PM Netanyahu and his wife Sara with an orphan
Photo: Kobi Gideon/GPO
PM and his wife meet with orphans, widows of fallen soldiers
During the visit, for the fourth consecutive year, Netanyahu, in an apparent slight against Germany’s foreign minister and Israeli left-wing organizations, commented on a book about Jewish laws against slander presented by one of the orphans, who said his father kept with him at all times; ‘I would give to several people inside and outside the country.’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sarah met Wednesday in Jerusalem with widows and orphans of fallen IDF soldiers for a fourth consecutive year as part of an initiative launched by the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization.
As part of the initiative, each orphan delivered a brief memorial speech about his or her father and presented a souvenir left behind by him.
One of the souvenirs presented was by Noam Israel Moreno, the son of Lt. Col. Emmanuel Yehuda Moreno, who was killed in the Second Lebanon War, which was a book "Shmirat Halashon" (Guarding of the Tongue) written by the Chofetz Chaim, a 19th century prolific writer of Jewish literature and law and a renowned scholar of Judaism.
Prime Minister Netanyahu and Sara Netanyahu with an orphan (Photo: Kobi Gideon/GPO)
Noam told listeners that his father always carried the book everywhere he went in his pocket.
After reading from the book, Netanyahu exclaimed: "Defamation against us and our soldiers. The book on 'Laws of Lashon Hara' I would give to several people inside and outside the country."
In Jewish tradition and in Hebrew, the term ‘Lashon Hara’—literally meaning the ‘evil tongue’— refers to gossip and the tarnishing of a person’s reputation.
Netanyahu’s comments appear to have been a slight against German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel and left-wing organizations in Israel, such as Breaking the Silence and B’Tselem, which criticize the IDF’s conduct in the West Bank and deliver lectures around the world documenting alleged, and oftentimes unverified, abuses and crimes committed by IDF soldiers.
Photo: Kobi Gideon/GPO
On Tuesday, Netanyahu decided not to meet with Gabriel following the latter’s insistence on meeting with both groups during his visit to the area. Speaking later that evening, Netanyahu delivered a statement to the press saying that “My policy is clear. I won’t meet with diplomats that visit Israel and then meet with organizations who slander IDF soldiers and insist on putting our soldiers on trial as war criminals. These same diplomats would never think of doing that in the USA, or Britain or any other place.”
The meeting with the orphans and widows was also attended, among others, by Adele Banita-Bennett and her children, Natan (4) and Shulamit (2), who survived Corporal Aaron Bennett after he was killed in a terror stabbing attack in the Old City of Jerusalem in October 2015.
Sarah Netanyahu, told the children: "Every child knows that he has lost a great father, a heroic father, whom he will always remember in his heart."
