Few people know Benjamin Netanyahu the politician from such a close vantage point as Yoav Horowitz. The seeds of their relationship were planted back when Horowitz served in Sayeret Matkal, the general staff’s elite special-operations unit. Horowitz later became a political staffer for Netanyahu, culminating in him serving as the prime minister’s chief of staff in between 2015 and 2019, and then also as the director general of the Prime Minister’s Office.
Looking back on that period, Horowitz was the last of the responsible adults in that office, which subsequently underwent a deterioration in the level of those staffing it. And that’s putting it mildly. Unlike a number of armchair commentators and psychologists, Horowitz should know – maybe even too much.
Therefore, his public appearance with an Israeli flag at demonstrations against the government coup is a lot more than just another citizen’s declaration. Horowitz has decided to take a moral stand that could also purportedly cost him personally if and when the poison-spewing machine from Netanyahu’s Azza Street apartment decides to take revenge.
In an interview with Haaretz’s Yossi Verter, Horowitz took another courageous step in warning the Israeli public about the danger ahead: “He won’t rest until the entire court system is on the floor, asking for forgiveness. He’s a master of manipulation and campaigning,” Horowitz said of his former boss. Horowitz also didn’t hesitate to tell the truth regarding the Netanyahu family. The prime minister, his wife and his son Yair “are actually one entity. Everything the son tweets becomes Netanyahu’s stance.”
And then came the most important quote: “I was afraid of where things were heading. He [the prime minister] saw himself as a Caesar or president of a superpower. I saw how much he wanted to be like Putin. He now wants unlimited power,” Horowitz said. Finally, Horowitz expressed his support for the protest, saying: “If it wanes, he will interpret this as weakness and forge ahead.”
There’s nothing confusing about Horowitz’s political positions. They are right-wing and a little bit further to the right. Starting with the claims (which he denied at the time) of his contribution to the right-wing group Im Tirtzu, up until the comments that he made in the interview with Verter about the importance of the Supreme Court and the attorney general in strengthening the West Bank settlement enterprise and defending the Israel Defense Forces from international court proceedings at The Hague.
Horowitz’s 2023 version of revulsion toward Netanyahu doesn’t relate to concepts of right and left. It’s the result of deep reservations regarding the prime minister’s conduct at the level of personal values.
Over the weekend, following the interview, Horowitz explained to several associates why it was important for him to actually speak out now, after years of working with Netanyahu, followed by a period of silence. “Our great failure is the fact that power is corrupting. It’s corrupting in two respects: morally, and of no less seriousness, it corrupts the perception of reality of someone who possesses power for too long. He begins conducting himself [in a manner that is] detached from things.
"There’s already no one who will tell him, for example, that it’s not reasonable to fly for another weekend to Rome, at a cost of millions [of shekels] with his wife for a half-hour conversation with the [Italian] prime minister when the whole country is on fire. The power corrupts the measure of reality, and ultimately it also reaches the important fields – defense.”
Horowitz doesn’t buy the thesis that has even taken hold in portions of the center-left – that in the prime minister’s innermost self, there’s still that level-headed Netanyahu who, when all is said and done, has been abducted by extremists. His advice: Don’t look at what Netanyahu says, but rather what he does. And what in Horowitz’s opinion is the solution? The senior Likudniks.
“The Knesset members, the cabinet ministers need to come to their senses and hold up a mirror for him,” he said. “They need to be told: ‘Friends, you’re committing suicide.’”
Listen to Netanyahu’s Former Chief of Staff
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10.04.2023
Few people know Benjamin Netanyahu the politician from such a close vantage point as Yoav Horowitz. The seeds of their relationship were planted back when Horowitz served in Sayeret Matkal, the general staff’s elite special-operations unit. Horowitz later became a political staffer for Netanyahu, culminating in him serving as the prime minister’s chief of staff in between 2015 and 2019, and then also as the director general of the Prime Minister’s Office.
Looking back on that period, Horowitz was the last of the responsible adults in that office, which subsequently underwent a deterioration in the level of those staffing it. And that’s putting it mildly. Unlike a number of armchair commentators and psychologists, Horowitz should know – maybe even too much.
Therefore, his public appearance with an Israeli flag at demonstrations against the government coup is a lot more than just another citizen’s declaration. Horowitz has decided to take a moral stand that could also purportedly cost him personally if and when the poison-spewing machine from........
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