Why scandals are good for Netanyahu

“Anyone who has eyes in his head understands that the wave of media mudslinging against me and my wife, which is being conducted full strength three weeks before the elections, is an orchestrated campaign to topple the Likud government I head and exchange it for a left-wing government headed by [Zionist Camp co-chairs Tzipi Livni and Isaac Herzog]. The public is smarter than that and does not buy into it.”

This excerpt was taken from a short post by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the evening of Feb. 22, on his Facebook page, which is followed by about 1.17 million people.

The personal and somewhat emotional appeal of the prime minister to the public, three weeks before elections, followed several days of reports of alleged personal misconduct on the part of the prime minister and his wife that topped the Israeli agenda. The premier's appeal is part of an election strategy designed to keep the election discourse right where it is. The only thing that went awry in the plan is the police interview of Manny Naftali, former caretaker of the prime minister’s residence. The investigation that will probably open shortly could shed new light on the affair and will determine whether criminal activity actually took place, and Netanyahu may lose control over the whole thing.

Meanwhile, as incredible as this will sound, the prime minister actually profits from the public and media discourse surrounding his hedonistic lifestyle, his wife’s alleged tantrums and testimony regarding impropriety in his residence. Thus, all the substantive issues on which an election campaign should be based were left behind. These issues include Israel’s crumbling foreign relations, a destructive diplomatic stalemate with the Palestinians, the controversial results of the 2014 Protective Edge campaign and above all, the one issue that most bothers Israelis: housing and other costs of living that have increased a great deal in the six years of Netanyahu’s reign.