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Tova Herzl

Pinocchio and Truth, Arens and Netanyahu

A 1999 photo of then newly-appointed Defense Minister Moshe Arens (R) toasting  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following a swearing-in ceremony at the Knesset in Jerusalem. (Menahem Kahana / AFP)
A 1999 photo of then newly-appointed Defense Minister Moshe Arens (R) toasting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following a swearing-in ceremony at the Knesset in Jerusalem. (Menahem Kahana / AFP)

Ninety-nine years after Carlo Collodi of Florence gave humanity the fictional liar Pinocchio, Moshe Arens brought the very real Benjamin Netanyahu upon us.

Following Netanyahu’s cover interview in Time Magazine, I again thought of Arens. He held many important positions in Israel, including minister of foreign affairs, and died five years ago. Everyone, including those who did not agree with him, recognized him to be decent and modest. Everyone called him Misha, but whenever we are exposed to yet more of our prime minister’s lies, the name that comes to my mind is Geppetto, the carpenter who created Pinocchio, a wooden doll who came to life and immediately began to lie.

While working as sales manager for Rim, a furniture company that no longer exists, Netanyahu established the Jonathan Netanyahu Anti-Terror Institute, in memory of his brother Yoni. The institute did not fulfill its legal obligations to file financial reports or appoint an audit committee, but it enabled 32-year-old Netanyahu to impress politicians. Among them was Arens, who was to become Israel’s ambassador to America and chose the articulate and handsome Netanyahu as his deputy.

From there, it was a short road to the ambassadorship to the United Nations. Returning to Israel, he again became Arens’s deputy, this time in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The three positions that preceded his premiership – deputy ambassador in Washington, UN ambassador, deputy foreign minister – do not entail managing a large staff or a major budget, nor do they determine policy. Success is measured largely by the degree of exposure and the quality of speaking.

Since then, he speaks. When it serves him, he speaks truth. When it doesn’t….

In the summer of 2023, at the height of the effort to overturn Israel’s regime, our prime minister refused to speak with mainstream Israeli media, but embarked on a campaign to convince the international public, particularly Americans, as though they are the ones who must live with “the reform.” In one interview after another, he looked straight into the camera and, using tricks that can be learned, fooled his interviewers.

To my mind, the peak was an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. Blitzer had lived in Israel, speaks Hebrew and worked for the Israeli press and for AIPAC. Nevertheless, Netanyahu managed to con him.

Responding to a quote by former prime minister Ehud Olmert, Netanyahu scornfully replied: Remember, Wolf (a trick of the trade – use the interviewer’s first name many times, thus creating intimacy with the audience whom he represents), he had 6% support, he was booted out of politics.

Olmert’s departure from politics had nothing to do with public opinion polls. The police were investigating charges against him, and he announced his resignation pending an orderly choice of a new leader of his party, Kadima. He thus acted according to the demands of then-opposition leader, one Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted that “a leader mired in investigation does not have the moral and public mandate to determine fateful matters for the country.” Alas, this principle evidently does not apply to him, although he is well into a criminal trial on severe charges.

All that led me to recruit dozens of former ambassadors to sign an open letter to Congress, suggesting they treat his statements with a pinch of salt. It was not pleasant, but it is not we who chose to take the public relations effort abroad, as though the Israeli public is irrelevant.

Almost a year into a difficult and fateful war, our prime minister has not yet seen fit to sit down with Israeli press, except those who automatically cheer him. It’s as if it is the readers of Time Magazine who tremble at an unexpected knock on their door, who stock up on tuna and batteries, who are entitled to answers. But this effort appears to have backfired. Time itself ran a long fact check on the interview, and confirmed what most Israelis know – our prime minister has a problematic relationship with the truth.

After Pinocchio was transformed from a piece of wood into a boy and embarked on his manipulative tricks and lies, Geppetto noticed that he had forgotten to give him ears, the organs that allow us to hear, learn and internalize. Without the ability to listen, people act primarily to further their own needs, without regard to the truth, values, or others.

About the Author
Tova Herzl served twice as congressional liaison in Washington DC, was Israel's first ambassador to the newly independent Baltic states, and took early retirement after a tumultuous ambassadorship in South Africa. She is the author of the book, Madame Ambassador; Behind The Scenes With A Candid Israeli Diplomat.