The Knesset elections in Israel are coming up next Tuesday. Despite all the scandals surrounding him, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's chances of continuing in office are not bad. However, a companion from the 1980s, the Jewish US billionaire Ron Lauder, warned in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz against Netanyahu's re-election and expressed concern for Israel's future.
The 82-year-old Lauder is heir to the cosmetics company Estée Lauder and, since June 2007, president of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), which brings together Jewish communities and organizations worldwide. The billionaire, who has never lived in Israel, has sold and given away his remaining properties there in recent months. "I don't plan on returning to Israel," he says in an interview. “Basically, I cut my ties there.”
Lauder was US ambassador to Vienna in the 1980s and had and still has connections to numerous heads of government around the world, including Netanyahu. “I was silent for 20 years, 30 years,” he said now. »One of the things that made Israel so special compared to other countries was that it had real democracy. What we are experiencing now feels more like a banana republic.«
Israel's current government is putting its own interests above those of the Israeli people, says Lauder, extremist ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are destroying the country with Netanyahu's knowledge and approval. »What we have here is a dictator, a one-man show. Israel is a democracy, but Netanyahu does not abide by the rules of democracy. If he had to choose a candidate for the upcoming election, he would favor the leader of the Jashar party, Gadi Eizenkot.
Lauder met Netanyahu during his time as UN ambassador in New York, and the two quickly became friends. "We often talked, laughed, had fun, talked about people," he tells Haaretz, "weekly, sometimes even daily."
It was clear to him that Netanyahu was after power - and Lauder has power. He already supported the US Republicans back then. In 2016, he donated 100,000 to Donald Trump's campaign, and he is said to have suggested that Trump buy Greenland. His son-in-law Kevin Warsh recently became head of the US National Bank.
When Netanyahu returned to Israel, he "transformed from an open-minded Bibi into a political Bibi" - Bibi is Netanyahu's nickname - and "he wanted to become the key figure in the right-wing conservative Likud party." Netanyahu's third wife Sara also undermined their relationship. "He left me behind," says Lauder, "Bibi puts his career above all else." Nevertheless, Lauder maintained contact and has since denied any rumors of estrangement.
In the "Haaretz" interview, Ron Lauder reports for the first time about the negotiations that he conducted on behalf of the Israeli Prime Minister with the Syrian head of state Hafez al-Assad and the Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri at the end of the 1990s. According to Lauder, after months of talks, there was a "ten-point peace plan" that all three politicians agreed to and that "would have changed Israel."
"Assad was ready to sign it," says Lauder. »It was ready for Bibi to sign. Bibi decided not to sign." Lauder does not want to reveal details about the agreement. The final version was never published; the two existing copies were in his possession. Among other things, Netanyahu agreed to withdraw from the Golan Heights, although he later denied this.
"I think it's time to say: Netanyahu chose politics over peace," says Lauder. "He put his political future above the agreement." The American felt betrayed. »That's Bibi.«
Lauder tells of a meeting with the King of Jordan a few weeks ago. "Jordan was one of the most loyal countries to Israel that we have out there, and we turned the most loyal country into an Israel-hater," he says - the right-wing extremist security minister Ben-Gvir is to blame. His supporters beat up a Washington Post photographer in mid-October: “How stupid can you be? The Washington Post will hate Israel because of this! Hate! For what purpose?”
Lauder was particularly concerned about relations between Israel and the USA. Despite Trump's announcement that he will support Netanyahu in the election, he sees the two presidents on a collision course. Addressing the Israelis, he says: “You lost the Democratic Party, and you are losing the Republican Party. And it’s all because of your own stupidity.”
"I want to say to the Israelis: 'Shame on you! Shame on you all. Your fathers and grandfathers fought for this place, and you are losing it because of your stupidity. Period.'” He would recommend that Netanyahu keep extremists out of his future government because they have destroyed too much. »I am still a Zionist today, I still love Israel, and I will do everything I can to help it succeed. I say this out of love, love and concern.”
“I want you to listen to me,” says Lauder in the interview with Haaretz. "I'm 82 years old, maybe I don't have too long to live." He explicitly wanted to give the interview to the Israeli newspaper to sound the alarm and rouse voters in the country.
