Prime Minister Netanyahu
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Netanyahu defends wife: Her image is being tarnished day and night
After days of reports from Sara Netanyahu's investigation, the prime minister says media has been tarnishing her image for the past 20 year, 'completely ignoring her public activity'; 'She's so different than this character the media is trying to describe,' he adds.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to his wife Sara's defense on Monday after days in which transcripts from her police investigation
have been leaked to the media.
"Her image has been tarnished in the media for the past 20 years, day and night," Netanyahu said at the beginning of a Likud faction meeting, pounding his hand on the table.
Likud lawmakers clapped enthusiastically in agreement, with several yelling out the causes Sara Netanyahu has championed.
Prime Minister Netanyahu (Photo: Yoav Dudkevitch)
The prime minister added that he was moved by the support his wife has been receiving. “She is going through difficult times,” he said.
Sara 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. She was charged with fraudulently obtaining benefits under aggravated circumstances, fraud and breach of trust.
According to transcripts from Mrs. Netanyahu's investigation in the “residence affair” published by Channel Ten News, the prime minister’s wife told the police that the probe against her was “an utter disgrace” and described one of her chefs who testified against her as a “sh*t cook, a repulsive woman.” She insisted that her family does not eat gourmet food from high-end restaurants and that she is accustomed to eating modest food in small portions.
“Sara is a wonderful woman,” Netanyahu said Monday. “She is an amazing mother, she was an exemplary daughter to her parents, and the media are completely ignoring her public activity. Everything that you know is being concealed by the media. The way she helps bereaved families, helps lone soldiers, helps children with cancer—she's not pretending. She has been accompanying a girl sick with cancer for eight years, for real. And when she goes to visit bereaved families it's not just to mark it off her list—it's accompanying them for years, the parents and the children, as well as Holocaust survivors and abused women. She's so different than this character (the media) is trying to describe."
