Bennett Lashes Netanyahu for Harming Jordanian Relations for a Photo-Op

By Shmuel Smith

YERUSHALAYIM – Former prime minister Naftali Bennett accused opposition leader  Binyamin Netanyahu of damaging relations with Jordan to further his own political interests while he was prime minister.

“There was a severe rift with Jordan for years because my predecessor uploaded a tweet to [social media] with a picture [of Netanyahu] with a security guard who accidentally killed a Jordanian,” Bennett was quoted as saying at Sunday’s cabinet meeting by Channel 12 news.

The reference was to a picture of Netanyahu embracing Ziv Moyal, a guard at the Israeli embassy in Amman, following a deadly incident that created a crisis with Jordan. On July 23, 2017, Moyal was stabbed by a Jordanian, whereupon he shot and killed the attacker along with a bystander.

Moyal and the rest of the Israeli embassy staff were brought back to Israel some 30 hours afterward, following intensive efforts on the part of diplomats to secure their safe return.

Netanyahu later said that he spoke twice overnight with Ambassador to Jordan Einat Schlein and the security guard.

“I assured the security guard that we will see to bringing him back to Israel; we have experience in this,” he said. “I told both of them that we are holding ongoing contacts with security and government officials in Amman, on all levels, in order to bring the incident to a close as quickly as possible.”

The photo of the two embracing, which was published by the Prime Minister’s Office at the time, further incensed the Jordanians.

“For an online post, we damaged the relationship with Jordan for years,” Bennett is quoted as saying.

Interim prime minister Yair Lapid has been toiling at repairing relations with Jordan, and met a few days ago with King Abdullah II in Amman.

In response to Bennett’s attack, Likud MK Yisrael Katz said:

“Naftali Bennett, who disappeared and became the subject of media and public ridicule, to the point of questioning his mental state, today attacked Netanyahu regarding relations with Jordan, in an attempt to get back the embrace of the media and the left. How pathetic and wretched,” he was quoted as saying by Arutz Sheva.