Hold the presses! Under a four-column headline on the main foreign-news page, the New York Times exposes highly questionable expenditures of public funds by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Downright wasteful, profligate spending when most Israelis struggle to pay for basic necessities, the Times avers. Jerusalem correspondent Isabel Kershner, in the best muckraking tradition, informs readers that Netanyahu "stands accused of dipping into state coffers for an ice cream budget of $2,700 a year ("Uproar Over Netanyahu's Ice Cream Is Welcome in One Parlor" Feb. 19, page A4.) Actually, it's not exactly a Times expose. Kershner merely reprises disclosures by Israel's leftist media, which like the Times, are not great fans of Netanyahu. And like these anti-Bibi media, Kershner gins up her piece, painting a sharp contrast between a "struggling middle class" and Netanyahu's "supposed taste for the high life." The prime minister's "weakness for artisanal pistachio ice cream," she writes,...(Read Full Post)