Likud says report is useless without context

Likud hurries to publish a response to the special comptroller report:

“To our sincere regret, the ongoing media campaign which has surrounded this issue for weeks in advance of the report’s release, was a clear effort to remove the Prime Minister from office and the Likud from leadership through a focus on irrelevant minutia [sic] and distract from the real issues at hand: Who will defend the State of Israel in the face of the real security threats and pressure from the international community- Benjamin Netanyahu or Buji [Isaac Herzog] and Tzipi [Livni]?”

The statement continues in an effort to blur what conclusions the public may draw from the publication of the report:

“The report does not offer any comparisons to other official residences in Israel. This creates a significant problem is effectively establishing a proper benchmark for analysis because expenses of an official residence cannot be compared to that of a private home. For example, expenses of the President’s Residence are many tens of times higher than those of the Prime Minister’s Residence. Regarding the President’s Residence, the report does not address the budget breakdown or address specific details. Therefore, there is no basis for comparison which would allow the public to effectively evaluate what are acceptable benchmarks.”