Netanyahu burnishes right-wing bona fides at newspaper conference

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday used a conference in Tel Aviv organized by a right-wing, pro-settler newspaper to polish his right-wing credentials and to call for more competition within the media, which he dubbed the “gloom-and-doom industry.”

Saying he had heard the Makor Rishon paper, the conference’s sponsor, had a policy of “strengthening him from the right” — providing support and also exerting pressure from the right flank of the political spectrum — he reassured the audience, “You don’t need to. Firstly, I’m from the right, and secondly, I’m strong!”

Netanyahu is under almost constant political pressure from the right wing of his governing coalition, particularly from the Jewish Home party led by Education Minister Naftali Bennett. Bennett is pressing for more settlement building even as US President Donald Trump has asked Netanyahu to “hold back.” Bennett also wants a more religiously Orthodox slant to public education.

“What we’ve done over the past decade for Israel, in conditions that were not simple, are things that I believe nobody else would have done, certainly not better,” Netanyahu said.

Describing the importance of “international skill,” the ability to influence leaders and public opinion, particularly in the US, familiarity with the American people and access to multiple American forums, he repeated, “There’s no reason to strengthen me from the right.”

Responding to the speech, Bennett released a statement saying that Netanyahu needed his Jewish Home party to be a “moral backbone” for the more moderate Likud.

“When Jewish Home is weak, Likud declares it supports a Palestinian state. When Jewish Home is strong, Likud backs away from a Palestinian state,” he said.

Citing close relationships with the US, the start Tuesday of the first visit to Israel of an Indian prime minister, and improving relations with some of Israel’s regional neighbors, Netanyahu said the international community understood “that we are a real powerhouse,” but complained the media refused to give him credit.

“I would like to see some of these messages in the media,” he went on. “In a democracy, it’s the norm to criticize the government. But when I open the newspapers, nearly everything is black.”

“The gloom-and-doom industry works without cease,” he said, reprising a term he has used for the press in the past. “For years, they’ve been repeating how much we’re isolated, how we’re going to destroy our relationship with the US, how we won’t be able to get security guarantees from the US. But these things aren’t happening… And that’s what drives me to introduce more competition into the media for a huge audience which has no channel for expression.”

Over recent years, Netanyahu has been accused of over-involving himself in the Israeli media.

In 2015, he called new elections in part to stymie an opposition attempt to force the free Israel Hayom newspaper, widely seen as promoting his views, to charge customers. He also tried — ultimately without success — to scrap plans that he himself had previously approved to replace the Israel Broadcasting Authority with a corporation because of what were seen as fears that it would be too independent. After a long-running political saga, the corporation went on the air earlier this year.