'The pressure from home, on almost every matter, was constant'

Netanyahu’s ex-chief of staff: Entire staff at PM’s office instructed to ‘sign pledge of loyalty to his family’

Yoav Horowitz, now a candidate with the opposition Yashar party, tells Israeli TV that the premier ‘perceives himself as something between a king, emperor or president, not a prime minister’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former chief of staff, castigated the premier in a television interview aired Friday, saying he was”between a king and an emperor,” and that the Netanyahu family demanded personal loyalty from the prime minister’s staff.

Yoav Horowitz led Netanyahu’s office from 2016 to 2019 and is now a candidate with the opposition Yashar party, led by Gadi Eisenkot, seen as Netanyahu’s top rival.

Horowitz told Channel 12 news that the family inserts itself in the country’s security decisions, and that there is functionally no separation between Netanyahu and his wife, Sara.

“Sara Netanyahu and Bibi Netanyahu are one; it’s impossible to separate between them,” he told the network. He called Netanyahu’s son Yair, who is known for making inflammatory statements, “another factor” in the prime minister’s circle.

According to Horowitz, members of the Netanyahu family are in contact with the country’s professional security leadership and have influenced decisions. He told Channel 12, as well as Channel 13 in a separate interview, that a call from one of Netanyahu’s family members led him to abruptly reverse course on an agreement with the United Nations to address the population of African migrants and asylum seekers in Israel.

“The family’s influence is significant,” Horowitz said. “There’s no separation. Everything is connected to everything: personal issues and economic issues and political issues and security issues. Everything is in the same box, and the family has influence.”

“The pressure from home, on almost every matter, was constant.”

At one point, he recounted, a staff member from the Prime Minister’s Office relayed a demand that all employees sign a pledge of loyalty to the Netanyahu family.

“The demand for personal loyalty hovered there the whole time,” he said. “It was a kind of obsession.”

He added, “One of the office staff came to me and said there was a demand from the house [i.e. the family] to make all of the office staff sign a pledge of loyalty to the Netanyahu family.”

Horowitz claimed Netanyahu endorsed the demand, but that he refused to carry it out.

Horowitz said — repeating a claim he has made previously — that Netanyahu is antidemocratic and exercises authoritarian rule.

“When there’s one-man rule, and people are scared and deterred, the idea of the rules, the country’s laws, doesn’t exist,” he said.

“Since 2019, there isn’t really democracy in Israel,” he added. “There’s a Prime Minister’s Office that rules totally over the Knesset, that degraded the judicial system, took over the police, and there aren’t any checks and balances.”

Horowitz accused Netanyahu of “fighting the judicial system” over his criminal trial on corruption charges, which began in 2020 and is still ongoing, likening it to an “autoimmune disease.”

“I see the attempt to destroy the judicial system as the root of all evil, which ultimately also came to October 7,” he said.

In a statement responding to Horowitz’s remarks, Likud said Horowitz has “found his new political home on the left,” without addressing his claims.

‘Between a king, emperor or president, not a PM’

Horowitz told Channel 12 that he “went through a complex development” since working for Netanyahu, with the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, atrocities in southern Israel the chief factor.

“The country isn’t the same country after that day, and I’m not the same person. We are at a very dangerous crossroads that requires us — all of us — [to undergo] deep self-reflection and change,” Horowitz said.

While admitting he “really wanted to work with” Netanyahu, Horowitz said his “principle motivation was to serve the state” and that his “development” began when he “understood that is not the motivation in all the cases.”

“Netanyahu perceives himself as something between a king, emperor or president, not a prime minister as I’m familiar with and can comprehend,” Horowitz alleged.

Horowitz also acknowledged that he was aware of Sara Netanyahu’s influence when he began working for the prime minister, saying that he regularly said “no” to requests he did not agree with and that he raised the matter with the premier.

He asserted in the interview that he already informed Netanyahu of his desire to resign before the prime minister’s wife reportedly tried to attack Eli Groner, who was then serving as director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office, with a pen in January 2018. Asked by Channel 12 if he grabbed Sara Netanyahu’s arm and removed her from the room, as was reported, Horowitz said, “I don’t deny it.” He declined however to speak further when asked if there were any similar incidents.

A call ‘from home’

Speaking with Channel 13, Horowitz elaborated on Netanyahu’s decision in 2018 to suddenly renege on the landmark refugee deal with the UN.

The deal in question was intended as a compromise to address the population of African migrants and asylum seekers in Israel. Under the deal, 16,250 migrants would be resettled in Western countries while an equal number would remain in Israel. The presence of the migrants in Israel, and especially in south Tel Aviv, where many were based, was a festering political issue in Israel.

But hours after announcing the agreement, Netanyahu reversed course and announced that it would be frozen, in the face of blowback from right-wing voices that objected to the migrants’ presence in the country.

Horowitz said that Netanyahu’s about-face occurred following a call “from home” — apparently a reference to one of Netanyahu’s relatives — and just moments after he announced the deal.

“We’re returning [from the announcement],” Horowitz said. “And he gets a call from home, and as he’s walking, we get to the office, he turns and tells me, ‘Yoav, tell them it’s canceled, I changed my mind.'”