Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will
not attend the memorial ceremony for Nelson
Mandela due to high travel costs.
Netanyahu reportedly changed his plans to attend the ceremony after calculating expenses of a short-notice trip to South Africa, estimated at nearly $2 million for travel, security and logistical arrangements.
The price tag included chartering a private El
Al plane for about $800,000 and dispatching
an Israeli air force plane to carry security
personnel and gear, at a cost of $910,000. Attending the memorial is “unfortunately
impossible,” an Israeli official told local media. [Updated 1:25 p.m., Dec. 9: Alon Liel, former
general director of the Foreign Ministry and
former Israeli ambassador to South Africa,
suggested that cost was not the only
consideration behind Netanyahu's decision.
“It would simply have been wrong for Netanyahu to attend; it just wouldn’t have
been right," he said in an interview. "The
Palestinian issue was so important to Mandela,
and Mandela regarded Netanyahu as
responsible for repeatedly halting the peace
process. Netanyahu’s attendance would have been wrong and his presence would not have
been well-received.” Added Liel: “The
expense story is a joke, a cover story."] One day before the service, it was not clear
who would represent Israel at the memorial
set to take place in Johannesburg on Tuesday. Officials were reportedly considering the cost
and feasibility of last-minute arrangements for
sending other figures with less complicated
and pricey security arrangements, including
President Shimon Peres and Speaker of the
Knesset Yuli-Yoel Edelstein. Netanyahu has recently come under fire following reports of the high cost to taxpayers of maintaining his official and private residences.


MY GAWD! THE DRAMA CONTINUES...

If Mandela felt that Netanyahu has been responsible for lack of peace in that area, he was right. Netanyahu has always been a hardliner right from the onset!

sOmeOne PM SEUN OoOOOOO...IT'S LIKE THERE IS ANOTHER GLITCH/NUG ATTACK HAPPENING oOOO...I SAID IT YESTERDAY OOO..that it hasnt been rectified cos it ws still kicking Up tons of Ish.....the views are stuck,cant see notification for new comment..

Who needs his presence there before?

seriously man! This mandela thing is bringing all sorts of Things...Damn!

desgiezd: If Mandela felt that Netanyahu has been responsible for lack of peace in that area, he was right. Netanyahu has always been a hardliner right from the onset!

@des, Netenyauo understands the importance of protecting his country.
When you are surrounded by countries with hostile policies towards your people, you"d understand the impending need to be proactive. You simply don't offer ammnesty to people who hate you and want you dead, who bomb your people with siucide attacks, who rally round to c that your frontiers and defence are broken. You don't fight propagander war, its either their jugular or yours... If Jonathan had wits like Netenyahu, Boko-haram would have been long buried and forgotten, Bakassi would still be a legal Nigerian territory, terrorism would nt even surffice and Nigerians abroad would enjoy full protection.

okay