Ex-Netanyahu chief of staff: ‘I saw how much he wanted to be like Putin’

Yoav Horowitz, who served as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff until 2020, tells Haaretz that for the premier, “losing isn’t an option. He won’t rest until the entire judicial system is on the floor, begging for forgiveness,” apparently for having indicted him and put him on trial.

Horowitz was spotted for the first time last week at protests against the government’s effort to overhaul the judiciary.

Discussing his decision to leave the post, Horowitz says, “I was afraid of where things were heading. He saw himself as a Caesar or president of a superpower.”

“I saw how much he wanted to be like Putin. He now wants unlimited power, with no one who can restrain him. I fear for my four sons, who are in or about to join the army. Who will lead them and to where?” Horowitz says.