Netanyahu's salary - in defense of Bibi

It is with great reluctance that I write this post, defending the man I so much like to criticise. Oh well, one has to change one's tack from time to time, I guess. Anyway, it is about the brouhaha in the local media around Bibi's tweet where he published his pay stub.

A few words of explanation for the curious foreigners. While Bibi's monthly salary before tax may sound considerable (NIS 48,815, roughly $12,000 - a salary of, say, a senior manager in local high-tech company), what is left after taxes and other deductions (NIS 17,645) isn't all that much. Far, very far below the income of many happy clappy bank executives, CEOs and other highfalutin employees in the local private sector.

And the reason I post this at all? Yes, it is a radio interview given by a lady I prefer not to name (this way I don't have to remember her name), who is what is called these days a "socialite" - meaning a person of no detectable occupation, a great PR value and unshakeable opinion on everything. In this case coupled with a poisonous tongue and a voice of a buzzsaw.

The lady went after Bibi's income like a bike of hornets after a... after Bibi. The quantity of venom she spent on the subject of Bibi getting everything for free was beyond reasonable and below bad taste. It was deeply unfair and deeply stupid. Whatever you say (and I do say) about Bibi's faults as a leader, as a manager and as a person, he is holding an unenviable job, one which most sane citizens prefer to be held by anyone but them. Even a triple amount of what Bibi receives for that yoke would have been not enough, if you ask me. So there.

Well, and if you want something bad to be said about Bibi, here it is: that pay stub trick is something Bibi has already performed, more than once. He is, most probably, calculating the time it takes the wave of adoration, caused by the previous publication of the pay stub, to recede and... Anyway, enough is enough.