On April 19, Likud Knesset members clashed with bereaved parents during a session of the Knesset's State Control Committee meeting dedicated to the 2014 Operation Protective Edge report. Watching for the second time the footage of this clash between the Knesset members and parents who lost their sons in the war is just as jarring as seeing it the first time. The problem is more than just the boorish and insensitive comments by David Bitan and Miki Zohar, who lashed out at the parents as if they were their political rivals. Even more disturbing was the silence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself, who was present at the meeting.
The fact that the prime minister kept silent when Bitan, the chairman of his coalition, shouted "Liar!" at Ilan Sagi, who lost his son Erez in Gaza, was even more disturbing than the slur itself. True, Netanyahu mumbled something under his breath to Knesset member Zohar, who interrupted Leah Goldin, the mother of fallen soldier Hadar Goldin, to tell her that her claims were "exaggerated." Apart from that, however, Netanyahu allowed the unbelievable spectacle to unfold without stepping in.
