Netanyahu and Kara. It’s not that the prime minister doesn’t know who he’s dealing with
Photo: Elad Gershgoren
In Ayoob Kara’s appointment, Netanyahu giving media the finger
Op-ed: Appointing the delirious Kara as communications minister is like appointing Incitatus, Caligula’s horse, as a consul. It seems like a joke on all of us, and primarily on the media which the prime minister despises, in a bid to show who’s boss.
It isn’t hard to imagine the moment Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to appoint Ayoob Kara as communications minister.
The feeling of eureka that ran through his mind like lightning. Or like a stroke. A moment of elation, of self-satisfaction, of gratification.
It’s quite possible that when the idea hit his mind, he even chuckled with pleasure. He will have laughed as someone who has the last laugh. A laugh of a person who managed to both win and humiliate his victim. And the victim in this case is anyone who is not Netanyahu. In other words, all of us: the government, the Knesset, the State of Israel, the media, and even Ayoob Kara, who has nothing good waiting for him in his new ministry.
Whoever still believes that beyond the prime minister’s personal whims there is still a country to run here—and that not everything is about power games, defiance and humiliations—was amazed by this appointment.
Netanyahu (L) and Kara. Whoever still believes that beyond the prime minister’s personal whims, there is still a country to run here, was amazed by this appointment (Photo: Yoav Dudkevitch)
Appointing Ayoob Kara as communications minister is like appointing Incitatus, Caligula’s horse, as a consul.
Forgive the comparison, but what’s the difference? Caligula, the emperor of Rome, was an uninhibited tyrant who had no respect for institutions and acted according to personal whims. His plan to appoint his favored horse as a consul was an act of defiance against those institutions, or just a sense of humor. Since Netanyahu cannot be blamed for having a sense of humor, this is likely a sort of joke on all of us, and primarily on the media which he despises, in a bid to show them who’s in charge here.
It’s true that there was an attempt to appoint Tourism Minister Yariv Levin as communications minister, but Levin was smart enough to turn down the offer. Anyone who wishes to survive the Netanyahu era knows that this portfolio is a fire trap. What stopped Netanyahu from appointing Tzachi Hanegbi, who has served as acting communications minister for the past several months? Perhaps Netanyahu didn’t want to, because as always, he is afraid of breeding people who might show initiative. And it’s possible that even Hanegbi, who in the past few months hasn’t abstained from any dirty work at the service of his royal highness, realized that there is a limit to weakness and that the communications portfolio is that limit.
And why isn’t Ayoob Kara fit to serve as communications minister? For the exact same reasons that he isn’t fit to serve as any other minister. The man is delirious. If you don’t believe me, just look back at comments he made on different issues. At best, they are embarrassing. From his revelation that the IDF will soon have a robot that will be used to eliminate Hezbollah and Hamas, through his exposure of a security affair involving Israel, to his argument that earthquakes in Italy were a divine punishment over UNESCO’s decision to ignore the Jewish people’s affiliation to Jerusalem—a comment for which the Foreign Ministry and Netanyahu were forced to apologize.
And it’s not that Netanyahu doesn’t know who he’s dealing with. He knows that very well. And precisely because he knows that, he announced the appointment. It’s his way of voicing his opinion about the media. It’s like giving them the finger, saying: That’s what I think you deserve—Ayoob Kara.
It takes a lot of self-confidence on the prime minister’s part to go through with this appointment. It seems, however, that self-confidence is the exact thing the prime minister isn’t lacking right now, after US President Donald Trump’s visit. The weekend polls, which pointed to a rise in the Likud’s popularity and to a drop in the number of Knesset seats predicted for Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid’s party—and even better, a decline in the power of Naftali Bennett’s Bayit Yehudi party—removed the last barrier on Netanyahu’s way to full control. Look, I can do anything, even appoint Ayoob Kara, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
