Israeli leader's son Yair Netanyahu apologizes for drunken strip club audio
JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's son has reportedly apologized for bragging drunkenly outside a strip club in 2015, following a news station's airing of audio recorded on the night.
In the recording broadcast by Channel 2 News, Yair Netanyahu tells the son of an Israeli gas tycoon that the prime minister advanced a controversial gas deal in parliament that benefited his father. According to The Times of Israel, Yair was trying to get cash from the tycoon's son to pay strippers.
Yair and his friends are also heard talking about strippers and how much money they spent.
The Time reported Tuesday that Yair had issued an apology, seeking to dismiss the remarks as alcohol-fuelled ramblings.
"In that late night conversation, under the influence of alcohol, I said foolish things about women and other foolish things that would have been better left unsaid," he said. "These words do not represent who I am, the values I was raised on, or the principles I believe in. I regret saying them and apologize if anyone was offended by them."
Netanyahu's son and his friends were accompanied by a state-funded bodyguard responsible for providing security as they entertained themselves. One of Yair's entourage jokes that the guard, who was privy to some of the banter, would have to be killed if he left his job.
Yair has drawn media criticism for living a life of privilege at the taxpayers' expense and for crude social media posts.
The audio was released amid a police investigation into corruption allegations surrounding the Israeli leader.
Channel 2 relayed a statement from the Netanyahu family calling the recordings part of a witch hunt against the prime minister.
According to a translation of the Hebrew language remarks made on the evening by The Times of Israel, the young Netanyahu can be heard pushing the son of oil magnate Koby Maimon to give him about hundred dollars to pay for strippers.
"Bro, you have to spot me. My dad made an awesome deal for your dad, bro. He fought, fought in the Knesset (Israeli parliament) for this, bro," Yair allegedly told Nir Maimon.
Both men are reportedly in their 20s.
