Yoni Netanyahu's Former Partner Reveals: The Word That Embarrassed the Prime Minister

Bruria Shaked-Okon, the former partner of the late Sayeret Matkal commander Lt. Col. Yoni Netanyahu, revealed in a conversation with journalist Guy Peleg that a poem written to her by the hero of the Entebbe operation was not published by order of the Prime Minister's Office — apparently due to one word in the text.

In a podcast with journalist Guy Peleg from the All in podcast network, Shaked-Okon said that during one of the annual memorial ceremonies, the unit commander approached her and told her that a notebook belonging to Yoni had been found while clearing out warehouses. "Yoni always had an orange leather notebook with him in his left pocket," she noted. Inside, the soldiers discovered a love poem that Yoni had written to Bruria amidst the pressure of military exercises.

"Do you think your brother wasn't with women?"

The poem was brought to be read at the parents' house. Shaked-Okon says that Benjamin Netanyahu asked to join her to read what was written. They entered a side room, sat on the bed, and she began to read.

"This is one of his less polished poems, perhaps that is why he didn't give it to me at the time," said Shaked-Okon, revealing the line that surprised Netanyahu:

"And the last stanza is: 'I love you in bed' (be-mita). So Bibi says to me: 'In bed? Maybe it's in headquarters (ba-mate)?'"

Yoni's partner said she brought the writing closer to her eyes to verify the exact wording: "I checked again and said to him: 'No, it's in bed, there is a yud here.' God helped me. And then I turned to him and said: 'What, do you think your brother wasn't with women?'"

The decision of the office: censorship or shelving

A few days after the meeting, Shaked-Okon received a phone call from the Prime Minister's Office asking if it was possible to publish the poem found in the notebook.

"I said yes, but in its entirety," she noted, but added: "I knew that this word, 'in bed', bothered him. The secretary called me back and said that if it's with the last stanza — then they decided not to publish." According to Shaked-Okon, her response was unequivocal: "I told her: 'Your choice.' And it was not published."

In the conversation with Peleg, Yoni Netanyahu's partner read the full stanza that the Prime Minister apparently did not want to publish:

"My Bruria, I thought about you a lot and missed you and I didn't get around to writing because the conditions here are below zero. It's very hot and we are sweating like in a steam bath and there isn't enough air... I imagine you at home and at the sea and in bed and in company laughing and enjoying and maybe also missing me. I will come today late at night and we will be together finally."

"This is what he didn't want to publish," she claimed, questioning why: "Because what? Because it makes him human? Because it makes him less of a warrior? But this time I stood my ground."