Former Labor leader Shelly Yachimovich and former Shas MK Yigal Guetta, who are now broadcasters on KAN Reshet Bet, publicly expressed regret on Monday at the announcement that former parliamentary colleague David Bitan of the Likud was officially charged with corruption. He’s done so many good things and was always ready to help others, they said. It’s just a pity that he allowed himself to sink to this level.
Curiously, while Yachimovich is full of sympathy for Bitan, she could barely control her vitriol when the leader of the Likud Party was indicted.
■ OPPOSITION LEADER Benjamin Netanyahu has never pretended to be religiously observant. He’s secular, and like Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, takes an avid interest in the Bible, which he studies with his younger son, Avner, but more from an historical than a religious perspective. As prime minister, he may have refrained from publishing tweets or Facebook messages on Shabbat, but it would be safe to say that in the privacy of his home he used the phone and watched television. He was reported several times when abroad as having been seen eating in non-kosher restaurants. His coalition buddies in the government did not kick up too much of a fuss about that, so why get angry over the fact that as opposition leader, he telephoned gold medal winning artistic gymnast Linoy Ashram in Tokyo on Shabbat to congratulate her. Some pundits believe that Netanyahu did so in order to get in ahead of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who does not use the phone on Shabbat. But any of the more than 30,000 people
e who saw the video clip of the phone call on Netanyahu’s Twitter account could not fail to see how genuinely excited he was. Whatever faults people may find with Netanyahu, no one can deny that he’s a proud and patriotic Israeli, who like so many other Israelis simply could not contain his joy. The video of President Isaac Herzog talking to Ashram – whom Bennett subsequently dubbed “Wonder Woman” – indicated that he was just as excited as Netanyahu.
Incidentally, Herzog in his pre-presidential positions, spoke on the telephone on Shabbat, and no one made a big deal out of it, even though he is the grandson of the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the State of Israel. Shimon Peres also spoke on the telephone on Shabbat in all his various roles other than prime minister and president – though here, too, it would be safe to assume that he used the phone and watched television on Shabbat but refrained from giving radio and TV interviews then.
■ EVEN THOUGH he’s no longer prime minister, Netanyahu continues to get the red carpet and top security treatment. When he and his wife, Sara, decided to spend some of their vacation at the Dan Carmel Hotel in Haifa, Ben Yanover, head of Dan hotels in the Haifa region and general manager of the Dan Carmel, put the entire 10th floor, including the presidential suite, at their disposal, and sealed off the area. The Netanyahus spent three days and two nights in Haifa, arriving just in time for lunch, which Yanover personally served to them. Actor Zachi Noy was also a guest at the hotel and Yanover asked him if he would be willing to play the role of waiter. Noy jumped at the opportunity, put on a waiter’s uniform and accompanied Yanover upstairs. The Netanyahus were understandably surprised to see him, but as lifelong movie buffs instantly recognized him. “Yudele what are you doing here?” exclaimed Bibi, calling the actor by the name of the character he played in the big box office success Eskimo Lemon. Still as
suming the role of waiter, Noy replied: “There’s no work, and I need the money. So because I have some experience in hotels because Eskimo Lemon number seven was shot in the Dan Caesarea, I’m adding to my income here in Haifa.” In the final analysis, Noy told the Netanyahus the truth and they congratulated him for playing his part so well. Before leaving the hotel on Saturday, the Netanyahus toured the nearby Baha’i Gardens. In all probability, it was from Haifa that Netanyahu made his contentious phone call. Although the Dan chain is discrete with regard to all its guests, someone apparently revealed to Ynet that Netanyahu had received a NIS 14,000 discount on the presidential suite. This caused an immediate hue and cry, because Knesset members are not supposed to receive perks. When they stay in hotels in the course of their work the Knesset pays the bill, but on this occasion the Netanyahus were on vacation and paid their own way. They were apparently upgraded as a gesture of respect. When news of the discount became public, Netanyahu gave instructions for the balance to be paid, claiming that he did not know that he had been given a huge discount. People who have always been looking for reasons to criticize him will not believe him. But it’s a well-known fact that Netanyahu knows very little about personal expenses, which were always taken care of by members of his staff, who reportedly were not reimbursed. But this was not exactly a case in point. Someone who has it in for Netanyahu obviously made the information about the discount available to Ynet, the digital arm of Yediot Aharonot , which is usually the first publication to break news of the scandals and foibles of the famous. It might also be a lesson for prominent public relations figure Ran Rahav, who has represented the Dan chain for the entirety of his professional career. Before publicizing the presence of any controversial figure who may be staying at a Dan Hotel, he should check whether it would be in the best interests of the Dan chain to do so.
■ WITH A cloud of doubt hanging in the air as to whether the school year will open as scheduled, President Isaac Herzog and his wife, Michal, decided to get in early and on Sunday invited the children of staff members who will be entering first grade this year to come to the President’s Residence.
Altogether, there were 13 excited children, including the twins of Harel Tubi, outgoing-director-general of the President’s Residence, whose youngsters were born during the term of president Reuven Rivlin.
The Herzogs, who are parents of three grown sons, may not remember their own first days of first grade experiences, but they certainly remember what it was like preparing each of the boys, so they knew exactly what to say to the 13 eager youngsters who had been brought in by their parents, who were no less excited.
Herzog told them that one of the things that he remembered best about being in first grade was learning how to write and read. It made him feel more grown up, he said. His teacher had been the daughter of Ben-Gurion, he recalled, though it’s doubtful that the name of Israel’s founding prime minister would have meant anything to the young visitors.
Herzog admitted that he, too, was unaware at the time of the importance of Ben-Gurion. “All we wanted to do was to go home,” he said with a chuckle.
“If you are good students,” he told them, one of you, like me, will become the president of the state.”
■ ON THE following day, which was the Hebrew calendar date of the first of Elul, Herzog went to Bnei Brak to visit a series of junior and senior schools. The haredi (ultra-orthodox) school year traditionally starts on the first of Elul. In a bid to be as even handed as possible and not to show favoritism, Herzog visited hassidic and Lithuanian, Sephardi and Ashkenazi rabbis and institutions, beginning with the Karlin Stolin Talmud Torah, where he sat in on a class of second graders. As he was leaving, he was presented with a letter that had been penned by his grandfather, for whom he is named. Rabbi Isaac Halevy Herzog had written to the Jewish Agency to expedite the arrival in Israel of the Admor of Karlin Rabbi Yohanan and his daughter, who were among the few survivors of the Karlin Hassidic community, which had been decimated during the Holocaust. For President Herzog, the letter had not only historical value, but family significance, in that both his parents had worked for the Jewish Agency, which he hims
elf had headed before his election as president. As he continued through the city on Monday, escorted by Bnei Brak Mayor Rabbi Avraham Rubinstein, Herzog also received the blessings of the city’s three most powerful and influential rabbis: Chaim Kanievsky, who is regarded as one of the greatest halachic authorities, Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, who is head of the renowned Ponevezh Yeshiva, and Rabbi Shimon Baadani, the head of Kollel Torah V’Chaim and a senior figure in the Shas Council of Sages. At his meeting with Kanievsky and the latter’s grandson and guardian, Yanki Kanievsky, Herzog discussed the importance of being vaccinated against the coronavirus and its new variants. He also raised the subject with Edelstein and Baadani.
■ MONDAY WAS actually a day of contrasts for Herzog, who later was given a red carpet reception by the top brass of the IDF, replete with honor guard and military band. “We are at a critical point in terms of threats against Israel,” he said, adding that he greatly admired the IDF, which is essentially responsible for guaranteeing the security of the state. It should be remembered that relatively few of the residents of Bnei Brak serve in the IDF. Herzog went from an environment in which nearly everyone was dressed in black to one in which nearly everyone was dressed in khaki, and he could not fail to notice the difference, no matter how much he appreciated what is being done in Bnei Brak. In emphasizing his admiration for the army. Herzog said that he came from a military family, stating that he believes the IDF is the army of the people. His father, Chaim Herzog, was a major in the British army, and subsequently a major-general in the IDF where inter alia he served as head of military intelligence and as mi
litary governor of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.
The president’s oldest brother, Joel, who lives in Geneva, Switzerland, where he is president of the Geneva section of the Swiss-Israel Association, and a prominent figure in Zera Israel, which tries to bring people of Jewish descent back into the fold, was a captain and base commander in the army; and the president’s other brother, Michael, who is Israel’s future ambassador to the US, retired from the army with the rank of brigadier-general. The president himself reached the rank of major in the legendary 8200 intelligence corps of the IDF.
■ TO CAP a day of contrasts, Herzog received a somewhat belated congratulatory telephone call from US Vice President Kamala Harris. The two have known each other for several years. When he was opposition leader, Herzog hosted Harris, who was then a senator from California, in the Knesset. The two have come a long way since then. In the course of the phone call Harris reiterated America’s commitment to Israel’s security, and Herzog reiterated that Israel remains constantly aware that America is her strongest ally. The two agreed on the importance of this bilateral relationship and its enhancement. They also discussed the gradual normalization in relations between Israel and her neighbors, the dangerous escalation of antisemitism, the disturbing UN report on global warming and joint Israel-America development and water projects in Central America.
■ IN ADVANCE of the first anniversary of the Abraham Accords which led to the normalization of relations between Israel and some of her neighbors Bahrain’s Undersecretary for International Relations Sheikh Abdullah bin Ahmad al Khalifa arrived in Israel this week and held a series of meetings including with Herzog. Khalifa let it be known in his various discussions that a festive event will mark the first anniversary of the agreement between Bahrain and Israel, and that the first Bahraini ambassador to Israel, Khaled Yousef al-Jalahmah, would soon arrive. Meanwhile, a team of Bahraini diplomats has already been in Israel to prepare the ground for his arrival.
“We are approaching the first anniversary of the agreement and the friendly relations between Bahrain and Israel, and we are coming here with a message of peace and prosperity,” said Khalifa, who is scheduled to attend the signing on August 11 of a memorandum of understanding of cooperation between the Abba Eban Institute for International Diplomacy at IDC Herzliya and the Derasat Institute – The Bahrain Center for Strategic, International and Energy Studies. The MoU will be signed by ambassador Ron Prosor, chairman of the Abba Eban Institute, and Dr. Hamad Ebrahim Al Abdulla, executive director of the Derasat Institute.
In recent months the Abba Eban Institute established working connections with several organizations in the Gulf region to add content to the budding relations between Israel and like-minded countries in the Middle East. This process included one-on-one meetings and roundtable discussions between experts from the Abba Eban Institute and the IDC and their colleagues from the Gulf region and beyond. These meetings dealt with core issues of regional security and multilateral relations between regional actors in view of the new strategic environment resulting from the Abraham Accords. These meetings laid the foundation for the MoU with the aim of establishing more significant cooperation in the near future.
■ LAST WEEK when attending the Food Security gala in Tel Aviv, the president met up with actress and producer Noa Tishby, who was briefly home from Los Angeles, where she lives, and was MC of the Tel Aviv event. Tishby, who is active in the US in presenting Israel’s case, gave Herzog a copy of her book Israel – A simple guide to the most misunderstood country on earth. The two managed to take a few moments to discuss the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and antisemitism, but were of course interrupted by other people who wanted to shake the president’s hand and whisper a word in his ear.
■ WHILE IT was already public knowledge last week, on Sunday it was officially announced that former president Rivlin has accepted the position of president of Electreon, a public company that develops smart roads on which electric vehicles can be charged while parked or in motion. Rivlin, who will turn 82 on September 9, received several offers during his final months in office, but chose Electreon because it is environmentally friendly, and he is particularly interested in the elimination of carbon emissions. He is also interested in climate change, which is another issue on Electreon’s agenda. Rivlin’s salary has not been disclosed, but it’s safe to say that it will be well above the basic wage. According to Electreon CEO Oren Ezer, it will be a salary befitting a former head of state. As president, Rivlin earned well in excess of NIS 50,000 per month. Electreon has made no secret of the fact that it is confident that Rivlin as a former president of the state, who completed his seven-year term just over a
month ago, will attract new investors and bring back former investors, in addition to paving the way for Electreon representatives to meet with heads and ministers of foreign governments. After all, he does have a lot of contacts in high places.
While it’s understandable that after the busy life he led as president, that Rivlin does not want to sit at home and twiddle his thumbs, law professor and broadcaster Yuval Elbashan, speaking on KAN radio last Friday, urged Rivlin not to take the job because to do so would be to cheapen the presidency. Elbashan would have no objections to Rivlin becoming the president of a university or a charitable organization, but not of a commercial enterprise.
■ RIVLIN IS not the only senior citizen of note embarking on a new career at the third age. Former Mossad chief Danny Yatom, 76 – whose CV includes a distinguished military career, a seat in the Knesset, peace initiatives and lobbying for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict – has established a new international public relations, lobbying and consultancy firm CIY, with partners Ofer Inbar, a communications and strategies consultant, and businessmen Omer Yatom and Nevo Cohen. The company, which was actually formed some four months ago, specializes in influence peddling. It’s quite possible that Yatom and Rivlin will come across each other on the international circuit, and as native-born Israelis may form some kind of alliance, even though politically they are on opposite sides of the fence.
One of CIY’s challenges will be to get clients to understand changing norms and values. “The earth is not only flat, it’s also transparent,” says Yatom. “What used to be discussed only in the inner sanctums behind closed doors is now exposed to the sun. Whoever does not know how to get to his target audience, in a frank and open manner is doomed to failure.” All four partners have individual skills and experience, which they will use collectively under one roof.
■ VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES are part of the Thai character, greatly encouraged by the king of Thailand. In fact, volunteering is one of many royal initiatives that are carried out not only in Thailand but in countries with which Thailand has bilateral relations. In Israel last week, Thai Ambassador Pannabha Chandraramya, led the Royal Thai Embassy’s diplomats, staff and Team Thailand in the “Royal Initiative Volunteers Doing Good Deeds from the Heart” Project to plant 35 Pistacia trees at Tzora Forest near Beit Shemesh on the occasion of the 69th birthday of His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn and the 89th birthday of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, the Queen Mother.
“This tree planting activity symbolizes the strong and growing Thailand-Israel relations and reflects the Royal Thai Embassy’s goodwill in contributing to a green environment,” said the ambassador in thanking KKl-JNF, the Thai Honorary Consuls in Tel Aviv and Haifa for their active cooperation in enabling this activity.
Chandraramya was not a mere figurehead in the tree planting. She participated, and stayed from start to finish.
■ RESTAURANT PROPRIETORS around the country are on tenterhooks, fearing another lockdown, which they say could put them permanently out of business. Many restaurants were closed during the previous lockdowns. Some resorted to take-away, which in certain cases was profitable, and in others simply gave people an excuse to get up and go to work. But a lot of restaurants never reopened. Even during the last couple of months when it seemed that things were getting back to normal, restaurant owners had problems in that staff were not willing to return to work, preferring to receive unemployment pay. There are of course exceptions to the rule – one of them being the Piccolino restaurant in Jerusalem’s downtown Music Square. Piccolino, which is a dairy restaurant, shares an enormous courtyard with Kinor, which is a meat restaurant. A line of planted greenery divides the two. Highly talented musicians appear nightly on stage at one of the courtyards. Jerusalemite Maureen Kushner, who lives across the road from Mahaneh
Yehuda market, chose to celebrate her birthday at Piccolino, which can hold more than 200 people at any given time. Kushner had some 30 guests seated around three tables that formed an open rectangle. The place was packed to overflowing to the extent that additional tables and chairs had to be placed in spaces on the very edge of each end of the courtyard. There were numerous waiters and waitresses, all wearing black T-shirts with Piccolino emblazoned in large white letters on the back, so that wait staff could be easily recognized by diners. There was also no shortage of waiters and waitresses across the way at Kinor.
In both establishments, service was fast, efficient, and polite, and at Kushner’s gathering, platters were replenished almost as quickly as they were emptied. The funny thing was that there was also a birthday at the next table and some of the guests at both parties knew each other and mingled. Although Kushner had declined gifts, and had asked people to just bring themselves, nearly everyone brought a gift, and Kushner had a lot of stuff to take home to her walk-up apartment. Some of the guests were people she knew from America where they had attended the Shlomo Carlebach synagogue on New York’s Upper West Side. Others were from Nachlaot, Jerusalem’s Old City, the West Bank, Ramat Gan, Shoham, Modi’in, Ramat Gan and beyond. Not everyone came on time, some came up to more than an hour late, but Kushner , a generous hostess, ordered additional platters to ensure that everyone had plenty to eat, and went around the tables several times, introducing everyone so that those of her guests who didn’t know each other
could at least exchange greetings, and no one would feel left out. Among the guests was Dina Solomon, the mother of the famous Solomon brothers, who were due to be among the on-stage musicians the following evening. The Solomon family was among the first settlers in Moshav Mevo Modi’in, also known as the Carlebach Moshav, almost all of which unfortunately burned to the ground in 2019. The moshav is currently in the process of reconstruction and expansion.
greerfc@gmail.com