Netanyahu’s engineered image
For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his family history and memories are turned into tools to promote his image in Israel and around the world.
“This is going to be different than other interviews you’ve done, because this is not about policy or the state of the world; it’s about you and how you became who you are today.” This introduction by Harvey Levin — the host of Fox News Channel’s 10-part series “OBJECTified” — at the start of his interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Oct. 9 sounded promising.
The format features in-depth, intimate interviews with high-profile newsmakers and celebrities discussing their lives through personal items and photos.
A 35-minute “personal” interview at his home revealed that despite the passage of time, Netanyahu was unable to proffer a single authentically intimate moment. Even the stories of his early childhood were spun to create an image of Netanyahu as the ultimate leader of the modern-day Jewish State of Israel, son of a "generation born with the state.”
At the start of the interview, Netanyahu chose to display a sprig, which he said was clipped from a tree planted by his father in the family home’s backyard in Jerusalem when he was 5 or 6 years old. He described a vivid memory of finding his professor father — historian Benzion Netanyahu — digging in the yard, an activity he was to repeat year after year. “And today these trees are gigantic,” he said. “That’s the story of Israel. You have to water the tree, you have to dig, you have to make sure it gets enough sunshine, you have to give it enough fertilizer, but the tree grows against all odds.”
