The news, reported Monday by TheMarker, that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had requested permission to make changes to his investment portfolio but withdrew the request when it was put on the cabinet’s agenda, has elicited exactly the kind of reaction that he was presumably trying to avoid.

While the prime minister’s attorney was on damage-control duty, holding a conference call with reporters to explain his client’s motives, opposition politicians and social activists were busy issuing indignant soundbites.

In the space of one month Netanyahu changed his position on revisions to his domestic and foreign investment portfolios in two separate communications to the State Comptroller’s Office. In late July he asked the exceptions committee in the comptroller’s agency for permission to change the composition of his holdings. But a month later Netanyahu went back to the panel and retracted his request.

On August 15 the committee, which is headed by retired Judge Ezrah Kamma, approved the earlier request in principle but stipulated that the cabinet must extend the right requested by Netanyahu to all government officials who are required to place their assets in a blind trust for the duration of their office.

For more, go to Haaretz.com

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