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Why Netanyahu blames the left

With his wife being questioned by the police, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu multiplies his attacks against the media and the left, blaming them for persecuting his family.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) attends a preliminary vote on a bill at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem November 16, 2016. REUTERS/Ammar Awad - RTX2TXXZ
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted to Facebook late in the evening of Nov. 30. At first, Netanyahu’s comments seemed to lack any context. He used more than 500 words just to say that the media and the left were persecuting him and his family “after failing to convince the people of Israel that their way was the right way by defeating us in the ballot box.”

Whenever he faces a political crisis, Netanyahu has a habit of delivering speeches or writing social media posts along these same lines. In them, he attempts to portray the media and the left as a single enemy that uses illegitimate means to bring him down. In most cases, this is a response to various personal scandals and police investigations against him. This time, however, when he went on the attack, there was no obvious reason for it.

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