“The Netanyahu I knew has changed. I have trouble understanding his moves. To this day, I take medication because of the stress I was under during the time we worked together.” So says Shai Bezek, who used to be considered one of the closest people to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and now breaks his silence in an extensive interview that will be published this weekend in the Ma’ariv supplement.
What was your relationship like?
“An excellent relationship. I gave him advice on every subject I knew, and he accepted most of it. I would come to him early in the morning and finish late at night. We worked every day, all day. After Rabin’s assassination and the elections, he won the prime ministership and at the age of 28 I became the prime minister’s spokesman. It doubled and tripled the scope of the work but did not change the trust between us. It was a very challenging period. Very intense. Very difficult. To this day I take medication because of the pressure I was under during those years. But it was also overwhelming and fascinating. Bibi was a very wise man, very Skilled, very eloquent, with an impressive political and political understanding and he very much emphasized, at the time, that he is a democrat and what is important to him is the resilience of democracy.”
The opponents of the legal reform claimed that it destroys democracy.
“I grew up in a right-wing home, a knitted cap, a naval evacuation, and all these years we also had some criticism of the justice system and the prosecutor’s office. As right-wing people who believed in Judea and Samaria and Israel’s security, we had a hard time with the rulings of the Supreme Court.”
Criticism of the legal system is not the reform that turned the country upside down.
“I was surprised. We said, OK, a full-right government is coming, but much more could have been done for the security ideology and for settlement in a different way. The way this government was established and immediately afterwards behaved, meant that if the previous government of Bennett and Lapid wanted to build a settlement In Judea and Samaria, it is likely that it would have been successful. But if the current government wanted to move a tree from one side to the other, it would have encountered resistance because it was constantly dealing with this story of the reform.”
Shay Bezek (Photo: Yossi Aloni)
What happened to the Netanyahu you knew?
“He has changed. The political circumstances have also changed. I have trouble understanding him and his moves. I didn’t think his government took the right steps in this story, not even for the ideology of the right. I didn’t think it was right for him personally either. I’m petty. I can only explain people when they behave according to what is right for them. But how can you explain a person who does not behave as is right for him? We had a good time together, but I have criticism of him and I have not voted for him for many years. I am not one of his prominent supporters. I have respect for the way we walked together , so I try not to speak out against him or give him advice. I just think that in all the last years it could have been done differently and then both he and the country would have been in a different place. But the choices are his and his responsibility.”
Why do you think he refuses to take responsibility for the failure to swear in October?
“The fact that he doesn’t take responsibility is unwise, from his point of view. It’s not only a moral issue, it’s also politically incorrect because the worst way for a politician is that in the end he will do something he was forced to do, and then he will both eat the fish and be expelled from the city. This not smart”.
The full interview will be published on Friday in Ma’ariv