists fear the flight of investors scared by the institutional crisis on the judiciary.
During the six terms they have lived together at the helm, it is not the first time that the demands of his wife Sarah, the bodyguards of the secret services in the service of their two children, have thrown Netanyahu’s passion for luxury into trouble. The cases of rosé champagne and cigars given away by two millionaires ended up among the evidence in the ongoing trial against him for corruption, fraud and abuse of power. And Haaretz reveals Sarah began sending family shopping lists to the PM’s office, including three tables for her dressing table, before her husband even got back in his chair.
Four years ago she negotiated the fine for paying private chefs with public money, and in 2015 the state inspector accused her of embezzlement: she demanded that the helpers take the empty bottles back to the supermarket (even hundreds) and deliver the 10 cents the deposit. The problem is that these drinks were bought with the prime minister’s budget, essentially Israeli money.
February 24, 2023 (change February 24, 2023 | 21:31)
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