The change is credited to Ran Baratz who officially assumed his position as Netanyahu’s media advisor earlier this month. Netanyahu originally tabbed Baratz last November then suspended the appointment for several months until the furor over some of Baratz’s social media postings died down. (Baratz a staunch right-winger once wrote on his Facebook page that President Obama is an anti-Semite and that Secretary of State John Kerry is a stand-up comedian hardly worthy of a stage.)

Baratz may have been too outspoken for his own good but he is media savvy and has apparently convinced Netanyahu who is under almost constant attack in the mainstream press and social media to undertake a new media offensive.

Netanyahu’s critics say the prime minister has led Israel into the international isolation chamber by refusing to lie down and play possum for the Obama administration. They describe Bibi as impulsive, ineffective, overly combative, and blind to the dangers facing Israel.

Netanyahu has narrowly escaped two recent coalition crises and in each of his last two terms, he has been forced to remake his coalition in midstream. Senior coalition members are digging tunnels under his seat hoping to emerge one fine day as Netanyahu’s heir apparent. Former aides and confidants are collaborating with zealous police investigators to lay legal traps for him. During the meeting, he insisted that nothing adverse would materialize out of any of the investigations into alleged financial irregularities.

On that front, Netanyahu was almost happy to talk, even though the off-the-record nature of the meeting meant no quotes.

Of greater concern is an upcoming state comptroller’s report about his management of Israel’s war against Hamas during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge. Based on preliminary drafts that have been circulated, it is fair to say the final report will not be kind to Netanyahu.

But he shows no signs of alarm. In our meeting, Netanyahu skillfully differentiated between those, like the state comptroller, who sit in comfortable offices and earn their keep criticizing others, and leaders like himself, who make life-and-death decisions. The prime minister, one of the world’s most gifted speakers, is a riveting and animated performer. He rises and sits, steps backward and forward, raises and lowers his tone, pounds on the table, uses visual aids and points. At times, he appears patient and attentive to questions, and at other times agitated and impetuous. It was a multisensory performance and there are few who can do it at his level.

T

he complexity of the challenges Netanyahu faces has forced him to perfect the act.

Not a day goes by when Netanyahu is not harangued by one or more world leaders, whose every word is dutifully reported by the left-wing media. No prime minister in recent history has been subjected to his level of criticism.

While a fair amount of disapproval is justified, much of it ignores that Netanyahu has been a responsible manager of the country’s diplomatic and economic affairs.

Israel’s economy is thriving, its unemployment rate is among the lowest in the developed world, and its credit rating is top notch.

Israel has become a paradise for investors and start-ups, and a virtual cyber-tech superpower.

Internationally, the Netanyahu government has taken advantage of the turmoil that has gripped the Middle East over the last five years to forge closer ties with both Egypt and Saudi Arabia and to complete a rapprochement with Turkey.

While Israel’s recent military battles against Hamas and Hezbollah have fallen far short of the knockout punch his critics to the right clamored for, most agree that Israel has restored deterrence. The government’s measured response to the outbreak of Palestinian terror that began after Rosh Hashanah last year was also roundly panned, but seems to have worked in restoring calm to the streets. Security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority remains on an even keel, and security authorities and police enter Palestinian villages at will to raid the metal shops that manufacture the weapons that fueled the latest terrorist outbreaks.

Further, Netanyahu has developed deeper ties with his pivot to India, China, and Russia to counterbalance the cool winds blowing from the White House.

And what about his poor relations with President Obama?

It’s a fact that there is animosity between the two leaders. It is fair to say that this level of animosity is unprecedented between a US president and an Israeli prime minister.

Pundits in both countries attribute the poor relations to bad personal chemistry. Many observers blame Netanyahu’s arrogance and suggest he should show more respect to Israel’s greatest patron.

But it is just as fair to say that the differences between the two men are not personal, but ideological, based on two divergent worldviews. Obama and Netanyahu view issues such as Iran and the Arab-Israeli conflict through two different geopolitical prisms. For Netanyahu to cave on these would mean abandoning all of his core values.

In our meeting, Netanyahu was gracious in discussing President Obama. He refrained from any personal attack, but did convey the difficulties he has faced bridging their ideological gap. Having said that, a certain air of self-assurance bordering on the arrogant was pervasive.

Netanyahu has no peer when it comes to slapping himself on the back. Under duress, he is ready to grudgingly concede that he has had a few good cabinet ministers who have helped him run the country, but for the most part (in his own mind at least), he is the state and the state is him.

It is illogical, he maintains, that the prime minister is to blame for every problem, but when something good happens, all the credit belongs to his cabinet. In his mind, the list of his own mistakes is virtually blank.

His one regret, he told us, is that he has taken so long to reach out to the media and tell his side of the story. But his reticence is built into his DNA. As a child, he says, he didn’t speak until he was two and a half years old. And do you know why, he asked? Because until then, he had nothing to say. Now he has plenty to say, and we can expect to be hearing more from Bibi Netanyahu in the coming months.

U

ltimately, Netanyahu still sees himself as “Mr. Security.”

He is certain that his policies have led to a virtual eradication of Palestinian terror. Which is why Naftali Bennett’s recent allegations that Netanyahu hid the extent of the threat posed by Hamas tunnels during Operation Protective Edge have infuriated the prime minister. In fact, Bibi says he was the one who exposed the tunnels first. To make his point, he recently took the unprecedented step of releasing protocols from closed cabinet meetings — those with Bennett in attendance — in which the tunnel threat was discussed in detail.

In his own defense, Netanyahu says that wars are rarely decisive anymore. Sometimes it takes years to fully evaluate the success or failure of a military operation. A state commission also excoriated the Olmert government for its conduct in the Second Lebanon War, but the passage of time has shown that Israeli deterrence was restored (even though a good part of the quiet on the northern front these days is because Hezbollah has taken heavy losses in the Syrian civil war and is in no position to open a second front against Israel).

If it were up to Netanyahu, he would severely crimp the scope of commissions of inquiry, whether by the state comptroller, or by specially appointed panels. Netanyahu contends that the IDF can’t act in the best interests of the state when threats of commissions of inquiry are looming, and when generals spend more time consulting with their lawyers than with their peers. He also considers it a waste of his time to stand in the Knesset dock and take questions from opposition MKs — an integral function of a prime minister in a parliamentary democracy. He likes to say that the quality of a decision is contingent upon the quality of the person who makes it.

Still, it’s impossible to ignore the critics, who hail from the entire spectrum of Israeli politics. While criticism is to be expected from opposition parties, and from those who would like to succeed him, it is inaccurate to dismissively chalk up all of the criticism to petty politics. The opposition is also coming from coalition partners such as Naftali Bennett, Ayelet Shaked, and Moshe Kahlon; from former fellow Likud party members such as Gideon Saar; and from senior defense and security experts such as Moshe “Boogie” Yaalon, Gabi Ashkenazi, and Yuval Diskin.

Even his new defense minister Avigdor Lieberman has shown less restraint when commenting on Netanyahu.

The tension between Bibi and the “who’s who” of Israeli security and politics, former aides and advisors, and the on-and-off feud with President Reuven Rivlin do not portend well. If things are as rosy as Netanyahu says they are, why the backbiting?

Netanyahu will tell you all these controversies stem from personal or professional frustration, the inability to climb the political ladder fast enough, and in some cases, a lack of courage that manifests itself in people quitting rather than looking the prime minister in the eye and toughing it out even when they lose.

Netanyahu likes to view himself as a giant surrounded by political grasshoppers who disturb the peace with their own oversized egos. In Netanyahu’s eyes, there is no difference between a coalition partner like Bennett, opposition leader Isaac Herzog, or even his defense minister Avigdor Lieberman. They’re all playing politics while he’s trying to save the country from threats by land, sea, and air.

Yet that view seems shallow and self-serving at a time when the critical mass of opposition is building. Netanyahu seems to understand this and knows he must take steps to soften the opposition. The meetings with the journalists is one step in that direction, but more steps will be needed. In the Israeli media maelstrom, which hungers for scoops and sensationalism, any story about Netanyahu that might seem petty — like how much he and his wife Sara spent on ice cream last year — is a reason for a media party.

W

hich brings us to the next topic — and one that’s often aimed like a dagger to Netanyahu’s heart — his wife, Sara, and the way the media treats her.

Taking one step back first, Netanyahu’s relationship with the chareidi public is deeper than most people think.

There’s an alliance of sorts between the most maligned sector in the country and Netanyahu, who feels he is blamed disproportionately for the country’s ills.

The chareidi media, with its aversion to slander, has been the only sector that has shunned the media festivals of disparagement against Mrs. Netanyahu, a seasoned and highly respected social worker. Netanyahu spoke from the heart about the media persecution of his wife, and says she suffers only for his “sins.” He didn’t address the claims against her, only the ugly rhetoric that has taken over the dialogue and the blurring of boundaries between their public and private lives. He expressed sorrow over some of the scorn aimed at his brother Yoni Hy”d that circulated this year on the 40th anniversary of the Entebbe raid — the mission where Yoni sacrificed his life to rescue Jewish hostages.

Netanyahu asked for compassion, not for himself, but for his family. There was something about this plea that generated empathy from all those seated around the table.

But the likeness of Netanyahu to the chareidi public only goes so far. The prime minister has either promoted or turned his back on policies that have hurt the chareidi sector financially, and he has remained silent in the face of the scorn heaped on it by various corners of the public.

When the subject of the recently failed effort to force the chareidi schools to teach the core curriculum arose, Netanyahu voiced his sharp disapproval that chareidi kids don’t study the core subjects of English, math, and civics. He said he has held frank conversations with the chareidi MKs, warning them that if they don’t take the bull by the horns, and at least create their own parallel curriculum, public support for chareidi issues will continue to erode.

On other matters of religion and state, a huge chasm has opened between chareidi politicians and Netanyahu.

The new week began with fresh demands that Netanyahu sack his transportation minister — and new rival — Yisrael Katz over his insistence that public transportation and road repairs continue over Shabbos. In the end, a compromise was reached between chareidi MKs and the government that only work affecting the immediate safety of motorists and passengers would be conducted on Shabbos.

The compromise pointed to another one of Netanyahu’s talents: experience. He knows better than anyone that politics is a game, and he understands how to bend his own views to maintain coalition stability.

He said he regrets that the chareidim did not accept the Kosel compromise that would open a new prayer area for mixed services, but is aware of the internal politics of the chareidi world — as well as the fact that chareidim are an integral part of his coalition — and consigned the plan to committee in the hopes a new solution will materialize before the next blowup.

In general, he understands chareidi sensitivities on spiritual matters.

Experience has taught Bibi that sometimes, when in doubt, the best course of action is to do nothing. Not everything has a solution, especially when it involves religion, or a battle of dueling worldviews.

Netanyahu knows that clashes over the public desecration of Shabbos and the Kosel can topple his government, and he is determined to prevent that, at all costs.

That said, the chareidi public does not forget for one moment that Netanyahu was the author of some of the most draconian budget decrees ever to hit their pocketbooks. Whether it was in 2003, when he was appointed finance minister and in the blink of an eye slashed yeshivah budgets and child allowance payments, or in the previous term, when he remained in the background while Yair Lapid passed his bill — since defanged — that would have doled out stiff fines and prison terms on chareidim who avoided the IDF draft, Netanyahu has not always been our ally. He can boast that he fired Lapid at the first available opportunity and excluded him from the current coalition, but it will take the chareidi public years to recover from that short, bitter term that Lapid spent as minister of finance.

L

ooking ahead to the future, the prime minister will be practical. If the coalition math changes, or coalition members press his buttons too hard, Netanyahu the political animal will leap and bring Lapid back into his coalition, and leave the chareidim in the dark.

That’s not his preference, because he knows Lapid is one of his most eager replacements in waiting, whereas the chareidim have no interest in taking his job. But Bibi keeps all of his options open.

By keeping a low profile, Netanyahu has succeeded in mentally distancing himself from rivals such as Lapid and Bennett. Bibi feels as if he’s smarter and more experienced than all those around him, — economically, politically, and militarily — and entitled to ignore the opinions of those who would like to teach him a lesson on how to run the country.

In summing up his strengths and weaknesses, we part from Netanyahu after six hours with the realization that he is not the perfect leader, but as long as no worthy successor with experience, savvy, and vote-getting ability turns up on the scene, the claims of his many critics and opponents will fall on deaf ears.

The question that remains is: will Bibi’s latest public relations blitz with the Israeli media fall on similarly deaf ears?

(Originally featured in Mishpacha Issue 625)