Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem on Sept. 2. Photo by Ohad Zwigenberg / Pool / AFP / Getty Images

Columnist Dan Perry September 18, 2024

Next week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to speak at the weeklong United Nations General Assembly. 

Of course, Netanyahu’s address is magically set for Friday afternoon. And although he will depart for the U.S. early on Tuesday, officials have claimed that former President Donald Trump can only meet with him on Friday. 

Alas, Netanyahu will be “forced” to “observe” the “Sabbath” in the U.S. once more — scare quotes intentional. His wife, Sara, will naturally be with him, at taxpayer expense. 

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This is the sixth time since Netanyahu’s calamitous return to office in Dec. 2022 that he has found an excuse to extend an international trip over the weekend, including, most recently, in the U.S. following his July address to Congress. The trips have included jaunts to London, Berlin and Rome, where he stayed on despite a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv. They are enormously expensive: He and his entourage take over entire floors at luxury hotels. 

In some cases the hosts have seemed embarrassed, and the locals peeved, at the boulevards shut down for the prodigious entourage. In all, Israelis have taken to social media with furious criticism of the chutzpah of it all, especially at a time of such a devastating war.

It’s clear what’s happening: Netanyahu is scamming the state he leads, getting Israeli tax dollars to fund lavish vacations for himself and his wife (who has, lest you forget, been convicted on charges of misusing state funds.) The question is: With Israel’s government already so embattled, why are his supporters letting him get away with it?

After all, by refusing to challenge him on this obvious corruption, they are making themselves look weak. Netanyahu seems to like flouting his power over them; he figures his supporters will either swallow the insult, or, in some cases, even favor a regal posture for their leader.

Critically, there is the assumption that his critics might feel it looks petty to make an issue out of what is hardly a major matter of state. But they should.

Because while Netanyahu’s loitering about in expensive hotels may not qualify as an issue of major importance to Israelis’ daily lives, it should be an issue of significant importance when it comes to reminding them — and the world — that they live in a functional democracy, with functional rules for political leaders.

No other Israeli prime minister has tried to cling to power while facing trial on three counts of corruption, including bribery. (One of the counts focuses specifically on gifts totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars for him and his wife.) No other Israeli prime minister ever tried to get the state to pay for his pool in his personal luxury villa. No other Israeli leader has organized stays for his family at taxpayers’ expense at Jerusalem’s Waldorf Astoria, even though he has the prime minister’s residence — where there were renovations — and another apartment available in the same city, plus his own villa an hour’s drive away.

I like to think good things about people. I’d like to assume that Netanyahu is a decent person who simply does not understand how to behave like one, or who has trouble calculating the benefits of doing so, because he is so busy. So, in the spirit of charity, I’ll offer some reasons why corruption is a bad thing, and why his supporters and critics alike should stop turning the other cheek to his overt embrace of it:

• Wasteful behavior, such as staying in extremely expensive hotel rooms for an over-extended period at the expense of the taxpayers, goes against a leader’s responsibility to intelligently and carefully use public resources, and can erode public trust.
• Extravagant behavior can send the wrong message, suggesting that ostentatiousness is acceptable, and even to be admired. (It isn’t; it only makes the practitioner look vain, and silly.)
• A spendthrift leader diverts funds from important public services and emboldens waste across the system.
• When it occurs in a country plagued by extraordinary inequality, it can foster resentment, division and a perception that the leader is out of touch and disinterested in setting an example. 

I consulted the words of the sages to bolster my argument. Young Seneca says that “gluttony dulls the mind, weakens the body and enslaves the soul; it is a poison that robs us of our potential for higher pursuits”; Epicurus notes that “excess is nature’s adversary, and in matters of nutrition, it often leads us off the path of virtue”; Albert Schweitzer cautions that “those who indulge in gluttony replace the joy of moderation with the fleeting pleasures of the moment.”

Then again, Netanyahu heads the most religious government in Israel’s history. Top members of his coalition are not only convicted criminals (including, most ironically, the “national security minister”) but also religious fanatics who hold non-Jewish texts in some disdain. Perhaps, then, the way to Netanyahu’s heart goes through Jewish wisdom. 

I leafed through the Bible for hours — and found that the key was staring me in the face the entire time. It’s in the 10 Commandments, the last and most honored: “Thou shalt not covet.”

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