Pro-Netanyahu daily runs ad sniping at his wife

Regular readers of the Israel Hayom daily newspaper may have been surprised Thursday to see an advertisement within its pages that appeared to lampoon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife Sara and her reported taste for expensive champagne, the day after she gave a statement to police as part of a criminal investigation into expensive gifts allegedly received by the Netanyahus from wealthy businessmen.

The investigation reportedly revolves around gifts the Netanyahus received from Israeli movie producer Arnon Milchan and other businessmen, including hundreds of thousands of shekels worth of cigars for the prime minister and pricey bottles of the French bubbly wine for Sara Netanyahu.

A second investigation into the prime minister is examining an alleged proposal for a deal in which Netanyahu would use legislation to hamper Israel Hayom’s circulation in return for more favorable coverage by a competing newspaper.

Although considered overwhelmingly pro-Netanyahu in its coverage, Thursday’s Israel Hayom carried a full-page advertisement headlined “Sara, there are more wines than pink champagne.”

The ad was run by the Yayin B’Ir (Wine in the City) chain, has over 40 stores around the country.

Last week Channel 2 news reported that Netanyahu received the cigars from Milchan over the last seven to eight years. Sara received bottles of Dom Perignon pink champagne worth hundreds of shekels apiece during that period, the TV report said. It specified that the cigars included Cohiba Sigla V, Trinidad and Montecristo, and said each such cigar costs some NIS 250 (about $65).

Netanyahu is known as a connoisseur of fine cigars, and Channel 2 said the prime minister smokes NIS 15,000-20,000 worth of them each month.

Sara Netanyahu gave testimony to the police’s national fraud unit in Lod on Wednesday night, according to several reports carried by Hebrew-language media.