Netanyahu plays a Russian rope trick

The day-long public disappearance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on September 7 had his country's gossip-mongers salivating. Many went to work on speculative theories about just why he suddenly vanished from the media's eye and official records. The strange disappearance of a head of government is, after all, no small scoop.

The initial alibi from the prime minister's military secretary - that he was "visiting a security facility" within the country - attempted to avert prying eyes in a country where the press corps dutifully obey military censorship laws. Netanyahu's aides believed that spinning the story of his inspection of a top-secret Mossad installation inside Israel would be enough to satiate the curious.

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