It's hard to believe the recording of Yair Netanyahu has nothing to do with politics. Just last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu butted heads with former Shin Bet security agency chiefs over the matter of providing bodyguards for his two sons, Yair and Avner. The Shin Bet insists there is no need to provide them security while claiming that the prime minister says otherwise. And here we have it, out of the blue, a recording of an intimate conversation between friends pops up, exposing Yair Netanyahu to the people of Israel. The intended message to the viewer at home: This is what you want us to guard?
The whole thing looks like a planned media terrorist attack. The objective is to create news that isn't news. In retrospect, it involves the natural gas framework agreement and hints at corruption, but is devoid of newsworthiness. Its entire purpose is to foment antagonism.
What's most troubling is the timing. Several days ago we witnessed a ridiculous argument, whose origins are unclear, between the prime minister and former Shin Bet chiefs. And now a targeted media attack against the son. It would be silly to address the content of the recordings without noting the prior chain of events. I suppose the various pundits and talking heads were already lined up to speak about Yair Netanyahu's conversation with the son of gas tycoon Kobi Maimon; and more importantly, a young man with ties to Australian billionaire James Packer.
It seems that attitudes toward recordings and their respective texts were aptly described in the past by none other than veteran Channel 2 pundit Amnon Abramovich. At the height of the investigation of the Barak-Ashkenazi affair, Abramovich described "recorded conversations" as "intoxicating, but also misleading."
"Without a constant and complete awareness of being recorded or of the existence of bugging devices, recordings are very enticing material for investigators," journalist Ben Caspit quotes Abramovich in his book "Evasive: Ehud Barak, the Real Story."
"With a lack of context, connection, attention to the prevailing atmosphere, past and present," Caspit continues, "the conversations lose their focus and subjects."
The only thing we can take away from this media terrorist attack against Yair Netanyahu, therefore, is that the war against the prime minister is getting dirtier. It is a veritable swamp of filth. Without naming names, several former Shin Bet chiefs have openly come out against the prime minister with unprecedented vitriol. Major Crimes Unit Commander Maj. Gen. Roni Ritman churned out conspiracy theories against "certain circles" affiliated to the prime minister. It appears the prime minister's wife, Sara, failed to provide sufficient material in recent weeks. Their son Yair was identified as attractive fodder for the hatred cooker. On Monday night we received the distilled product.
