It’s really interesting that Brog says that he’s "very proud" of his (supposed) relation to Ehud Barak. Among Israelis, Barak is widely considered the worst prime minister in the history of the country, a man who was elected only due to a lot of work by the Clintons and who ended up having the shortest tenure of any (non-interim) PM. This is as opposed to Bibi, who one day this week — the exact day is debated — will have surpassed Ben-Gurion as the longest-serving PM.
Barak has a fine military record — he is one of the most decorated soldiers in Israeli history — but as is often the case, a bad later political career can erase that in people’s minds.
It’s always fun to pile on Barak. Here are two stories from this week:
Barak went to a falafel stand recently (visiting falafel stands is a cliché during Israeli elections) and decided to take a cheap shot at Bibi’s supposed abuse of government funds. The fact is that Bibi actually expenses very little, even paying for things he is entitled to, while Barak’s abuse of government expense accounts is legendary, not to mention his getting huge amounts of money from shadowy supporters for not doing anything. Anyway, he looked at the camera some aide was filming him with, reached into his wallet, pulled out a credit card, and, holding it up, said, "Bibi, this is how you pay for something." He then repeated his crack by pulling out a 200 shekel bill. (Falafel is pretty cheap. I can’t imagine people using credit cards or big bills to pay for them.) The aide immediately posted it to Twitter.
Ruh-ro. You could read the credit card number, expiration date included, clear as day. The jokes came fast and furious: "Barak has a 2.3 million credit line! Come and get it!" "Ah, "Mr. Security" can’t keep his own credit card secure." Barak had to immediately cancel the card. Boo-hoo.
Back to Brog, though, I really found his reported remarks distasteful, to say the least. You cross an ocean to another country, stand in front of its people (to which, ethnically, you don’t belong), and tell them what to think? As Jews like to say ironically, I thought we were supposed to be smart. Ha!
