Trump and Netanyahu are playing the same game
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Late last year, President Trump scrambled to defend Donald Trump Jr. after news broke that his eldest son had taken an ill-advised 2016 meeting with a group of Kremlin-connected Russians — one now branded “treasonous” by ex-White House adviser Steven Bannon. This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a prominent Trump ally, found himself doing the same.
A recording aired Tuesday by Channel 2, an Israeli broadcaster, featured the voice of Yair Netayahu during a drunken romp around Tel Aviv’s strip clubs in 2015. The younger Netanyahu, now 26, is heard making disparaging comments about women and boasting to friends about soliciting prostitutes. He also solicits cash from one of his companions, the son of a prominent Israeli tycoon, arguing it was only fair given the $20 billion gas deal that “my father got you.” (You can read the whole, somewhat comic transcript yourself.)
The emergence of the tape is unwelcome news for the Israeli prime minster, who is surrounded by allegations of corruption and is at the center of two criminal probes. With the public’s attention already fixed on Netanyahu’s various dodgy dealings, including alleged demands of free champagne and cigars from foreign business executives, his son’s drunken remarks open a potential new avenue of investigation.
Meanwhile, the sordid nature of the conversation is inconvenient at a time when Netanyahu’s government is also passing unpopular legislation to curb business on the Sabbath. “In the public eye since childhood, the younger Netanyahu has been part of the traditional wholesome tableau that the Prime Minister’s family has presented to the public, with an emphasis on spending the Jewish Sabbath on family nature hikes, meals and Bible study with their father,” noted left-wing Israeli newspaper Haaretz. “Spending Friday nights club-hopping and thousands of dollars carousing with strippers was not part of that carefully honed image, damaging Netanyahu’s popularity with the religious supporters.”
In the face of a media maelstrom, both Netanyahu and his son issued conciliatory statements; Yair apologized for the “nonsense” spoken under the influence of alcohol. “My son was correct in saying yesterday that he had spoken foolish words,” said his father. “He said, it’s not me, Yair. He said that these are not the values that characterize him. And he’s right.”
But his eldest son, like Donald Trump Jr. before him, in fact seemed more concerned with lashing out at the press, branding their fathers’ critics as enemies of their respective nations. In their battles with liberal opponents, both sons have also courted the support of the neo-fascist alt-right on social media, with Netanyahu even posting what seemed to be an anti-Semitic meme celebrated by neo-Nazis on his Facebook page last year.
Their fathers, too, have echoed each other’s illiberal agendas. In a year when much of the international community has held Trump at arm’s length, Netanyahu went in for a full embrace. As Trump pushed the construction of a wall on the Mexican border, Netanyahu chimed in, insisting that the supposed success of an Israeli barrier along its border with Egypt proved the worth of Trump’s project.
Source:- https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/01/10/trump-and-netanyahu-are-playing-the-same-game/?utm_term=.2443b4ff03d8
