Former Netanyahu confidant Lauder breaks silence, warns against PM’s reelection

Ronald Lauder, who was a longtime confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and who currently heads the World Jewish Congress, warned Israelis Friday against reelecting the premier.

“I’ve been silent for 20 years, 30 years,” said the billionaire philanthropist in an interview with the Haaretz daily. “One of the things that made Israel so special compared to other countries is that they had a real democracy. What we’re seeing now feels more like a banana republic.”

“If Bibi is elected, Israel stands to lose badly,” he said.

Lauder went further in the interview, accusing Netanyahu of being “a dictator — a one-person show,” and arguing that the prime minister is no longer operating according to democratic norms.

He also blamed National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for damaging Israel’s image, while accusing Netanyahu of allowing them to do so.

When asked who he would vote for, Lauder said he wouldn’t cast a ballot because he is “so disgusted with the system,” but that if he had to choose, he would pick Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot.

Lauder told Haaretz that although he had never met Eisenkot, he respected him because he viewed the former IDF chief as a “real human being” and not being able to “bullshit.” He also named Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman as an Israeli politician he respected.

“If Ben Gvir and Smotrich’s parties play any role in government in the future, Israel is doomed,” he said, referring to far-right Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism parties, which are each polling at around eight seats.

From confidant to critic

Lauder told Haaretz that he and Netanyahu previously had a very good relationship.

“We were very close. Often we were talking, laughing, having fun, speaking about people… Weekly, daily sometimes. We talked about everything going on,” he said.

Their relationship dated back to Netanyahu’s years as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations in the 1980s. Lauder recalled helping connect Netanyahu with Republican political strategist Arthur Finkelstein as Netanyahu prepared to enter Israeli politics, and later hosted a farewell gathering for him in New York attended by prominent figures from the city’s political and media circles.

The Estée Lauder cosmetics company heir said the relationship deteriorated when Netanyahu married his third wife, Sara.

Citing several people who had worked with Lauder over the years, Haaretz reported that tensions developed after he refused some requests for expensive gifts. Witnesses said Sara Netanyahu asked Lauder for a $25,000 gift when her son Yair celebrated his bar mitzvah in 2004 — a request Lauder declined.

Former associates also told Haaretz that on another occasion the premier’s wife sought some $15,000 worth of products from his cosmetics company, which he also refused to provide.

The newspaper reported that another major rupture came during Lauder’s years as the controlling shareholder of Israel’s Channel 10. Former advisers told Haaretz that Netanyahu had encouraged Lauder to buy the television station, but later repeatedly complained about its reporting after it began broadcasting criticism of him.

Asked what Channel 10 had done to their relationship, Lauder replied: “It destroyed it.”

Secret talks with Syria

Lauder also detailed his time working as a negotiator between Israel and Syria in the 1990s, and said that at the time, Netanyahu agreed to give up the Golan Heights as part of a peace agreement.

According to Lauder, Netanyahu authorized him in the late 1990s to pursue secret negotiations with the government of Syrian president Hafez al-Assad. Lauder told Haaretz that over roughly 10 to 15 months he repeatedly traveled between Israel and Syria — and at times Lebanon — helping formulate a 10-point framework that also involved then-Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

Lauder claimed that Assad was prepared to sign the final document and that Netanyahu had agreed to its terms, including an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights. Netanyahu has previously denied agreeing to relinquish the Golan.

Lauder said only two copies of the final proposed agreement existed and that both remain in his possession.

Lauder lamented that Netanyahu eventually torpedoed the agreement.

“He chose politics over peace. He put his political future before the deal. That’s where he lost me. I saw him afterward, but it was never the same. He betrayed me. That’s Bibi,” he said.

Lauder told the newspaper that Netanyahu said that he would only sign the agreement if then-defense minister Ariel Sharon did so first.

“What he did was so outrageous,” said Lauder. “I spent months and months getting this thing together, and he says ‘only if you convince Sharon.’ So I said, ‘Sharon will never agree to this. Even if it was the greatest thing in the world, he doesn’t want you to get credit. So why don’t you sign it and stand up for Israel?’ He wouldn’t do it.”

Lauder said Netanyahu then asked him not to discuss the negotiations publicly, something he said he had honored for almost three decades before deciding to speak about them ahead of next week’s Knesset election.

Lauder told Haaretz he last spoke to the prime minister two or three years ago.

‘Losing’ US and Diaspora support

“Israel today is in a very, very difficult position. More difficult than they realize. Throughout the last 20 years of being president of the World Jewish Congress, I have been visiting European and other countries where there are Jewish organizations. And in every one of them, I met the prime minister or the president of that country,” said Lauder. “The fact is that Israel has lost not only Europe and other places, but diaspora [Jews]. Yes, they still are loyal to Israel, but they don’t feel Israel’s protecting them.”

He said that he is particularly concerned about the deterioration in ties between Israel and the US.

Lauder, a longtime Republican donor with relationships at the highest levels of the party, said he believed Israel was losing support on both sides of the American political divide. “You’ve lost the Democratic Party, and you’re losing the Republican Party,” he said, blaming what he viewed as damaging decisions by Israel’s leadership.

Lauder said he has now sold or donated all his properties in Israel, having previously spent a number of weeks per year in the country. He admitted to having mixed feelings about the sale of his Tel Aviv apartment.

“I have no intention of going back to Israel. Zero,” he said. “You have so many little fights everywhere,” adding that he has “no interest” in being there.

Despite his criticism, Lauder stressed that he continued to identify strongly with Israel. “I am still a Zionist today, I still love Israel, I will do everything I can to help it succeed,” he told Haaretz, saying that his criticism came from “love and care.”

He told Haaretz he was very moved by the videos of young people singing a song for peace at a music festival in southern Israel last weekend.

Videos of young Israelis singing "Song for Peace," known as "Shir LeShalom" in Hebrew, at the InDNegev festival in Southern Israel have gone viral.

The song was first performed by Lehakat HaNahal, a military musical unit, in 1969 and became an unofficial anthem for Israel's… pic.twitter.com/Yq6GPZEUFi

— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) October 19, 2026

“We are at a turning point. If people in Israel come to their senses, there will be a good future here,” he said.

Haaretz said no response from Netanyahu had been received by the time the interview was published.