'Sara Netanyahu claims cook served food with glass shards'
Channel 2 reports Mrs. Netanyahu will claim cooks employed at PM's residence were not skilled, with one cook serving the family lasagna with shards of glass inside; state's witness Hefetz reportedly told police: Mrs. Netanyahu wanted state to pay NIS 10 for Big Brother channel.
The prime minister's wife was charged on Thursday with fraudulently obtaining benefits under aggravated circumstances, fraud and breach of trust in what has been dubbed the "residence affair."
Mrs. Netanyahu is suspected of ordering private meals worth some NIS 350,000 (roughly $96,600) from high-end restaurants with the state footing the bill, although a cook had been hired to prepare the meals at the residence.
According to Mrs. Netanyahu's legal team, one cook served the Netanyahu family lasagna with shards of glass inside. The sauce came from a jar that shattered onto the flood, and Mrs. Netanyahu discovered the glass shards just moments before taking her first bite.
These claims, according to close associates of Mrs. Netanyahu, are backed by a letter of apology written by that cook, who was described in the indictment against Mrs. Netanyahu as a skilled cook.
"To Mrs. Sara Netanyahu, I don't even know where to begin the letter. I just want to ask for forgiveness," the letter said to have been written by the cook begins.
"What happened yesterday was very sad for me. Yesterday was very stressful at work. I simply have no idea how a shard of glass got into the sauce. The jar was in a bag and then I picked it up, and it was broken. So I took the clean part and put it in the sauce. How the glass got to the sauce, I don't know. This is a terrible mistake. I am very incapable of hurting anyone, certainly not you. I really feel that you are my family. I ask for a thousand pardons. I have no words to say. I'm taking responsibility for my mistake. Sorry."
Paying for 'Big Brother' channel
Channel 2 News reported on Friday night that state's witness Nir Hefetz, a former close associate and the media advisor of the Netanyahu couple, went into detail in his testimony to the police, describing some of Mrs. Netanyahu's alleged exaggerated demands.
According to the report, Mrs. Netanyahu demanded the state pays for the family's expenses—including in their private residence in Caesarea—in a wide variety of fields.
"She would send (then-deputy director-general in the PMO) Ezra Saidoff on a daily basis to approve this. When Ezra Saidoff and (former PMO bureau chief) Natan Eshel would fail, she used to send me to convince (Finance Ministry officials to accept her requests)," Hefetz reportedly told police.
"She wanted to replace the chiller, the portable A/C unit in Caesarea. She wanted to replace all of the windows in the house, because maybe someone will (try to) shoot the prime minister. She wanted to replace all of the plaster in the (Caesarea) villa, explaining a piece of plaster can fall on the prime minister's head. There are a lot of examples like that. There were plenty of cases that exhausted the system. I'll give another example, (she wanted) the state to pay NIS 10 for the 'Big Brother' channel and (complained) that the state won't pay for the TV box in Yair's room," Hefetz elaborated.
Channel Ten reported differences and contradictions between Mrs. Netanyahu's version of events and that of Saidoff—who was charged with the same offenses—in their police questioning.
Among other things, it was reported that when Saidoff was asked by police about the cleaning worker who, according to the indictment, was turned into a caretaker for Mrs. Netanyahu's sick father, he said: "I hired a caretaker for her father at Sara's request. I didn't know she was a cleaning worker whose job was changed for this. I understand Sara deceived me."
Mrs. Netanyahu rejected Saidoff's claims, saying, "It never happened. His version is delusional. I told him she was coming to take care of my father."
When questioned about the meals ordered from high-end restaurants and the chefs hired to cook at the residence, Mrs. Netanyahu said in her first questioning: "There were meals at the house." Later, she changed her version: "There were no meals, just 'quick food.' Employees improvised dinner. (Former caretaker) Meni Naftali told me 'You deserve chefs, you deserve to order takeout.'"
On this issue Saidoff also contradicted Mrs. Netanyahu, saying, "She understood well that we couldn't both buy cooking products and order takeout."
When asked about the Netanyahu couple's private guests, who were invited to the official residence for meals cooked by chefs paid for by the state, Mrs. Netanyahu first claimed "I know private guests are not supposed to eat at the expense of the state." Later, she changed her version: "I take it back, I answered intuitively."
PM slams 'absurd' indictment
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday slammed the indictment filed against his wife, dubbing it "absurdity (that) hit a new record."
"For the first time in history, an indictment is filed against the wife of a leader over food and takeout," Netanyahu said in a video posted on his Facebook page.
"Forget the fact everyone ate from that food - the residence's employees, official guests, even heads of states. The most absurd thing about this indictment is that it's based on an illegal procedure," the prime minister added.
"Five days before I took the office of prime minister in 2009, three bureaucrats with no authorization set a special procedure. But they did not receive the approval required by law from the Knesset's Finance Committee, and only it has a say," he explained. "The committee determined the state needs to fund the expenses of the prime minister and his family at the prime minister's residence, just like in the president's residence."
Thus, he determined, "The indictment is based on an illegal procedure, and won't hold water."
