Netanyahu avoids Pakistani leader in New York
Prime minister cancels dinner plans at a plush eatery after Nawaz Sharif books a table
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hastily canceled his Tuesday night dinner plans at a top New York restaurant after finding out that the prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, had also booked a table for the same night.
Netanyahu was scheduled to eat at Serafina Always but dropped the reservation, the New York Post reported on Thursday.
“He opted not to eat at Serafina after learning Pakistan’s leader would be there,” a source told the daily paper. “Netanyahu has the best security in the world. But one can assume that it wouldn’t make sense for him to be at a restaurant at the same time as Sharif.”
The decision was made “for security reasons,” the report said.
Sharif, accompanied by his wife and a security detail that filled two tables, went ahead with his dinner as planned and, according to an eyewitness, made sure to avoid any alcohol or meat, opting for pizza instead. The couple reportedly rounded off their evening with apple pie, cheesecake and chocolate soufflé for dessert.
The two prime ministers were in New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly.
Netanyahu’s culinary forays while abroad have in the past drawn media interest, although usually not so much because of his tablemates as because of what may — or may not be — on his plate.
In the beginning of September, he faced criticism from ultra-Orthodox Israeli politicians for having eaten, during a trip to Italy, in a non-kosher restaurant that serves rabbit, escargot and lobster.
An official in the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that Netanyahu “was invited to a restaurant by the Italian prime minister [Matteo Renzi], but he did not eat forbidden foods.”
Last year, he was rapped by the ultra-Orthodox Kikar Hashabat website for eating in a nonkosher restaurant in New York with Sheldon Adelson, the American billionaire who owns Israel Hayom, a free daily that supports Netanyahu.
Jewish dietary law bars consumption of certain foods such as pork and shellfish, and also prohibits the mixing of meat and dairy products.
Rabbits are considered nonkosher because they do not have cloven hooves.
AFP contributed to this report.
