This is a great story from Ben Caspit and Ilan Kfir’s interesting book Netanyahu: The Road To Power, which was published in 1998. It is from when Benjamin Netanyahu worked at the Israeli embassy in Washington and involves his then personal driver, Moshe Hanini.

bibf3Netanyahu, as usual, was late for an urgent meeting. Though his tardiness did  not usually bother him, this time he told Hanini to step on the gas. Hanini obeyed. Unfortunately, they were caught in a speed trap and pulled off the road by Washington policemen.

The cops asked Netanyahu and Hanini to get out of the car. They saw at once that the driver was carrying a concealed gun. Hanini showed them his permit to carry it. The police, however objected to the fact that the gun was concealed, and, permit notwithstanding, they promptly handcuffed Hanini.

“Bibi, what are we going to do?” the frightened Hanini asked. “Don’t worry, I’ll drive myself to the meeting,” Bibi replied. Hanini, in shock, watched his boss get into the car and drive off.

Hanini was taken to the police station. Netanyahu forgot all about the incident and did not bother to report to anyone at the embassy that his driver had been arrested.

Netanyahu returned to the embassy in the evening, still without having reported the incident. Late that night, one of the security guards asked Netanyahu where Hanini was. Bibi raised his head from some papers and murmured: “Ah, Hanini, there was some problem this morning. I think he was arrested, or something.”

Oh, Bibi!


Be active. If you like this post, please click below to show your support.

One Response to “Is it wrong to laugh?”

  1. Sten says:

    Hehe, this is quite hilarious :) This is a severe case of absent-mindedness :)

    I hope Hanini got out of the nick, however.

Leave a Reply

© Copyright Chas Newkey-Burden. All Rights Reserved. Thanks to Chris Morris.