Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to depart for London on Thursday evening. The official reason for the trip is a meeting with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. It’s due to be held on Friday morning but Netanyahu and his wife will remain in the British capital until Saturday evening. That’s been the standard arrangement recently.
Two weeks ago they spent a three-day weekend in Rome, where Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni set aside a 45-minute lunch meeting with Netanyahu. Last week the original plan for three days in Berlin was disrupted when Sara Netanyahu decided at the last minute not to join her husband, and the trip was cut to one day. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also spoke with Netanyahu over lunch. I just hope they didn’t talk about the Iranian nuclear program or Hawara or the regime coup in Israel with their mouths full.
In advance of the London trip, the Prime Minister’s Office again demanded that the Netanyahus fly on a Boeing 777, an old, large, expensive plane that is entirely unnecessary in view of the size of the delegation and the aircraft’s fuel capacity. The flight and leasing expenses for such a three-day trip are estimated to be three times that of a reasonable alternative, a Boeing 737. (More modern 787 models are off-limits to the prime minister for security reasons.)
The only Israeli airline with a 777 fleet is El Al, so the bidding process to fly the prime minister is fictitious, because El Al was obviously going to be the successful bidder.
Aviation officials estimate the cost at $250,000 at least. The Netanyahus’ insistence on the 777 is due to the plane’s first-class compartment, which provides them with complete separation from the other passengers.
The 777 was temporarily abandoned following Netanyahu’s trip to Paris last month. Following that trip, it turned out that in protest against the judicial coup, no pilot or copilot would agree to fly the prime minister. For lack of an alternative, El Al assigned two members of management to the task – the fleet manager and chief pilot. The airline’s spokeswoman denied any revolt in the ranks of the airline’s pilots, but in advance of the trip to Rome, it was no longer possible to lie to the public and it was decided to switch to a Boeing 737, a model for which there were at least three pilots to fly the prime minister.
But the Netanyahus were displeased with the arrangement and in advance of the London trip, the airline made a desperate effort to find other pilots prepared to fly the prime minister. Pilots and flight attendants as well as cabin crew chiefs were approached individually rather than through El Al’s regular internal channel of communications.
When it came to the couple’s hotel accommodations in the British capital, there was some tough bargaining. The Israeli Foreign Ministry, Israeli embassy and Shin Bet suggested a number of luxury hotels for the visit, but the Netanyahus rejected them all. The cream of the diplomatic corps and the personal security unit ran around London looking in vain for an alternative that would be up to their standards.
Ultimately the Netanayhus agreed to stay at the Savoy – subject to strict conditions. The Israeli Foreign Ministry reserved three whole floors of the hotel. A suite fetching 8,000 British pounds ($9,800) a night was reserved for the prime minister, in addition to another 60 regular rooms costing 400 pounds a night. Some of the rooms were reserved from Tuesday on to prepare and secure the visit. At current exchange rates, the cost of accommodations alone is close to half a million shekels ($138,000).
It remains to be seen who will be accompanying Sara Netanyahu on the trip. In connection with a trip she made to England about a month ago, the Israeli ambassador to the U.K., Tzipi Hotovely, put aside all her diplomatic duties to handle the visit personally. And that’s even though the prime minister’s wife doesn’t have an official position and the trip was entirely personal.
One cannot become apathetic to such a routine of pointless weekly trips. Their diplomatic importance is slim. They are unjustifiably extended to three days. They occupy the time of hundreds of civil servants and cost the taxpayers millions of shekels. Enough with the loftiness, enough with the waste.
Netanyahu's Pointless, Profligate Flights of Fancy
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26.03.2023
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to depart for London on Thursday evening. The official reason for the trip is a meeting with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. It’s due to be held on Friday morning but Netanyahu and his wife will remain in the British capital until Saturday evening. That’s been the standard arrangement recently.
Two weeks ago they spent a three-day weekend in Rome, where Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni set aside a 45-minute lunch meeting with Netanyahu. Last week the original plan for three days in Berlin was disrupted when Sara Netanyahu decided at the last minute not to join her husband, and the trip was cut to one day. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also spoke with Netanyahu over lunch. I just hope they didn’t talk about the Iranian nuclear program or Hawara or the regime coup in Israel with their mouths full.
In advance of the London trip, the Prime Minister’s Office again demanded that the Netanyahus fly on a Boeing 777, an old, large, expensive plane that is entirely unnecessary in view........
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