Prime Minister Netanyahu mocks media in press conference - analysis
Barring last-minute difficulties, the deadline for passing the budget will be extended from Monday to December 3
By GIL HOFFMANPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a press statement at the PM's office in Jerusalem, August 13, 2020(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu devoted much of his press conference on Sunday to mocking media coverage of the political crisis.He blamed his poor showing in recent polls on the press and said if he won a Nobel Peace Prize, it would only ask who paid for his flight to the ceremony.A Channel 13 poll broadcast on Sunday night found that if an election would be initiated on Monday night, 59 percent would blame Netanyahu for Israelis going back to the polls again and only 20% Blue and White leader Benny Gantz.Asked for the reason for such an election, 50% of respondents said Netanyahu’s legal woes, 18% said the good of the country, and 14% said ideology.“I am surprised it is so low, because you in the press keep saying it,” Netanyahu said.But seeing is believing. Netanyahu announced his new government on May 17 with great fanfare only to nearly initiate an election just 100 days later.Barring last-minute difficulties, the deadline for passing the budget will be extended from Monday to December 3When asked if he ruled out initiating an election ahead of the new deadline, Netanyahu said if Blue and White honored the agreement, the government could last its entire three-year term.Time will tell if that quote will be featured in the newspapers on December 2, during a new political crisis ahead of the new deadline. It is the job of the media to act as his watchdog and hold him accountable for his promises.One of those promises is honoring his commitment to vacate the Prime Minister’s Residence on November 21, 2021, in a rotation agreement with Blue and White leader Benny Gantz. If he keeps that commitment, even the most anti-Netanyahu media outlets would have to give him credit.Netanyahu’s son Yair has taken his father’s attacks on the media to a new level. In a tweet last Thursday, he declared the Israeli media “the enemy of Israel.”But despite the animosity of Netanyahu for the press, he has something in common with typical journalists: They evidently both need the specter of a deadline to get things done.
