Anche la moglie di Netanyau è antisemita. Perseguita gli ebrei al suo servizio
It's been a taxing time for Benjamin Netanyahu. He
has had to soothe fears of a possible war with Lebanon. He has made an
uncompromising statement about the future of Israeli settlements in the
West Bank. And then, of course, there's the knotty matter of his wife's
domestic arrangements and the employees she is accused of bullying.
First,
an Israeli newspaper revealed in a front-page story that Sara
Netanyahu's former housekeeper, Lillian Peretz, was filing suit for
£50,000 damages from her ex-employer for "humiliating" her and paying
her less than the minimum wage. Try as she did to brush the allegations
off, the first lady could not make them go away.
Then,
as if her reputation weren't in enough trouble, another publication
claimed that Mrs Netanyahu had fired "an elderly Jew, about 70, a
bereaved father who used to rake leaves and carry out basic gardening
chores for less than the minimum wage". To fire a man whose son died
fighting for his country would be considered harsh anywhere. But in
Israel, where society's identification with fallen soldiers and their
parents is at the very core of its identity, what Ms Netanyahu stands
accused of doing is regarded as unspeakably cruel.
Now the Netanyahu family is fighting back, with a
£167,000 lawsuit for defamation against the newspaper concerned,
Maariv. The problem is that it may all be too late. For accurate or
not, a monstrous picture has emerged in recent weeks of how the child
psychologist and former airline stewardess, the third wife of the
hardline Prime Minister, handles her domestic staff. And some
commentators, particularly those who also dislike her husband, say this
is not just an Israeli take-off of Upstairs, Downstairs but a risk to
the public's well-being and even national security.
They
charge that Sara Netanyahu determines appointments of government
officials and meddles in affairs of state – something her spokesman
denies. Mr Netanyahu, for his part, is being depicted as deferring to
his wife.
"He's there to satisfy her, not to
work for us," Maariv's Ben Caspit, one of Israel's most prominent
journalists, alleged yesterday in response to the lawsuit.
The
gardener allegations would have far less traction, of course, without
the previous stories about the house- keeper, which first appeared in
Yediot Ahronot newspaper. Ms Peretz, who worked at the Netanyahu's
weekend residence in posh Caesarea, made a serious allegation against
the first lady: that she forced her to work on Saturdays even though
the employee observes the Jewish command not to work on the sabbath.
And that was not all. Ms Peretz, who has received death threats against
her family since the publication of her account, alleges that Sara
Netanyahu called her at two o'clock in the morning to ask why a pillow
case did not properly cover a pillow. She also said that Mrs Netanyahu
forced her to bring four different sets of clothes to work.
A
spokesman for the Netanyahu family, Shaya Segel, denies the
allegations, adding: "There are innumerable people who worked with [Mrs
Netanyahu] who can attest to the warm and concerned treatment they
received."
The Prime Minister himself made an
angry intervention at a press conference with Angela Merkel last week,
demanding that the press "leave my wife and children alone". But the
denials have not helped them win a PR war that has so far gone badly.
Twice
as many Israelis believe Ms Peretz as do Mrs Netanyahu, according to a
poll, which also found 56 per cent believe she is involved in the Prime
Minister's decisions on public appointments.
In
particular, newspapers had reported even before the scandal erupted
that Mrs Netanyahu had thwarted the appointment of Alon Pinkas, a
respected former Israeli consul-general in New York, to the post of
ambassador to the United Nations – a claim that Mr Segel denies.
Uri
Dromi, who was a spokesman for the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin,
said the row cannot be entirely dismissed. "There's a lot of excess and
exaggeration, but the public needs to know [as to Mrs Netanyahu's
role]... Her husband must be in the best state of mind and not be
stressed by unnecessary things, because he is charged with the future
of the country."
By Ben Lynfield in Jerusalem
Source > The Indipendent