The man who spent too much

There are alternate worlds all over the Hebrew-language front pages Sunday morning. There are alternate worlds where the biggest things Israel has to worry about are the prime minister’s spending and snowstorms (Haaretz and Yedioth Ahronoth), and alternate worlds where the prime minister is fiscally responsible… and where Rudy Guiliani won the GOP nomination for president in 2012 and beat Barack Obama. And an exclusive interview with him — on his opinion of the emerging Iranian nuclear deal — is worth blasting across the front page (Israel Hayom).

Yes, seven years as America’s Mayor (“mythological,” in the words of interviewer Boaz Bismuth) has apparently left Giuliani with the knowledge to also hold forth on American foreign policy, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Obama’s foibles and the indubitable righteousness of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned speech to Congress next week.

“Obama has a foreign policy that is — I don’t want to say ‘obsessive,’ lest it be said that it’s harmful — but he has foreign policies focused entirely on getting a nuclear deal,” Giuliani tells Israel Hayom in response to a softball from Bismuth (in a translation of his words from Hebrew, back into English). “Everything else is secondary for him. All the other American foreign policies are secondary from his point of view, and are even irrelevant against an Iranian nuclear deal.”

Incidentally, “obsessive” might not be a bad way to describe the press’s infatuation with the Case of the Prime Minister Who Spent Too Much.

Yedioth Ahronoth’s headline and first four pages are devoted to the spending allegations against Netanyahu. The paper details fired custodian Menny Naftali’s testimony to police about the first couple’s system of presenting private expenditures as work-related expenses, stealing from the taxpayer. Police say Naftali didn’t level any new allegations, but did hand over a number of receipts and recordings relating to the charges.

Yedioth also lays out the defense that the Netanyahus’ lawyer, Yaakov Weinroth, presented to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein. On the bottle refund controversy, Weinroth said that whoever gathered bottles is the rightful recipient of the refund, and Sara was that person. Regarding payments made to an electrician for work he may not have actually performed, the lawyer said that the Prime Minister’s Residence Deputy Director General Ezra Saidoff was the one responsible for hiring the electrician, not the Netanyahus.

And on the missing patio furniture, Weinroth said the pieces only need to be returned after Netanyahu’s time in office, which has not ended. But, says Yedioth, Netanyahu denied that the report accurately represented the contents of the lawyer’s letter, and that they had no criticism of Saidoff.

And about Saidoff — he looks as if he will be at the center of the growing storm. During Netanyahu’s first term, he was accused of receiving bribes. That investigation was closed by the attorney general because of a difficulty in finding adequate testimony: Saidoff was tried, but was found not guilty.

But that’s not all Yedioth has about the subject. The paper releases a letter, ostensibly from Saidoff, warning Residence workers — in no uncertain terms — that it was forbidden for them to take bottles for recycling themselves, and that they had to drop them off in a central receptacle.

Haaretz also focuses on the snow and the scandal. But it also carries an interesting study of the Hebrew-language media coverage of the leading candidates over the past two weeks (I would like to take a moment to point out how meta this is — a Hebrew Media Review reviewing a review of the Hebrew media in the Hebrew media).

The pattern is almost identical for all the outlets — Netanyahu garners between 30-35% of the coverage, usually followed by Herzog and Bennett, who receive only about one-third of his coverage. Haaretz also points out that the campaign is focusing on the person of Netanyahu himself, and not on core issues like security and the economy. Something Haaretz is guilty of itself.

Israel Hayom, long accused of being biased in favor of Netanyahu, doesn’t devote real space to the PM’s Residence scandal until page 7, and the front page only has a small teaser over the main Giuliani headline. Even on its full-page story, the headline reads, “Police sources: Menny Naftali didn’t give any ‘dramatic information.’”

Getting a bit conspiratorial, Itzik Saban asks in Israel Hayom, “Who is controlling Menny Naftali?” suggesting that someone is using the former custodian to topple Netanyahu. These incidents happened two years ago, points out Saban. “So for whom was it so burning right now to publicize them with full force, and wildly exaggerated, a month before the elections?” He also blasts other journalists for not even asking the question.

On to happier matters. Haaretz reports that residents of Jerusalem are learning Arabic and Hebrew in rapidly increasing numbers. The Jerusalem Intercultural Center, on Mount Zion, and the Islamic Art Museum in West Jerusalem both say their Arabic classes fill up rapidly, and that the number of residents looking to study Arabic is up by hundreds of percent. “I receive between three and four work offers every day and I have to turn them down,” says Arabic instructor Anwar bin Badim.

The same goes for the Arab residents of East Jerusalem. Ten institutions began offering Hebrew instruction in the last year alone. The motives are different, though: The Jewish students tend to learn Arabic for ideological reasons, while Arab residents are learning Hebrew in order to open up opportunities for work and study.

And finally, the happiest subject of all — snow! Yedioth has a front-page picture of President Reuven Rivlin in a snowball fight with his grandkids (Who knew he threw lefty?) and a paean from the man himself to snow in Jerusalem.

And even amid the elections and scandals, the Netanyahus found time to pose with their sons in a snowy yard at the Prime Minister’s Residence. The patio furniture was nowhere to be seen in the photo; it must have been taken in for the winter.