Haaretz: Netanyahu’s closest friend reveals the hysterical shift in his personality and behavior

The Israeli Haaretz newspaper has published a lengthy investigation detailing the words of Gabi Picker, a close friend of Benjamin Netanyahu since childhood, after many years of silence.

One of the most knowledgeable people in Netanyahu’s private and political life, Gabi Picker, who served as an unofficial adviser and “special task man” to Netanyahu, says today that he can no longer remain silent, warning that the Israeli prime minister is leading Israel to ruin out of personal survival only.

Picker asserts that Netanyahu, whom he knows today, is a radically different person from Netanyahu of the 1990s, saying, “There is a hysterical transformation in Netanyahu… This isn’t the man I knew… The damage it has done to Israeli society is indescribable”.

Netanyahu’s situation is likened to a branch of a tree swept away by torrents without any control, considering that his decisions are no longer rational, but rather governed by instinct, fear and obsession with staying in power.

According to Picker, Netanyahu is no longer acting out of a political or ideological project, but out of personal survival: “His message today is Netanyahu, not Israel… All he is doing is to remain prime minister, from state to state”.

He reveals that in his private sessions, Netanyahu expressed his nostalgia for the procession of guards and privileges, even when he was out of power, as a sign of his addiction to power.

He points out that Netanyahu has been living for years in a conspiracy mentality: “Always… Everybody hates me, everybody is conspiring against me”.

Picker stresses that this feeling is rooted since childhood, and was nurtured within the family, where the idea that he was born to be a king and head of government was established in his mind.

One of the most shocking passages in the testimony concerns Netanyahu’s relationship with his eldest daughter, in which Picker says that Netanyahu ignored her for many years, and that her photos were deliberately absent from his office: “This isn’t negligence… This is erasing and humiliation”.

He reveals that Netanyahu’s meetings with his daughter were held secretly, under the cover of meetings with Picker himself, to avoid his wife’s knowledge: “I was sitting with Noa in the cafe, and when Netanyahu arrived with the guards, she would come in and I would stay in the front as a guard”.

Picker also recounts that he was forced to pay money out of his own pocket to help the daughter, at the direct request of Netanyahu, without being returned to him.

Picker candidly acknowledges that Sara Netanyahu is involved and influential in her husband’s decisions: “Yes, without any hesitation… It intervenes and influences”.

He describes a volatile atmosphere inside the house and a rapid transition from calm to storm, stressing that he himself witnessed Netanyahu shouting at her at times, but it was too late.

The investigation also touches on Netanyahu’s relationship with money, gifts, and wealthy people, and Picker asserts: “Netanyahu is inclined to millionaires… He can’t finance his lifestyle from a government salary… Receiving fancy cigars and precious gifts was commonplace… The cigars he smokes cannot be financed from a government salary… This is clear”.

He adds that Netanyahu doesn’t hesitate to accept expensive jewelry for his wife, a direct reference to known corruption files.

At the end of his testimony, Picker makes an unprecedented accusation: “Any effort to end Netanyahu’s influence on Israel is legitimate… He is leading to destruction, and he alone is responsible”.

He concludes by saying that his anger and disappointment with his old friend is multiplying day by day, considering that what is happening today isn’t a passing political crisis, but rather a moral and personal collapse of a man obsessed with power, even if the price is society and the state.