Netanyahu, wife accused of bringing dirty laundry to White House; embassy dismisses report

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, brought suitcases of clothes to be laundered and dry cleaned during their stay at the White House guesthouse, the Washington Post reported on September 23. The latest report reinforces similar claims made a decade ago that the Israeli PM prefers to get his dirty clothes laundered during foreign trips. 

High-profile visitors get their laundry done during their at the White House guesthouse but it usually consists of one or two clothes. The Post, quoting a US official, reported that the Netanyahus are only state guests who bring “actual suitcases” of dirty laundry for the guesthouse to clean. The official reportedly suggested it was intentional because of similar acts on multiple trips.

Embassy dismissed report

The Israeli embassy in the US dismissed the report as “groundless and absurd allegations”. The embassy said in a statement that the sole aim of the report is to belittle Netanyahu’s “monumental achievement” during the historic peace summit brokered by President Trump. 

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The embassy said that only a couple of shirts were laundered and Prime Minister’s suit was ironed for the public meeting ahead of the signing of the peace deal. Netanyahu’s office also denied the report, saying it was a “slander” aimed at bringing disrepute to the historic agreements between the Israeli Prime Minister and US President Donald Trump. 

“This is recycled anonymous slander from the archives of the Israeli media aimed at blotting out the historic peace agreements brought about by Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump,” it said.

According to the report, the officials acknowledged that Netanyahu’s laundry requests were modest on the latest trip but not during the previous visits. On September 15, Trump was joined by Netanyahu and foreign ministers of the UAE and Bahrain at the White House to ink the historic Abraham Accord.

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