Galit Distel-Atabrian has been at the center of the storm in recent days, after protest activist Or Sionov published a personal correspondence between the two, in which Distel-Atabrian says unusual things about the Likud and Netanyahu.
How are the last few days going for you?
"Over the past year I've experienced quite a few storms, every time my legs were shaking. People have a tendency to think that I enjoy scandals and scandals, but I'm the complete opposite of that. I hate it. This time I don't have that feeling. Since the massacre, I've been in another world. Everything was dwarfed, I developed a kind of apathy about how I was portrayed."
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How did this happen in text messages in front of that protest activist?
"That's a good question, I'm also trying to understand what happened to me this time. Over the past year I've received a lot of hateful messages and I don't answer anyone. I answered her after a process I'd been going through over the past few weeks - I did a house check, I dared to look in the mirror without making assumptions for myself, and it made me very bad."
"I didn't know how to stop in time"
"Suddenly I realized something, that with all my justice and holy rage, I ask myself: Where did you contribute to the people of Israel? Where did you do good? And the answer is that I didn't contribute.
"I was one of the most prominent people, with great resonance, and I didn't know how to stop in time. I didn't know how to mediate myself to the other side. I wrote things that seemed logical and simple to me, and it lit flames. I apologized dozens of times for a slump. But I asked myself: 'Why am I talking like that? After all, these are Israel's heroes, no matter how much criticism I have for refusal, and the criticism still stands, but why is that?
"I head the Ministry of Information, and when war breaks out, the Prime Minister's Office tells me that I am not allowed to be interviewed abroad, that I am not allowed to be interviewed in Israel, that I am not allowed to produce informational videos. Just make beautiful commercials on TV. I said it doesn't justify the budget, take the money to wrap."
"I look in the mirror and don't embellish. I was amuck, so furious. I waded in my own pool of justice and did not see that an entire country was on the edge of an abyss. I am a person of faith and feel that God is telling us: 'I destroyed one house, I am destroying it for you again.' There is no good karma when you pull each other's hair. All this came out in messages in front of Or Sionov. She fought for the causes I fought for – the periphery, the non-elite public. I said to myself, try to create a dialogue with one person, try to create a human moment with someone on the other side, create something between a woman and a woman who are both fighting for the same goal, and if you succeed with it, you will succeed with everyone."
Because you're alike?
"We're not alike. I would jump into a pot of boiling oil voluntarily and not post personal things, certainly not things about my child, whom I protect in every way. I'd rather die than do what she did. My problem is that I'm a trusting person, I refuse to sober up. I think everyone is like me, and then reality hits me in the face."
But you see that you answer and she curses you.
"It is precisely because she curses that I continue. I told myself I would break that distance. I thought that if I didn't succeed with her, I wouldn't succeed with anyone anymore. It's psychic what's happening here, each side accuses the other of destroying democracy, of a poison machine, it's so stupid. We are on the brink of an abyss and continue to pull each other's hair."
"I aged 100 years a year"
The text incident comes after a long and difficult year for Distel-Atabrian, culminating in his resignation as information minister and the closure of the ministry.
"It was the hardest year of my life. Every night before I go to bed, I imagine in my head this moment when Netanyahu calls me, tells me he wants to give me the Ministry of Information, and instead of saying 'yes' to him, I say 'no, thank you' and leave. It was the mistake of my life. I went through a very difficult life, in private life I deal with the most painful things, but it didn't change me. Didn't make me any less happy or less optimistic. But in the past year I've aged a hundred years."
MK Distel-Atabrian, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Why?
"I fought alone in the turret, got hit from the other side and got hit harder inside my house. I tried to set up an office and couldn't. I came to anyone I could talk to - and nothing. I got a bureaucratic trap, a huge responsibility with no ability to move, zero authority. I warned everyone that there could be no explanation in the next war. I threatened to resign, I told everyone I could: Either let me work or 'bye.' I was promised great things."
"The balcony event is only a small percentage, a thousandth, of what was in the party building that day. It was a very violent and very ongoing incident - and I have been marked ever since. People who have a lot of power in Netanyahu's environment made my life miserable in every possible way, including the collapse of the ministry."
Like?
"I don't want to elaborate. I ended this year very humiliated, very helpless. Any attempt to create work or establish a real office has failed."
Give an example.
"I head the Ministry of Information, and when a war breaks out, the Prime Minister's Office tells me that I am not allowed to be interviewed abroad – because Ron Dermer's is because I am not allowed to be interviewed in Israel – because there are six ministers who are interviewed and I am not among them. I'm not allowed to make informational videos, because it belongs to the PR system. They tell me that my job as information minister is internal strength, that is, to do nice commercials on television. I said it didn't justify the budget, so I said take the money and let it wrap."
"This is not personal revenge"
You wrote in the messages that you had enormous anger at the prime minister.
"I'm not Gideon Sa'ar, Boogie or Elkin. If people expect to hear some cruel manifesto about 'Bibi and Sarah,' they are wrong, if anyone expects personal revenge from me, that I put Netanyahu's head on a platter and hand it to the left, it's not me.
"I have tremendous anger at Netanyahu, this anger will accompany me for the rest of my life. His guideline is to throw you in the water and you will learn to swim, bring results and get rewarded. I understand and respect, but he threw me into the ocean, put a rope on my hands, tied my legs, with my mouth closed, wrapped in a sack. I didn't stand a chance."
MK Distal at the plenary session on the Term Limits Law, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
One of the biggest storms was when Netanyahu's adviser, Yonatan Urich, shut you up on the balcony of the party building and wouldn't let you out. How did this happen?
"I'll go into detail after the war, but the balcony event is only a small percentage, a thousandth, of what was there. It was a very violent and ongoing incident, and I have been marked ever since. People who have a lot of power in Netanyahu's environment made my life miserable in every possible way, including the collapse of my office."
Explain.
"This is not the time to expand. After the war, I'll open everything. I am a signatory to an office that failed colossally. I have to explain what happened there, and it's not just about me. It has to do with the treatment I received from Netanyahu's bureau staff, Tzachi Braverman and CEO Yossi Shelly, and it also concerns legal advice, the commission that collapsed me, and bureaucracy. I was alone. I couldn't use one shekel because of the treasury officials."
"The anger at the government is enormous"
You wrote to her in messages that the days of the government are numbered. Is it?
"The public anger against the government is enormous, the event we went through is of unimaginable biblical proportions. I listen to the audience, the people are outraged, and therefore I think that after the war there will be no stable government for long."
Do you think Netanyahu should resign after the war?
"I think that's what the public has to decide. If the public thinks he shouldn't be there, then he shouldn't be there."
The responsibility for him?
"Just as no one is currently asking what the responsibility of the OC Southern Command, the head of Military Intelligence, Galant is, so there is no need to ask at the moment what is the responsibility of the person who integrates the entire incident, that every minute he loses concentration is the law of souls. He needs to get one hundred percent support."
On Netanyahu: "If the public thinks he shouldn't be there, then he shouldn't be there," Photo: Dana Koppel
Should Netanyahu resign now?
"God forbid. All the 'incompetent' chatter is dangerous and stupid. Netanyahu has the ability and he needs to manage it. I remember how Naftali Bennett, who was caressed and pampered by the media, lost it in the plenum when he attacked the opposition benches. This is not as indicative of Bennett's nature as it is of the nature of the tough political game. Netanyahu can handle this more than any other person."
There is concern in Netanyahu's office that you are holding materials, correspondence with Yair and Sarah Netanyahu.
"They have nothing to fear. If I tell the story it will be in a book, I won't sit in the studios and talk gossip to get sympathy. I'm not interested in taking revenge, I'm not interested in removing dirt, I won't hurt this family even though I was hurt by it - and I don't want to expand. I really like Yair Netanyahu, he ate so many bitters, and I'm not going to add more to him."
And Mrs. Netanyahu?
"I don't want to talk about her."
Was the reform unnecessary?
"In essence, I think we were 100% right. The 'how' was a terrible mistake from start to finish."
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