Netanyahu brings dirty laundry to Washington – report

Service available to all foreign leaders, but PM only one to frequently use it, Washington paper says

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the most frequent user of the White House’s free laundry services, The Washington Post reported.

While this service is available to all foreign leaders, the report claims that Netanyahu is the only one who frequently uses it, bringing suitcases filled with dirty laundry for the White House staff to clean.

“The Netanyahus are the only ones who bring actual suitcases of dirty laundry for us to clean,” A US official, who wished to remain anonymous, told the newspaper. “After multiple trips, it became clear this was intentional.”

Israeli officials denied that Netanyahu overuses the laundry services, calling the claim both absurd and an attempt to overshadow the signing of the normalization agreement made with the UAE and Bahrain.

The Embassy stated that on his most recent trip, the use of the White House’s laundry service has been quite limited, which was supported by the words of another US official, who said that this time Netanyahu did not bring with him several suitcases of dirty laundry.

Netanyahu’s laundry practices first came into question as part of recordings made of Nir Hefetz that were released in 2018, in which he explained some of the ways the prime minister and his family avoid several expenses.

“On every trip at least four or five suitcases come filled with laundry for dry cleaning, and I’m telling you that journalists have asked me about it and I’ve checked the bills,” Hefetz said. “Nothing appears in the bills, they somehow hid it.”

Protests against Netanyahu have been taking place near his residence in Jerusalem despite the threat of the coronavirus, demanding that he resign from his position over several allegations regarding corruption charges and his handling of the pandemic.