Yair Netanyahu regrets 'ridiculous' statements in strip club

Son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims the recorded conversation does not represent who he is, and he regrets saying ‘ridiculous’ things about women.

By HAGAY HACOHEN
Updated: JANUARY 9, 2018 10:43
Yair Netanyahu observes his father Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reading a prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City (photo credit: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS)
Yair Netanyahu observes his father Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reading a prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City
(photo credit: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS)
In a recorded conversation from 2015 that was aired on Monday evening on Israel's Channel 2 News, Yair Netanyahu, son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, alluded to his father helping gas tycoon Kobi Maimon in a deal worth billions of US dollars and spoke about strippers and his former girlfriend in an offensive manner.
In response to the aired story, Yair Netanyahu said the following: “Tonight I watched a shameful and sensationalist news story that presented unlawful and secret recordings from a conversation that took place two-and-a-half years ago. In an evening conversation [conducted] under the influence of alcohol I said ridiculous things about women and other foolish things that were better left unsaid.”
“These words do not represent who I am, the values I was raised on or what I believe in. I regret [saying] them and apologize if anyone was hurt by them.” The young Netanyahu also said that what he said to Nir Maimon, son of Kobi Maimon, was only a “bad joke meant to roast him, as any sensible person understands.”
The young Netanyahu said to the young Maimon: "My dad arranged for your dad a $20 billion windfall and you can’t spot me NIS 400?’’
He went on to say in his statement that “I never paid any attention to the gas policy [of Israel] and had no clue about any of the details regarding it.”
The Netanyahu family called the airing of the recording “persecution, bloodshed and shaming.”
They stated that the recording was “edited in a manipulative [way] and was carried out in a shameful and illegal manner by a driver employed by the office of the prime minister.”