Offbeat Israel: Barak's Paris Spending Spree and a Proposal for Diplomatic Dormitories
By Nathan Jeffay
Will somebody please teach Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak how to use Travelocity or Orbitz?
Barak, leader of the Labor party that has spent decades fighting for social equality, managed to rack up a hotel bill of 96,000 euro for a visit by him and his entourage to the Paris Air Show in the summer — up from 25,000 euro last year. A euro is worth around $1.50.
This revelation isn’t from some questionable newspaper expose but rather from the State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss.
Lindenstrauss lambasted the trip, writing that there is “no place for such spending on hotels and lavish suites particularly during an economic crisis when most citizens are struggling to make ends meet.” See articles here, here and here.
The suite for Barak and his wife, Nili Priel, cost 2,500 euro a night, compared to a relatively bargain-basement 1,800 euro last year.
One of the reasons for this year’s large bill is that Barak’s team booked a couple of extra nights in the hotel and didn’t use them — six nights were reserved but several of the rooms were empty for two of these nights. Another reason is that when it came to make reservations, all of the cheaper hotels that fit their security criteria were full. The booking was made at the InterContinental Paris Le Grand. Israelis love to travel, and the country is full of budget holiday-makers who could initiate Barak in the joys of thinking ahead and finding cheap deals online.
Flippancy aside, this revelation points to a serious problem in the culture of Israel’s political leaders, which has come to be characterized by a hankering after expensive things on somebody else’s bill.
February 6, 2009, 11:51am
Livni Bobs Around at Tel Aviv Nightclub, Has a Fan in ‘Livni Boy’
By Nathan Jeffay
Kadima leader Tzipi Livni is known for her rather stuffy and humorless image. This week she attempted to shake it. Literally.
She tried her best to dance the night away, or at least the precise segment of it scheduled by her publicity people, at a party organized by young Kadima supporters at the super-trendy Tel Aviv nightclub Haoman 17.
The late-night news shows, accustomed to commenting on her political moves, spent a considerable amount of airtime analyzing her dance moves. And they weren’t too impressed. Her style was a mixture of over-exaggerated head-bopping and the kind of enthusiastic clapping done by people at weddings who are trying to look as if they’re taking part while avoiding dancing.
Trying to capture the young vote has been a high priority for Kadima in recent weeks — and it hasn’t been easy. Part of the problem is that the party has is that sober centrism doesn’t have the same appeal to Israeli youth as more forthrightly ideological parties. “I am a pragmatist, favoring a central path over the traditional definitions of right and left” is hardly a slogan likely to play well on college campuses.
But it’s not stopped some young people trying to portray Kadima and Livni cool. Attempting to replicate the success of the “Obama Girl” video, an Israeli actor named Liron Avisar cast himself as “Livni Boy” in a video he posted on YouTube.
“Oh Tzipi, you’re what I wanted, all that I expected from a political leader,” the Hebrew-English chorus goes. “I don’t want Ehud. I don’t trust Bibi. Tzipi if you let me, I will be your man. Just tell me yes.”
Labor leader Ehud Barak has also tried to get in with the hip crowd during this campaign. He appeared as himself in “A Wonderful Country,” a satirical television show, which regularly has a laugh at his expense.
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