Netanyahu’s hopes for a Purim-style twist of fate

The headline about William was one of many that undoubtedly made Prime Minister Netanyahu happy this week.

By GIL HOFFMAN
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with youth movement members at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday (photo credit: REUTERS)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with youth movement members at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received good news on Thursday when Kensington Palace announced Prince William’s visit to Israel this summer, and the prime minister is set to ask US President Donald Trump to come back in May to cut the ribbon on the US Consulate in Jerusalem that will become the temporary embassy.
The headline about William was one of many that undoubtedly made Netanyahu happy this week. There was also the scandal over the text messages between Judge Ronit Poznanski-Katz and Israel Securities Authority attorney Eran Shaham-Shavit that made the public question the professionalism of the Israeli legal system.
There were the unconfirmed reports that Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit will wait with his decision on whether to indict Netanyahu until he is done with all the cases against him, in order to rule on all of them at once – a step that could delay his announcement to 2019.
And the prime minister was surely overjoyed by Thursday’s Haaretz report proving that Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid lied about immediately rejecting a bill that would have extended tax breaks for Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan – legislation that is the basis of the bribery charge recommended by police in Netanyahu’s Case 1000, the “expensive gifts affair.”
Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev (Likud), who is close to Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, reacted to the report on Lapid by noting that it came on Purim, when there is a tradition of the fate of the Jewish people unexpectedly changing for the better. She quoted the Book of Esther, saying “venahafoch hu,” which is translated as fortune turned upside down, from bad to good.
“On Purim, the mask was removed from the man of ethics, religion, and morals,” Regev said, mocking Lapid.