Kave Shafran - Master of Influence: Benjamin Netanyahu’s 10 Secrets of Power, Rhetoric & Charisma

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Master of Influence

Kave Shafran

Copyright 2021 Kave Shafran

All rights reserved; No parts of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information retrieval system, without the permission, in writing, of the author.

Cover Photograph by Avi Ohayon, Government Press Office

Translation from the Hebrew by Kaeren Fish

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Contents

In this scorching country, words should be our shade.

Yehuda Amichai

Foreword

There was a moment when Netanyahu was in flames right in front of me, and I stood swatting him. The circumstances surrounding that moment are instructive, revealing some of his covert and sophisticated techniques for influencing the public.

It was a Sunday morning in 2005. I was standing on a small landing on the stairway in the Prime Ministers Office. The perfect spot for an ambush. The government ministers would have to pass by me their way to the cabinet meeting, and the Army Radio microphone would be ready and waiting for them. I had retreated into this narrow corner because of the television crews, who demanded my removal from the top floor since they needed a clean frame, as they explained to an overly-accommodating official in the Prime Ministers Office. Following an altercation, the official and I reached a compromise: I would take up my position in this corner of the stairwell so that the TV frame would be clear of my microphone, but I would still have access to information. It was from this corner that I observed what followed.

Minister of Finance Benjamin Netanyahu was climbing the stairs. I wanted his response to Prime Minister Ariel Sharons decision not to extend IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalons term in office. I pointed the microphone like a weapon in front of him and asked, Minister of Finance, Mr. Netanyahu, we are broadcasting live on Army Radio. Is this a political dismissal?

Netanyahu considered his response, cleared his throat, and adopted his official tone reserved for speaking on radio and television. Lieutenant-General Yaalon is an excellent Chief of Staff he began, thereby aligning himself with the Chief of Staff who was opposed to the Disengagement Plan (and distancing himself politically from the Prime Ministers decision) while still managing to remain somewhat opaque and taking care not to aim his criticism at Sharon directly. Netanyahu was walking a fine line: he was a member of the Disengagement government and had voted in favor of the plan, but left himself room to claim that he was against it. As he conveyed his double message to the public via my microphone, something else was going on that caught my attention; I smelled smoke.

Something was burning. I looked around. Everyone looked calm. Perhaps the antiquated Army Radio tape recorder was burning the white plastic cassette whose wheels were turning as it recorded the Minister of Finances response? I put my nose closer to it and sniffed; it wasnt the tape. At that moment I noticed Netanyahus flushed face and realized to my astonishment that the smoke was coming from the Minister of Finance himself. Embarrassed, he was beginning to stammer; his face was turning red. The smoke was emanating from the tiny gap between the collar of his white shirt and his dark suit.

Netanyahu was enveloped in a haze. Another moment went by. The smoke was becoming thicker and darker; it could no longer be ignored. His improvised speech in support of Yaalon was interrupted when the fire made its appearance. A small, red flame began climbing up his jacket, as though emerging from Netanyahus heart and threatening to consume him. In another second, his jacket was in flames. Right in front of me, in the Prime Ministers Office, Benjamin Netanyahu stood imprisoned, flustered and flushed in his burning suit.

The microphone was still on. I shouted into it, Mr. Netanyahu, youre on fire! Mr. Netanyahu, youre burning! Isaac Herzog, Minister of Welfare in Sharons government, was making his way up the stairs, also headed for the weekly cabinet meeting. Herzog heard my shouting and leaped up the stairs towards us. As he approached, I held the microphone in one hand while using the other to swat the chest of the Minister of Finance, trying to prevent the fire from spreading. Herzog shouted, Bibi throw it away; throw it away! Together we pulled the jacket off Netanyahus shoulders. The starched white shirt below was also singed. I blew on it, making sure that it wasnt burning. The expensive jacket, still aflame, was cast in a heap on the floor. The Minister of Welfare and I stomped on it to put out the fire. The smoke seemed to be coming from the pocket. The fire was dying out, but the smell of smoke was still heavy in the air.

The shouting and tumult drew the attention of the General Security Service personnel stationed at the other end of the upper floor. Some guards from the VIP Protection Unit who had been standing at the entrance to the Aquarium approached: was this a security-related incident? The Aquarium is where the Prime Minister sits; the most highly secured and most sensitive spot in the entire country. Its called the Aquarium because of the glass doors surrounding it. The GSS men made sure that there was no fire in the secure area. Everythings fine, Netanyahu reassured them. Nothing happened. With one hand he waved away the guards; with the other he lifted his charred jacket off the floor. The guards returned to their station at the entrance to the Aquarium, where Prime Minister Sharon would emerge a few minutes later.

The Minister of Finance had headed that morning to the cabinet meeting via a stairway that was usually free of journalists. He had no inkling of the new arrangement in which I had been allocated the recessed corner, and as he walked, he lit up a cigar. When he realized that he was facing the press, he quickly pinched its end and shoved it into the breast pocket of his jacket. He didnt want to be caught enjoying a cigar on his way to a cabinet meeting. His jacket pocket also held the text of the speech he intended to deliver during the meeting. Having disposed of the cigar, Netanyahu stopped in front of me in the hope of earning some points with Right-wing voters who were furious at him for not abandoning the Disengagement government. During the brief interview, a tiny spark from the end of the cigar, which had not been fully extinguished, began to singe the papers in his pocket. The papers began to burn and the spark turned into a flame. Fortunately, there were no photographers on the scene to capture the moment, or the public would have been treated to an endless loop of Netanyahu going up in flames.

We have a fiery Minister of Finance, quipped his spokesman in response to the many journalists who called in the wake of my broadcast on Army Radio. Netanyahu wisely chose to write off the incident as an inconsequential anecdote.

This scene sheds some light on the secrets of Netanyahus charisma. The essence of what happened is that he wanted to avoid being seen by the public as someone who was smoking expensive cigars while imposing budgetary cuts. Years later, when Netanyahu later found himself under police interrogation, the investigators claimed that the fact that the boxes of cigars that he received as gifts arrived at his official residence in sealed, opaque packets was proof that he knew that what he was doing wasnt legal. As reported in Haaretz , Bibi explained that the rationale was a matter of publicity rather than criminality. He concealed the cigars for fear that they would harm his image. Youre asking me, Why did you put the cigars in packets? Just because! Not because theres something wrong, but because one doesnt want this to get out, see?