Yair Netanyahu perfectly portrays the role of a high school bully
The only reason Netanyahu chose Ofira Asayag and Rina Matzliach as his targets is that they are Mizrachi women who carry a lot of meaning to the Likud voters.
By YAEL MIRIAM SINAIYair Netanyahu (photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)
Why does Yair Netanyahu obsess over unflattering photos of Ofira Asayag? Let’s assume that Yair Netanyahu is a media strategist who chooses his victims carefully and puts a lot of time and effort into planning his actions on social media, especially during election time. Asayag was not chosen at random to be the subject of Yair Netanyahu’s mockery, and Rina Matzliach did not stop just turn into “Rina Masriach” ("masriach," which rhymes with her last name is Hebrew for "smelly").Yair Netanyahu portrays the high school bully perfectly, the same one who stalks the hallways in order to find his next victim over whom he will lord his strength. This tactic uses mockery, usually through someone’s appearance is a way in which people maintain power over others.At every political junction in history, especially during times when democracies are unstable, the bullies enlist themselves to create a front of fear and awfulness, in order to make clear the price to anyone who would be interested in entering the system. Political bullying has several goals: to make all discussion and criticism obsolete, to sow fear and confusion among rivals and turn every subject one can discuss into a personal and violent struggle. Beyond that, Yair Netanyahu, as the son of the prime minister, marks targets for a pack of bullies that hangs around with him in the “school yard." These are the targets, this is the language used, and this is the best way for him to build his power. Choosing Matzliach and Asayag are interesting in that regard, seeing as we would assume the bully would choose easier targets to attack, perhaps weaker characters, socially isolated ones, meanwhile both Asayag and Matliach are powerful women, with significant roles in the Israeli public space. The reason he chose those two, unlike previous attack Yair Netanyahu made on media personnel such as Guy Peleg or Amnon Abramovitch, is that Asayag and Matliach are Mizrachi women with significance to the political audience of the Likud. They are recognized as people who can cause massive damage, since what they say is accepted differently in the eyes of the traditional Likud voter audience, they are in the heart of Israeli consensus, appeal to multiple crowds, perceived as authentic and unbiased and Yair knows that they won’t keep quiet and will try to fight back, and like any fight in the mud pit, the result he is interested in is that they won’t come out clean from the fight.That’s why he chose the old method of the bully: talking about their physical appearance. That way he could get a double effect, both dragging them with him through the mud and reduce them to a minimum through talking about their appearance, thus limited their influence and make people forget about their professional achievements.It’s good that these days women have social networks to create solidarity and that Israeli women have public platforms, not to make their presence of the bully, but rather for their mutual benefit.In the coming elections, we have to stand as a unified front against all attempts at bullying, against any show of misogyny and attempts to humiliate. Any attack will be answered with flattery and support, because if this is how we’ll allow people to speak to our sisters on the internet, it will come to leaving our girls alone to face attacks in the school hallways. The writer is the manager of the Knesset connections and government in the women's advocacy group of the Knesset.Translated from Maariv
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