Meretz: Investigate PM for theft of public funds

Political rivals of Benjamin Netanyahu launched a series of verbal attacks against the prime minister Saturday, amid allegations his wife Sara had pocketed at least $1,000 worth of public money by returning empty bottles to supermarkets, and reports the Netanyahus’ official residence overspent on alcohol.

The head of the left-wing Meretz Party called for a formal investigation of Netanyahu for theft of public funds.

Zehava Gal-on asked the Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein to launch an urgent probe into the affair and, should the accusations prove to be true, dismiss Netanyahu’s candidacy for the premiership.

Israel’s Channel 10 said Thursday that the attorney-general would decide in the next few days whether to open an investigation into the matter.

Isaac Herzog, the co-leader of the Zionist Camp — the joint Labor-Hatnua list — joined the fray, calling on Netanyahu to “stop blaming others” for his alleged failures, after the PM accused the media Friday of a slander campaign aimed at undermining his leadership.

“After six years, the citizens of Israel deserve a leadership that will serve them,” Herzog wrote in a Facebook post early Saturday.

The Zionist Camp’s Tzipi Livni charged Saturday that the prime minister’s residence’s monthly wine budget amounted to a month’s salary.

“The [amount] of alcohol Netanyahu drinks per month is like the minimum wage earned by millions of Israelis,” she said at a cultural event in Rishon Lezion.

“It was made clear this week that Netanyahu spent NIS 100,000 of the public’s money over two years on alcohol. As of November, nearly a million working Israelis earned between NIS 4,300 – 4,500 a month. Do you realize how much [Netanyahu’s spending] amounts to per month? NIS 4,200, like a worker earning minimum wage,” Livni said.

Accusations of financial impropriety and extravagant spending have dogged Netanyahu for several years. He came under fire in 2013 after it emerged that he spent NIS 10,000 a year of state money on ice cream. That same year, a state report showed he was using NIS 80,000 a year of state money for water at his private residence, complete with a pool, in the ritzy town of Caesarea.

In a long Facebook post Friday, Netanyahu hit out at “false accusations against me and my wife that seek to topple the Likud and bring the left to power led by Tzipi [Livni] and [Isaac] Bougie [Herzog].” Livni and Herzog lead the Zionist Camp, the joint list of their respective Hatnua and Labor parties.

Netanyahu lashed out at the Israeli press in the post, saying the issue was “old” and negligible,” and accused “powerful elements” in the media of slandering his wife to undermine his leadership.

“All of this aims to detract attention from what is really important — who will lead the country,” he wrote.

The reports, which were cause for ridicule in the Hebrew media, come as the Likud party leader prepares to seek re-election in a snap March vote.

On Thursday, Haaretz reported that Sara Netanyahu was accused of bilking the state out of thousands of shekels by pocketing the small change from bottle deposits during the first four years of her husband’s time in office.

She made around NIS 24,000 ($ 6,115) for her efforts, claimed Meny Naftali, the prime minister’s residence caretaker who is suing the Netanyahus for his treatment at the hands of the prime minister’s wife, according to Haaretz.

The Netanyahu couple returned NIS 4,000 ($1,000) in 2013, based on an estimate of NIS 1,000 ($250) a year, according to Prime Minister’s Office spokesman Raphi Shamir.

Naftali, however, claimed that the sum repaid by the Netanyahu family should have been much higher. Speaking to Haaretz, he assessed the deposits from bottles at NIS 250 ($65) once every fortnight. If his claim is correct, the Netanyahus returned bottles worth NIS 6,000 ($1,500) every year, amounting to NIS 24,000 ($6,000) in the 2009-13 period.

Deposits on glass bottles are generally NIS .30 ($0.08), meaning the Netanyahus collected returns from some 80,000 bottles over four years.

According to Naftali, the prime minister witnessed his wife ordering workers to take bottle and cans to recycling centers, and he knew the money was not going to the state.

“She sent wine and champagne bottles to us in the elevator, checked if they reached us, and demanded that we take them to the recycling center in another car, not hers, because of the smell,” claimed Naftali.

He also said that the residence began ordering more small bottles of mineral water, which can be redeemed, instead of the large bottles, which cannot be exchanged for money. The small bottles cost the state more.

Ynet reported Thursday that Weinstein was aware of the prime minister’s wife pocketing the money for a full seven months before Haaretz broke the story.

The Netanyahus spent at least NIS 100,000 ($25,450) on alcohol over a period of two years of the prime minister’s term, Channel 2 reported Thursday evening. Over the course of three months at the end of 2010, they spent NIS 50,000 on alcoholic drinks.

The wine supplier for the prime minister’s residence said that Netanyahu “takes a lot of wine to his events,” Ynet reported. He would quickly use up his annual NIS 25,000 wine budget, he added.