Channeling Trump? Beleaguered Netanyahu assails media

Source: Associated Press


Dan Perry and Josef Federman, Associated Press
Updated 9:50 pm, Thursday, August 10, 2017


JERUSALEM (AP) — Directly addressing his nationalist base, a beleaguered leader accuses the news media of obsessively promoting a liberal agenda, conducting a "witch hunt against me and my family," and trying to overturn unpalatable electoral outcomes through sinister legal machinations.

This may sound like President Donald Trump. But this time it is Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu.
 
Netanyahu has always had a thorny relationship with Israel's prominent media outlets, where top writers, broadcasters and editors are generally more open to peace-seeking concessions to the Palestinians than the prime minister's nationalist Likud Party is. But his comments at a Likud Party rally on Wednesday evening — days after police revealed he is a suspect in several corruption cases — were an escalation that could have been lifted directly from Trump's playbook.
 
With hundreds of adoring supporters cheering wildly, Netanyahu launched into a tirade, accusing the media and political opposition of conspiring to topple him when he cannot be defeated at the ballot box. He carefully avoided any mention of the police and prosecutors who are conducting the actual investigation.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/politics/article/Channeling-Trump-Beleaguered-Netanyahu-assails-11748538.php