Meeting the Man Behind Netanyahu’s Public Perception
The DailyYou’re reading The New Yorker’s daily newsletter, a guide to our top stories, featuring exclusive insights from our writers and editors. Sign up to receive it in your in-box.In today’s newsletter, Ruth Margalit introduces her deep dive, from this week’s issue, into the talk-show host protecting Benjamin Netanyahu. Plus:David Remnick on Joe Biden’s warningThe shock of a Gaza ceasefire dealDonald Trump’s plans to take on the deep stateYinon Magal. Photograph by Amit Elkayam for The New YorkerRuth MargalitReporting from IsraelIn 2019, a billboard bearing the faces of four Israeli journalists went up not far from where I live, in Tel Aviv. How strange, I thought. The caption said, “THEY WON’T DECIDE. YOU DECIDE.” The billboard, it turned out, was a campaign for Likud, the Party led by Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. I was familiar with Netanyahu’s obsession with the press—an obsession that would later result in a criminal indictment, for trying to manipulate coverage. But something about that campaign felt personal. Likud wasn’t calling out Netanyahu’s political opponents, or his well-connected business élites. The Party was targeting a biographer, an investigative reporter, a political commentator, and a legal correspondent.Netanyahu appeared convinced that the Israeli media was a machine working against him. It was only a matter of time before word got out about a counter-operation, performing on Netanyahu’s behalf to promote his interests and tarnish anyone considered a threat. It became known in Israel as the “poison machine.” For many of the government’s critics, the existence of such an orchestrated operation—along with the dysfunction of the center left—helps explain Netanyahu’s astonishing political turnaround since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7th and the devastating war that Israel has waged in Gaza since. One liberal activist asked me, “Can you imagine another country where, after everything we’ve been through, the government not only hasn’t fallen but is stable, with no sign of an opposition?”Who was at the forefront of the poison machine? One name that kept coming up was Yinon Magal. Magal hosts a popular roundtable show on a Netanyahu-friendly network called Channel 14. A self-proclaimed “Bibi-ist,” Magal has described himself as a “vessel” for conveying messages from Netanyahu to the public. And so, at a time of ongoing war, growing international isolation, hostage crisis, and social rupture, I decided to enter the parallel universe of Channel 14—a place where, as one observer put it, “We are winning, and everything is honey.” I started by asking Magal whether we could meet. “Are you with me or against me?” he wrote back, with a winking emoji, and invited me over. Read or listen to “Netanyahu’s Media Poison Machine” »PostscriptDavid Lynch. Photograph by Glenn Hunt/GettyDavid Lynch died today, at the age of seventy-eight. The ingenious writer, director, and artist was known for the TV show “Twin Peaks” and movies such as “Eraserhead,” “Blue Velvet,” and “Mulholland Drive,” and for the mark of inventiveness he made on the culture writ large. In 1999, Tad Friend joined him on set, witnessing Lynch’s creativity at work. Ten years ago, Lynch told Dennis Lim that his films, which have sparked urgent interpretion and theorizing from fans, should leave “room to dream.” In 2021, Howard Fishman wrote that Lynch’s “most uncanny talent” was “an ability to plug into the socket of our collective unconscious, generating sparks that light up the dark of our waking lives, offering glimpses of the great unknown we carry within. Maybe this is a soul; maybe it’s a sense of what lies beyond.”More Top Stories“An Oligarchy Is Taking Shape”The Shock of a Gaza Ceasefire DealThe Victims of the L.A. Fires Have Nowhere to TurnHow Much of the Government Can Trump Dismantle?Daily Cartoon“My calendar’s pretty full, but I can squeeze you in between my post-holiday burnout and my midwinter blues.”Cartoon by Ali SolomonCopy link to cartoonCopy link to cartoonLink copiedShopShopMore Fun & GamesPlay today’s smallish puzzle. A clue: Spelling competition. Three letters.Shouts & Murmurs: How to Style Thrifted ClothesP.S. Lee Zeldin, the President-elect’s choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency, faced questions from the Senate today. A Trump loyalist, Zeldin is likely to push for slashing conservation regulations, and for reversing many of the Biden Administration’s climate initiatives. “The reality of the public lands is that they are owned by all of us,” Michelle Nijhuis wrote, during Trump’s first term. “Trump may find a way to erase the boundaries established by his predecessors, but he can’t erase the constituencies they inspired.”
In today’s newsletter, Ruth Margalit introduces her deep dive, from this week’s issue, into the talk-show host protecting Benjamin Netanyahu. Plus:
- David Remnick on Joe Biden’s warning
- The shock of a Gaza ceasefire deal
- Donald Trump’s plans to take on the deep state
Ruth Margalit
Reporting from Israel
In 2019, a billboard bearing the faces of four Israeli journalists went up not far from where I live, in Tel Aviv. How strange, I thought. The caption said, “THEY WON’T DECIDE. YOU DECIDE.” The billboard, it turned out, was a campaign for Likud, the Party led by Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. I was familiar with Netanyahu’s obsession with the press—an obsession that would later result in a criminal indictment, for trying to manipulate coverage. But something about that campaign felt personal. Likud wasn’t calling out Netanyahu’s political opponents, or his well-connected business élites. The Party was targeting a biographer, an investigative reporter, a political commentator, and a legal correspondent.
Netanyahu appeared convinced that the Israeli media was a machine working against him. It was only a matter of time before word got out about a counter-operation, performing on Netanyahu’s behalf to promote his interests and tarnish anyone considered a threat. It became known in Israel as the “poison machine.” For many of the government’s critics, the existence of such an orchestrated operation—along with the dysfunction of the center left—helps explain Netanyahu’s astonishing political turnaround since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7th and the devastating war that Israel has waged in Gaza since. One liberal activist asked me, “Can you imagine another country where, after everything we’ve been through, the government not only hasn’t fallen but is stable, with no sign of an opposition?”
Who was at the forefront of the poison machine? One name that kept coming up was Yinon Magal. Magal hosts a popular roundtable show on a Netanyahu-friendly network called Channel 14. A self-proclaimed “Bibi-ist,” Magal has described himself as a “vessel” for conveying messages from Netanyahu to the public. And so, at a time of ongoing war, growing international isolation, hostage crisis, and social rupture, I decided to enter the parallel universe of Channel 14—a place where, as one observer put it, “We are winning, and everything is honey.” I started by asking Magal whether we could meet. “Are you with me or against me?” he wrote back, with a winking emoji, and invited me over. Read or listen to “Netanyahu’s Media Poison Machine” »
Postscript
David Lynch died today, at the age of seventy-eight. The ingenious writer, director, and artist was known for the TV show “Twin Peaks” and movies such as “Eraserhead,” “Blue Velvet,” and “Mulholland Drive,” and for the mark of inventiveness he made on the culture writ large. In 1999, Tad Friend joined him on set, witnessing Lynch’s creativity at work. Ten years ago, Lynch told Dennis Lim that his films, which have sparked urgent interpretion and theorizing from fans, should leave “room to dream.” In 2021, Howard Fishman wrote that Lynch’s “most uncanny talent” was “an ability to plug into the socket of our collective unconscious, generating sparks that light up the dark of our waking lives, offering glimpses of the great unknown we carry within. Maybe this is a soul; maybe it’s a sense of what lies beyond.”
- “An Oligarchy Is Taking Shape”
- The Shock of a Gaza Ceasefire Deal
- The Victims of the L.A. Fires Have Nowhere to Turn
- How Much of the Government Can Trump Dismantle?
Daily Cartoon
- Play today’s smallish puzzle. A clue: Spelling competition. Three letters.
- Shouts & Murmurs: How to Style Thrifted Clothes
P.S. Lee Zeldin, the President-elect’s choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency, faced questions from the Senate today. A Trump loyalist, Zeldin is likely to push for slashing conservation regulations, and for reversing many of the Biden Administration’s climate initiatives. “The reality of the public lands is that they are owned by all of us,” Michelle Nijhuis wrote, during Trump’s first term. “Trump may find a way to erase the boundaries established by his predecessors, but he can’t erase the constituencies they inspired.”
