Netanyahu accuses media of ‘blood libel’ with its reports on wife Sara’s alleged misdeeds
In 4-minute video, PM says press going after his wife because court cases against him ‘collapsing,’ doesn’t address ‘Uvda’ report that she ordered protest against bereaved family
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday accused the “left and the media” of pushing a “blood libel” against his wife Sara following TV allegations that she led efforts to intimidate his opponents, and reports that she leaked Israel’s plan to kill Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah days before the September strike.
In a four-minute video posted to X, Netanyahu, who has been testifying for the past three weeks in the corruption cases against him, said the media launched its “new-yet-old” vendetta when the long-standing criminal charges began “collapsing” in court.
He also accused the media of colluding with “billionaires from the left and abroad” in a bid to topple his government by rigging polls unfavorable to him and refraining from journalistic investigations into the previous government.
The press, he said, has engaged in “daily incitement” against the right, ultra-Orthodox and settlers.
“This is the real ‘poison machine’,” he said, using a term regularly employed by critics to describe the tactics of his supporters. “Cut it out, move on. The people are smart; they’re sick of you and don’t want your lies anymore.”
Assailing the media, Netanyahu singled out Channel 12 investigative program “Uvda.” However, he did not directly address its report last week, which alleged that Sara Netanyahu had orchestrated a protest outside the home of a family whose fighter pilot son had been killed in combat.
The report, which was based on the correspondence of Netanyahu’s late aide Hanni Bleiweiss, also found that Sara Netanyahu had encouraged police officers who used violence against anti-government protesters; sought to intimidate a key witness and prosecutors in her husband’s corruption cases; and mistreated the premier’s longtime secretary, who succumbed to cancer in 2023.
On Monday, Channel 12 reported that Bleiweiss’s family was planning to sue the Netanyahus for some NIS 8 million ($2,200,000), alleging they had used Bleiweiss as a “wallet,” failed to reimburse her, and damaged her health by regularly humiliating her.
Meanwhile, Sara Netanyahu on Monday filed a lawsuit for defamation against Channel 12 over a claim that she had leaked highly sensitive security information, including the plan to assassinate Nasrallah in late September.
חאלס, תתקדמו! pic.twitter.com/B93Vcr056A
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) December 26, 2024
In his video, the premier said the media was so intent on sullying him that it ignored his wife’s charitable activities, including her work as a child psychologist and her visits to cancer patients, lone soldiers, hostage families, bereaved families and wounded soldiers.
People who have met Sara Netanyahu, said the premier, “say to me: we don’t believe it — we are seeing the real woman, her soul, and it’s a difference of night and day from the character assassination we see in the press.
“There is no limit to the lies,” he added. “There is no limit to the despicable fictions, facts taken out of context, fake news, brainwashing.”
Netanyahu also accused the press of giving preferential treatment to his opponents, saying it would have never probed the previous “left-wing government with the Muslim Brotherhood” — a reference to Arab party Ra’am, which joined the last coalition, and has no known affiliation with the Sunni organization that spawned Hamas.
Calling on Channel 12 and other outlets to air such an investigation, Netanyahu said “it simply won’t happen,” despite reports about former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s high spending on food and security arrangements around his home.
Netanyahu has long had an adversarial relationship with the media, which has also reported frequently over the years about Sara Netanyahu’s alleged stinginess and abuse of staff. In his trial, Netanyahu is accused, among other things, of exchanging political favors for positive press coverage.
