Sara Netanyahu's outfit causes Knesset storm

Revealing outfit worn by the PM's wife at the official opening of parliament has pundits rushing to criticize, and some to defend.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Sara Netanyahu LBD (photo credit: Screenshot Channel 10)
Sara Netanyahu LBD
(photo credit: Screenshot Channel 10)
Binyamin Netanyahu's wife Sara has caused a media storm by turning up to the official opening of the Knesset on Tuesday wearing a tight, black, see-through lace dress, much to the disapproval of the Israeli media the following day.
On Channel 10 television's "Erev Tov" program on Wednesday, a fashion critic slammed her outfit as “cheap” and “inappropriate”, while Uriel Heilman of the JTA news agency compared her outfit to something worn by Beyoncé, noting that "Sara Netanyahu is no Michelle Obama."
"The outfit Sara chose for Tuesday's inauguration of the 19th Knesset was a form-fitting, lacy number with a transparent top. Except for a black band covering her bust, everything north of the waist was on full display. Who does she think she is, Beyoncé at the Super Bowl?" Heilman wrote.
But some Israeli politicians rushed to Mrs. Netanyahu's defense. The Daily Beast on Thursday quoted veteran Likud MK Limor Livnat as calling out the Israeli media for its “chauvinistic discourse.”
"There’s something very sad in the fact that, on a day when a record number of 27 talented women, many of them feminists, were sworn in to the Knesset, specifically on this day, there are those who choose to lash out at this woman in such a superficial and shallow way," Livnat quoted as saying.
Defense also came from an unexpected quarter in the form of Aryeh Deri, the leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, who said that his religious sensibilities had not been offended by the sight of Sara's stomach. In a message on his Facebook page, Deri also rapped what he termed "repulsive and mean-spirited preoccupation with the prime minister's wife's outfit."