In January 2013, a week before the elections to the 19th Knesset, the chairman of the Jewish House was interviewed on Channel 10. His name was Naftali Bennett and he was the refreshing breeze of that election campaign, when a young wind blew in the aging NRP.
When asked about his relationship with Sarah Netanyahu, who a number of years earlier reportedly had ended his work in her husband's office, he replied: "We were on a terrorism course together."
Since that outburst, Bennett has refrained from criticizing former Prime Minister Netanyahu's family members.
Moreover, whenever he was asked about matters concerning Netanyahu's family members, he was careful to repeat that he did not intend to address them or attack them.
That has all changed now.
At the end of a Facebook post in which Prime Minister Bennett tried to respond to allegations made about the expenses of the daycare center in Raanana, he chose to attack the Netanyahu family directly.
"Gilat is not a singer, my children will not shine."
Thus ended their 9-year moment in which Bennett refrained from attacking members of the Netanyahu family.
For many weeks, the prime minister managed to almost completely refrain from referring to Ayala Hasson's investigations into the costs of the daycare center in Raanana.
In his environment it seems, hoped the publications would go under the radar and leave no public impression.
Perhaps they feared that if they responded they would give a windfall to the publicity.
Bennett managed to avoid questions about the costs of the daycare until this weekend.
The report of his family members' expenses for deliveries from restaurants (about 11,000 shekels a month) flooded the country and it was no longer possible to avoid giving answers.
After all, we all order volts and do not think about reaching NIS 400 a day, every day.
So this time there was no choice left and there was a need to respond.
Despite waiting almost 48 hours since the publication of the investigation, which could have allowed Bennett's bureau to act from the head, the prime minister seemed to have reacted from the belly. The bureau (and oddly and unusually not from the political spokesperson) was compared to his predecessor in office.
Instead of staying calm Bennett responded hysterically.
Instead of maintaining the stateliness of the role he moved to broadcast pressure.
And when you do not work from the beginning, you may break the rules you set for yourself.
Hence the transition to a personal attack on the Netanyahu family is already short.
And suddenly he calls Netanyahu corrupt, and this is after years of claiming again and again that he is not like that.
What response could have been right for the Prime Minister?
Bennett has always been careful to say that he does not need funding because he has the means.
So now Mr. Prime Minister it's time.
Instead of starting to compare everything to your predecessor, let it be known that you were wrong and that the financing of the deliveries to your home will now be at your expense.
Yes, even if the law allows a family to order food from outside, it does not look good.
This is the place to remind Naftali Bennett that he is the prime minister of everyone, even of those who claim he is illegitimate.
Yes, also of the citizens Sarah Netanyahu and Yair Netanyahu.
A prime minister should not attack private citizens even if they attack him.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us