Yair Netanyahu, the son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, enjoys an unusual amount of influence over the actions taken by his father, a Friday report by Mako revealed.
According to the report, the prime minister credited his son with the success of the 2015 elections campaign. The younger Netanyahu is credited as being the person who thought of releasing the video in which his father warns Israelis that “Arabs are heading in massive amounts to the ballots” in order to vote.
In the four years since then, the report claims various incidents occurred involving the young Netanyahu. Allegedly, he was the cause of the 2017 clash with Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon over the creation of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation Kan.
During a closed meeting that took place at the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem, Yair burst into the room shouting, and even went down on all fours to imitate how, in his view, those presents are acting like animals by showing “weakness.” The report claims that Yair Netanyahu often calls his father when he is having meetings, including cabinet meetings, and that he tells his father he is "looking out" for his interests. It was also reported that Yair told people that his father is a "weak man who does foolish things" at various times.
Yair Netanyahu also told the police when he was investigated regarding Case 4000 – the "Bezeq/Walla Affair" – that, in his view, this is a “witch hunt, blood shed – [like the German secret police] Stasi boarding on [Nazi secret police] Gestapo.” He further informed the officer that this is a “police state” in which the security forces “act like the mafia, [but] even the mafia doesn’t involve [in its actions] women and children.”
During the investigation, he denied ever influencing a decision made by his father as prime minister.
Calling the report “a collection of false gossips, which are groundless and illusionary,” Yair Netanyahu told Maariv that it is “predictable that a month before the elections a recycled damaging story about the Netanyahu family will be aired.”
“This time, too, our answer will be at the ballot,” the response concludes.