Bennett: PM calling me ‘dog’ in recording unimportant — we’re human, not angels

16 November 2020, 2:06 pm

Edit

Naftali Bennett seems to give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a pass for calling him “a little dog” in a 2018 phone call with aide Nir Hefetz.

“In closed conversations we all speak freely, and not always gracefully. I don’t hold back in closed conversations either. That’s life, we’re all human, not angels,” he says. “It’s really not important.”

He does attack the person who recorded the conversation — Hefetz, who is now a key witness against the premier in his trial.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) with then education minister Naftali Bennett during a Knesset plenum session on November 13, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

“I think those who record conversations are despicable and hinder people’s ability to speak freely.”

He says his problem with Netanyahu is not a years-old quote but rather “a terrible management of the country that has caused unnecessary damage and suffering to Israelis.”