Sara and Photoshop. I get it. To a degree

Many of us want to digitally slough off the years and the resulting imperfections, even if it means portraying something that is fake. If you’re regularly in the news, this is not advised

Sara Netanyahu. This photo was taken from the Instagram account of Avishag Hadad, who is said to be a makeup artist to Ms. Netanyahu. If so, this attests to Ms. Hadad’s expertise… or to the extent to which Ms. Netanyahu is naturally photogenic. With all that’s going on today, who knows?

It’s almost laughable coming at the same time that we speak of Hezbollah’s resurgence in Lebanon and Iran’s stubborn nuclear wannabe-ism. But Sara Netanyahu’s preoccupation with Photoshop does indeed require our attention.

I can’t blame Sara for wanting to photoshop out a troubling wrinkle or unsightly jowl. Were these doctored snaps to be destined solely for a Netanyahu family photo album, there would be no problem.

But they often are official photos taken while she’s accompanying her husband on one of his important prime ministerial forays, whether a domestic ribbon-cutting ceremony or a highly fateful meeting abroad with a powerful world leader such as US President Donald Trump and (yikes!) Trump’s strikingly beautiful wife, Melania.

So yes, I get it in instances such as these. Sara, a 67-year-old mother of two and a child psychologist with an advanced degree in the field (“BA, MA!”) must stand next to a 55-year-old former model and mother of one who, in lieu of any college degrees, apparently has been free for decades to attend any number of Pilates sessions, Zumba classes and makeup workshops in an attempt to achieve eternal beauty and firmness.

It can’t be simple for Sara, so I get her unease and her resolute determination to use a computer program to obtain an instantaneous leg up on the competition.

THE PROBLEMS BEGIN when the photos are the preserve of the Israel Government Press Office, an adjunct of the Prime Minister’s Office that historically has been entrusted with taking and preserving official photos of Israel’s leaders going about the business of leading the country, and then providing these photos – often the only ones available from closed or private moments surrounding the prime minister’s activities – to the world’s various media outlets.

I don’t know about you, but I remember all the times photographers from various news agencies were caught doctoring photos from Israeli air strikes in a way that favored the non-Israeli side of the equation, even if only to (poorly) enhance the smoke and devastation. This was not cool at all, and in most cases was ultimately acknowledged as such by the news agencies responsible for the photography. (The strange thing is that it doesn’t require too many hoops to jump through in order to find instances of Israeli overzealousness on the battlefield, so why in Heaven’s name the need to lie?)

Whatever.

When called on to provide the world’s top news agencies with photos of Israel’s leaders that are unaltered, Israel’s Government Press Office should take a good, hard look at the material it makes available.

I suppose one could say it did – by making sure that photos that are altered to make the prime minister’s wife look younger and more attractive are sourced, since late 2025, as being from “Sara Netanyahu” in addition to the “Government Press Office” and the particular photographer who took the offending photo. I mean, credit where credit is due.

Later, the offending photos were apparently dumped under the all-encompassing source of “Prime Minister’s Spokesman” rather than Government Press Office. Which is odd but… well, fine. Until it isn’t.

You see, these photos are considered news photographs and as such should not be altered in any way. That’s because news that is altered can and should be deemed “fake news,” the way Trump – and Netanyahu, knowing a good thing when he sees one – often depicts news reports he doesn’t care for.

Call these photos fake news. It could work with core supporters – who seem programmed to jump at its very mention and are the most important supporters to keep in your corner. Until you can’t.

One way to potentially lose them is to be called out for using fake news to your own advantage. Say, through doctored photographs. (Or, of course, perhaps not.)

A short perusal of the history of journalism and the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words cautions us that once photojournalism was accepted as a major part of mainstream news starting in the 1930s – when cameras became something you could easily carry in times of havoc and upheaval – the images absolutely had to be original and untouched. If they weren’t, the photos went into the trash, often followed by someone’s career.

Obviously, things changed once journalism became hyphenated and broken down into sub-specialties and even sub-sub-specialties, although photojournalism in its most basic and stripped-down form remained and should remain sacrosanct. Meaning: If it’s passed off as news, it can’t be altered, changed, filtered or portrayed as something it isn’t. Full stop. End of story. To this day.

IF SARA NETANYAHU wants to shed years, that is her prerogative. In fact, if I were to be taken as a beacon of ethics, I’d tell her to go to the finest spa and plastic surgeon in the world to remove the ravages of those years – if they are indeed ravages and not the signs of maturity and experience. At least the photos would then be the real thing and not some dive into a digital program enabling image alterations and thus an alteration of the truth.

Fake photos are fake news. No one should forget this. Not Sara. Not the Government Press Office. Not the Prime Minister’s Office. Not news agencies. Not anybody.