If you’ve made it this far, hopefully we grabbed your attention enough to want to know more. Never fear, this story does not and cannot stand alone. This brand of PR journalism has been around longer than you might expect, and Maggie Haberman might not even be the first person in her family to practice it.
We mentioned Maggie’s father, Clyde Haberman, wrote about Donald Trump sporadically in the 1980s and ‘90s earlier in this piece. It’s an interesting factoid, but an inconclusive one on its own. After all, lots of people wrote about Trump over the years.
But what if there’s more?
You may have noticed that Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu are close allies and friends. On the surface, it seems to entirely stem from the Kushner family’s relationship with Netanyahu himself. How close? Well, Bibi once spent the night at the Kushner home and even kicked Jared out of his own bedroom in the process. Jared’s dad, Charles Kushner, also paid Bibi hundreds of thousands of dollars for speaking engagements over the years.
But what if there’s still more?
To get to the heart of the matter, you need to know this about Maggie’s dad, Clyde Haberman. He was the New York Times Jerusalem Correspondent from 1991-95. During those years, Clyde Haberman was an essential link between the American public and Israeli politics.
In 1992, Mr. Haberman wrote of a then-up and coming Israeli politician in a New York Times piece:
Battered at the polls and riddled with dissension, Israel's once-dominant Likud Party began today to try rebuilding itself by openly embracing American-style electoral changes.
In the process, the most "American" of prominent Israeli politicians emerged as the clear front-runner to become Likud's next leader: Benjamin Netanyahu, a 43-year-old former delegate to the United Nations who is solidly backed by American contributors and who beats all rivals in using television to maximum advantage.
Unsurprisingly, Mr. Haberman covered Netanyahu extensively over the next few years. But what’s the relevance here to Clyde’s daughter, Maggie Haberman, and her coverage of Donald Trump?
It starts with Donald Trump’s nearly lifelong friend, billionaire Ronald Lauder, and their mutual ally Bibi Netanyahu. Their relationship leads straight to this image below.
