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Photo: Guy Assayag
'An Israeli prime minister is entitled to a secured, luxurious residence, befitting his position'
Photo: Guy Assayag
Eitan Haber

It's not the PM's residence we should discuss, it's our life here

Op-ed: I really don’t care if the prime minister drinks champagne from crystal glasses every morning, as long as the champagne and crystal cause him to make the right decisions.

One evening in the mid 1990s, a state dinner was held at the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem in honor of an important European statesman. I was sitting by the table, a hearsay witness to a pretty routine conversation between the Israeli prime minister and the guest. Suddenly I noticed a not very important guest from the entourage fishing what looked like a worm out of his salad.

 

 

I immediately grasped the potential danger of the media story. I could already see the follow-up headlines: "The worm and the broccoli," "Who served broccoli?" "The worm that eroded Israel's relations with the European country," etc. Who the hell will be interested tomorrow morning in the deal which will yield the Israeli Treasury $200 million? Everyone will be busy talking about the worm.

 

Unless the address has changed, we are talking about the same prime minister's residence on Jerusalem's 3 Balfour Street. People have been talking about this house incessantly for several days now. The state comptroller went to the trouble of checking the house's operation costs. The prime minister and his wife showcased the house in a video watched by masses of people. We are all personally familiar with every piece of mold in that house. And the holes in the carpet? Heaven forbid. Celebrity interior designer Moshik Galamin, the most outstanding person of this generation, will base his film career on this carpet.

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara against the backdrop of their two homes. 'It's neither the house nor the mold that should interest us; it's the numerous troubles we are facing'
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara against the backdrop of their two homes. 'It's neither the house nor the mold that should interest us; it's the numerous troubles we are facing'

 

And this is where we stop mocking and laughing. Because it's true that we're interested in knowing whether the lady living in Balfour 3 likes pistachio ice cream and whether the hot water in the shower is too hot, or perhaps too lukewarm. And it's important for us to know whether they hosted eight or 11 people for dinner there and whether the compote serve as dessert came from a can or from a luxury hotel's kitchen.

 

And we also don't understand why the carpet and curtain have holes in them and why there is mold on the walls, when the woman of the house became famous for her obsessive need for cleanliness and the house's expenses include a lot of money spent on cleaning services.

 

But with all due respect to the state comptroller's report, it's neither the house nor the mold that should interest us. A prime minister in Israel, any prime minister, is entitled to a secured residence, even somewhat luxurious, befitting his position and status. The house hosts heads of states between its walls and should be suitable for that.

 

It's not the royal expenses spent by the royal couple, and it's not the swinging chair near the dining table that should concern us. It's this swinging country with the tenant living in the ramshackle house on 3 Balfour Street. It's very important to publicly discuss the exaggerated expenses at the prime minister's residence, but it's more important to discuss issues that are already boring us, like our life.

 

The IDF changing of the guard ceremony served as a stage and opportunity for the state's leaders to remember and remind us of the Islamic State and Hezbollah, the Iranian nuclear program and numerous other troubles awaiting us along the way.

 

We are searching for a ray of light in order to continue living here, raising our children and grandchildren, and the only light the tenant from 3 Balfour Street is offering us right now is the spotlight at the speech he will deliver in two weeks' time on Capitol Hill in Washington. Is there really no solution, even a partial one, for the troubles we are facing?

 

With all due respect to the state comptroller and the Israeli media, the house on 3 Balfour Street is not the problem. I really don’t care if the prime minister drinks champagne from crystal glasses every morning, as long as the champagne and crystal cause him to make the right decisions.

 

And we've forgotten the most important thing: In case you were concerned about the fate of the broccoli and the worm, it turned out that it wasn't a worm after all, but a noodle that had sneaked into the salad. And so, thank God and the cook, we managed to save Israel's relationship with a certain European country.

 


פרסום ראשון: 02.21.15, 15:16
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