How low can you go? It turns out that every time you think things couldn't get any worse, someone finds a way to surprise you and go even lower. Every time you think you have hit the bottom, you find there is still room to fall. Lately, the daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth has been making every effort to vilify Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and topple him.
The newspaper, which appointed itself director of Israel, had planned for someone else to be the prime minister -- a member of the "gang of convicts" (politicians with criminal convictions) with whom it is much easier to do business on the sly, the heroes of cash-stuffed envelopes. The fact that their plan to see one of their candidates appointed prime minister has failed is making Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon (Noni) Mozes and his camp break out in hives.
And if someone at Yedioth Ahronoth is annoyed with the fact that Netanyahu is the prime minister, there is nothing left for them to do but to dig up dirt to make him look bad.
Digging up dirt on Netanyahu is no small feat: Israel's security is in pretty good shape; there are no terror attacks; the security fence in the south has all but eliminated the infiltration problem; despite the deep austerity measures; unemployment is low and economic growth is among the best in the West. So what is left? Go after the wife. Sara Netanyahu has become a go-to target. Somehow, all the terrible stories about her have led to absolutely nothing, but why give up now-
That is why this time Yedioth Ahronoth approached Sara Netanyahu's brother, Hagai Ben-Artzi. Yedioth Ahronoth's publishing house recently published Ben-Artzi's latest book, about his life and family. The paper spoke to him about his relationship with his sister, the prime minister's wife.
It is hard to imagine anything lower than to speak ill of your own sister just to sell your book. Disgusting? I think a much stronger word is in order.
Incidentally, in the interview, Ben-Artzi said that his sister lacks the humility that characterized their parents, and that, in his opinion, they would have disapproved. Would it be rude to wonder whether their parents would have approved of their son saying unflattering things about his sister to a newspaper?
When some of Sara's acquaintances found out about this interview, they decided that they could not sit idly by. Many of them came out in her defense, and some of their kind words appear in the Hebrew version of the weekend edition of this newspaper. And there were quite a few more who had good things to say about her.
The most prominent of these acquaintances were a group of doctors (only a handful of them are quoted in this weekend's feature). They had nothing but superlatives to describe Sara's dedication to her parents. One after another they repeated, "I have never seen such immense dedication." One of the doctors said that he kept saying to himself, "I wish I had a daughter like that."
These doctors were interviewed under their names, and even asked to be quoted. One of them told us at the end of the interview, "I know that I'm going to get harassed by my friends for this. They are influenced by the things they read in the papers. But this is the truth."
We do not have enough room to quote everyone's remarks. We will have to do it some other time. In any case, what we are left with is a loathsome and despicable aftertaste at this descent to the lowest of the low. The message is that in order to sell a book or hurt the prime minister it is recommended for a brother to speak ill of his sister. And these people presume to preach to us-
טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו