Some seven years ago, on the eve of the 2006 elections, I had an opportunity to chat informally with Sara Netanyahu, the wife of the prime minister. The air was tense at the time. The Likud was facing the greatest debacle in its history and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the party leader, was forced to contend with the establishment of the Kadima Party and the tremendous anger of his own party’s voters at the budget cuts he had inflicted on them as finance minister.
That was the backdrop of the conversation with Mrs. Netanyahu. She was full of anger and complained bitterly about the ungrateful Israeli public and media. “My husband,” she said excitedly, over and over, “saved the Israeli economy. He did great things for the people here and instead of appreciating his contribution, they keep going after him.” I don’t remember if she used the word “persecution,” but there’s no doubt she gave off a strong sense of persecution after repeating over and over, for a whole hour, the same mantra about lack of gratitude.
Sara Netanyahu had occasionally made similar remarks before that time and has since then. In the best known of these, which was even recorded by Likud activist Shimshon Deri in 2002, she is heard lashing out at the “ungrateful” Likud party members who transferred their support to then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (when he established Kadima). Among her more memorable remarks: “Bibi [Benjamin Netanyahu] is too great a leader for such a small state,” and “he is a leader of international status … why does he have to go through so much trouble? Without him the state won’t be able to keep going. People will be slaughtered. We’ll go abroad and the country can burn in hell.”
The couple did subsequently apologize, but the feeling that Israelis “should be grateful that Bibi is their prime minister” is alive and well. It also provides a certain explanation for their profligate lifestyle, to which we were exposed once again at the end of last week (May 13), when it was reported that spending at the prime minister’s official residence had rocketed by 80% in three years — from NIS 3 million in 2009 ($824,000) to NIS 5.44 million (more than $1 million) in 2012.
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