News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Israeli media, led by Voice of Israel government radio, has heightened its campaign against Likud chairman and Opposition leader Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu for his private spending habits during his trip to London two years ago to explain Israel's role in the Second Lebanon War. MK Netanyahu has sued Channel One television for libel after it reported that he used government funds for spending NIS 141,000 ($41,000) on expensive hotels and the theater.

Several British sources have said that they privately financed some of MK Netanyahu's private expenses, part of which he insisted on returning, but Voice of Israel's Another Matter program insisted that he should not have spent so much money that could have been used to help Galilee residents during the war.

The radio network's British correspondent Dalia Vardi said that London Jewish community leaders cannot understand why the matter is a controversy. During MK Netanyahu's visit, Israel media praised him for his defense of Israel on British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC), Sky News and other media. In one broadcast, he pointed out that the British air force mistakenly bombed and killed dozens of children during an attack on the German Axis. He made the comment in response to criticism that the IDF killed children during a bombing raid in southern Lebanon, where Hizbullah terrorists hid rockets in schools and residential areas.