There is no senior Israeli government official – including Netanyahu himself – who has not written a recommendation letter for candidates hoping to become a Wexner Fellow.
By ALON BEN-DAVIDLESLIE WEXNER – unfairly besmirched.(photo credit: WIKIPEDIA)
Last week began with a tweet by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about, “senior Israeli civil servants who’ve devoted themselves to the Wexner Foundation are protecting it with all their might.” The tweet went out on Sunday, before the weekly Cabinet meeting. At the current time – with hundreds of thousands of people newly unemployed and the number of people becoming infected with COVID-19 growing daily – if the prime minister is choosing to devote his time to bashing the Wexner Foundation, then it’s clear to everyone that this must be a serious danger, if indeed not an existential threat. The rest of the tweet is no less disturbing: “Jeffrey Epstein built his elite island of pleasures for the Wexner fellows.”My first instinct was to run to the nearest police station and turn myself in. I assumed that all of the following individuals would be joining me at the police station: IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi (who was appointed by Netanyahu), the newly appointed director-general of the Health Ministry Prof. Hezi Levi, along with the administrators of most Israeli hospitals, and senior Mossad and Shin-Bet (Israel Security Agency) agents. All of these people participated in the Wexner Israel Fellowship program at Harvard. And yes, I studied there, too.The Wexner Foundation is one of the many philanthropic institutions funded by Jewish American businessman Leslie Wexner and his wife Abigail. Wexner, who made his fortune in the retail clothing business, established a foundation in the 1980s aimed at helping North American Jewish community leaders enhance their leadership skills.Over 30 years ago, Wexner – an ardent Zionist with no business interests in Israel – decided to expand the foundation’s goals to include fostering excellence in Israel’s public sector. In 1989, he approached Israel’s Civil Service Commission and offered to fund master’s degree studies for a number of promising Israelis who work in the public sector. The 11-month program that was developed by the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, strove to improve public service and the nonprofit sector throughout the world. The Civil Service Commission committed to reinstate the individuals who completed this program in positions upon their return at the end of the academic year.In 2001, when I was working as a reporter for Israel Broadcasting Authority’s Channel 1 TV station, I applied for the Wexner Israel Fellowship Program, hoping to be chosen for studies at Harvard. By then, I’d met quite a few graduates of the Wexner program who’d told me all about the enriching experience they’d had studying at Harvard, including Shin-Bet Chief Ami Ayalon and four Major Generals: Yedidia Yaari, Shay Avital, Amos Yadlin, and Yohanan Locker (later Netanyahu’s military secretary).IN ADDITION to being required to pass Harvard’s admission exams, which included a test to scrutinize potential students’ English language capabilities and writing articles, I had to be recommended by the foundation’s screening committee, which was interested in hearing about my perception of how journalism functioned as a public service. To my delight, I was accepted.In the summer of 2001, nine other Israelis and I flew to Boston to begin our compulsory courses of study. Together with me in the program were representatives of the IDF, the Shin-Bet, the Mossad, as well as people who worked for the Defense, Health, Absorption, Economy and Foreign Ministries. Upon the culmination of our summer program, we joined another 250 students from 70 countries in the international program. With us in the class were the president of Ecuador and the prime minister of Mongolia, Kosovo’s Foreign Minister and Iraq’s Minister of Health, as well as government and military personnel from all over the world. It was an eclectic and engaging assemblage of professionals from a variety of fields within the public sector.I felt like I’d arrived at an intellectual Disneyland where an endless world of enlightenment and knowledge had opened up before me. The university clarified that they did not intend to re-teach us our professions, in which we’d already proven ourselves, but to endow us with an enhanced understanding of the world and of ourselves. We were encouraged to choose any course we desired that was associated with public service.I felt like a parched person who’d come upon a water faucet in the middle of the desert. I charged ahead, eager to indulge in the best of American academia: I took a course on legal thinking with Prof. Alan Dershowitz; security strategy with Ashton Carter (who later served as a US secretary of defense); communications and politics with David Gergen (who was an adviser for four US presidents); and diplomacy with former US ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke, who had brokered a peace agreement among the warring factions in Bosnia. Every night I waited impatiently for the next day to begin.The Wexner Foundation provided the bare minimum; it covered the university tuition, which at the time was $35,000, and a stipend of $28,000 that barely covered the rent for a 1.5 room apartment in Boston. The Israelis who brought along families with them were given a little bit more to cover their kids’ school costs. Most of the participants continued to receive a monthly salary from the institution they worked for back in Israel. I had to use the little savings I had to cover the rest of my living expenses.
It was one of the best years of my life. By the end of that year, all the other Israeli participants and I had indeed improved our leadership skills and become better professionals. We’d become richer from the knowledge and insight we’d gained, and had developed a much broader view of the world.To this date, about 300 Israelis from the public and nonprofit sectors have taken part in this program. Some of us were Jews, and others Arabs. Some were secular and others religious. Some right-wing and others left-wing. The common denominator among all of us is that today, we all hold senior positions in Israel’s public sector. Another 200 Israelis have participated in a shorter executive program at Harvard funded by the Wexner Foundation.UNTIL RECENTLY it was clear that this was a philanthropic enterprise that made a significant contribution to the betterment of Israel’s public sector. There is no senior Israeli government official – including Netanyahu himself – who has not written a recommendation letter for candidates hoping to become a Wexner Fellow. Wexner, who has been known for his entire life as a staunch Republican supporter, met Netanyahu when he served as ambassador to the UN. He supported the concept behind the founding of the foundation, and often publicly praised Wexner’s contribution to Israel, and even included him in the list of potential election campaign donors. In 2016, Netanyahu and the government decided to include the Wexner Foundation on a list of public sector reserve programs organized by the Prime Minister’s Office.A few years ago, the Netanyahu family learned that two senior state attorneys who were handling his cases were Wexner graduates, and since then, his view of the foundation has been completely altered. He sent his people to dig up some dirt, and what they found was that between 2004 and 2006, the foundation gave $2.3 million to Ehud Barak, who at the time was a private citizen, for “research,” the purpose of which is still unclear. The Wexner Foundation has yet to publicize for what use these funds were transferred, and the proper action for it would be to become transparent regarding this detail.This information did not prevent Netanyahu from appointing graduates of the program to senior positions. On the other hand, after watching the Netflix series about Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, his son, Yair, has reacted like a child who has found a treasure chest. Now, the regular visitor to the Pussycat strip club is calling all the Wexner Fellows, which includes the IDF chief of staff and judges from all of Israel’s courts, “Graduates of the Pedophile Foundation,” and others are repeating his foolish utterances.Epstein was a member of the Wexner board of trustees from 1992 to 2007. He never served in a management role at the foundation, and also never met with its members. Neither I nor any of my friends had ever heard Epstein’s name before, and certainly none of us ever met him. The moment his crimes were revealed, the foundation cut all ties and contact with Epstein. But for the devotees of the Deep State cult – this alleged guilt-by-association exposure fit like a glove – they were overjoyed to have this opportunity fall right into their laps; this was a great excuse to smear many senior civil servants working in a variety of fields who had dared to commit the sin of attempting to advance their education. Knowledge and professionalism are traits that interfere with blind loyalty. Even the defendant Netanyahu – an MIT graduate from nearby Harvard – joined the celebration.I did once get to meet Wexner in person at the end of my year of study in the US, so I was able to thank him for the wonderful opportunity I’d been given. I never knew anything about his business or personal relationships, and other than the fact that he made his fortune through legitimate business operations, I have no interest in them. Every year, Sheldon Adelson brings tens of thousands of young Jews to Israel on the wonderful Taglit-Birthright programs. I don’t know much about Adelson’s personal or business connections either, and that the source of the program’s support originates from gambling money does not detract from its glory.If he, Wexner, engaged in inappropriate activity, then he needs to pay the price. If he didn’t, we need to thank him. Just as the State of Israel must thank Netanyahu for everything he’s done for the country, even if he is convicted. In any case, the attempt to tarnish the reputation of Wexner Fellows is part of an attempt to dismantle and extinguish the last remnants of intelligence left in Israel’s public sector.The author is the senior defense correspondent for Channel 13 News.Translated by Hannah Hochner.
