Senior Haaretz Journalist: “They Turned Sara Netanyahu Into a Monster”

Sara Netanyahu Interview

Senior Haaretz journalist Benny Ziffer said he was deeply impressed after meeting Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Ziffer made the comments in an interview with the Knesset Channel.

“It was truly a meeting that changed my life,” Ziffer said.

“Suddenly I understood that the person standing in front of you is a human being. They turned her into a monster, but this woman is not a monster. She is simply a regular person.”

Ziffer said the meeting left a strong personal impression on him.

“The 20 minutes I was allotted with her turned into three hours,” he added. “I sat with her for three hours, and I was simply fascinated.”

A Different View

Ziffer’s comments stand out because they came from a senior journalist at Haaretz, a newspaper known for strong criticism of Netanyahu and Israel’s right-wing political camp.

That context makes the remarks especially notable.

Instead of repeating the usual public image often attached to Sara Netanyahu, Ziffer described a private meeting that challenged his assumptions.

His central point was simple: behind the political attacks and years of media coverage, he encountered a person.

That matters in Israeli public life.

Politics in Israel is often intense, personal, and brutal. Public figures and their families can become symbols, targets, or caricatures. However, Ziffer’s comments point to something more basic: even the most attacked figures are still human beings.

For Ziffer, meeting Sara Netanyahu changed the way he saw her.

His message was not only political. It was human.