The political correspondents are unhappy with the new Prime Minister's spokesperson, Omer Dostri. He issues defamatory denials that turn out to be false. He repeatedly uses anonymous titles to hide Netanyahu's identity and create spin. Most importantly, from these journalists' perspective, he treats them with contempt and boycotts them the moment they publish something that Netanyahu doesn't like (not a particularly difficult task).

Last week, Michael Shemesh and Suleiman Maswadeh, Kan 11 public broadcast journalists, complained that Dostri removed them from the Prime Minister office's official WhatsApp group - following their publication about PM Netanyahu reprimanding Dostri over a series of embarrassments caused by him. Dostri didn't stop there and also removed N12's editorial team from the spokesperson's group after they published that a statement Dostri issued in the name of a "senior official" was false.

The reporters are angry and even - drum roll please - tweeting about it, but one can't help but look at this spectacle and chuckle. Either Israeli journalists have the memory of a goldfish, or they're a different kind of creature that's undergone extreme chemical neutering. This is already the umpteenth round in this unpopular game: PM's spokesperson kicks out journalist, journalist tweets. The journalists' organization condemns, the spokesperson brings the journalist back, and so it goes. The only difference is that with each cycle, the spokesperson becomes more arrogant and the journalist more subdued.

Anyone following the relationship between the Israeli press and Netanyahu and his spokespersons, can't help but recall the stale and overused parable of the frog in the gradually heating pot. Netanyahu has always hated the press and loved to lie. In the last decade, after his son introduced him to social media, he raised the level of hatred and incitement against the media from 100 to a million, on all fronts. The media, for its part, continues to consider itself "stately" in its own eyes.

First, Netanyahu is literally boycotting Israeli broadcast media. He boycotts Reshet Bet and Galatz, the national news radio stations. He boycotts Kan 11, israel's public news channel. He boycotts Channel 12 an 13, israel's privately owned news channels. In fact, for the last four years, he has only agreed to appear (in Israel) exclusively on Channel 14, The propaganda channel dedicated to him, whose senior political commentator is his political advisor.

Second, Netanyahu uses the media to deceive the Israeli public. The Seventh Eye has already exposed how PM Netanyahu's office distributes messages to a small group of reporters, under the name "senior diplomatic source" or another pseudonym, to promote spin, deception, or outright lies (They cooperate).

Third, Netanyahu uses his spokespersons to openly lie and defame journalists whenever embarrassing information about his conduct is published. Sometimes it takes no more than a few days until it becomes clear that the statement issued by Netanyahu's office, which vilified journalists and declared they published an absolute lie, was itself an absolute lie. Sometimes it's a matter of hours.

For example, just recently, in response to media reports, Netanyahu denied that he intended to out the security officials on the negotiation team for the release of the hostages in Gaza. The publication was accurate, the denial was false. Netanyahu denied that he approved the entry of caravans into the Gaza Strip. The denial was false, the publication was accurate.

There are many more examples, but to the Israeli media this seems reasonable, proper, and normal. Our journalists wipe their faces, tell themselves it's rain, and continue to cooperate. In cases where they're personally affected, and their ability to continue serving Netanyahu's office's spin is hampered (for instance, when they're kicked out of the WhatsApp group), they, as mentioned, tweet a tweet.

Even then, they completely miss the picture and, as usual, prove that Israeli journalists care about only one thing: Israeli journalists. As long as Netanyahu, through his various PR people - whether it's Omer Dostri or Ofer Golan or whoever - lies to the public, misleads it and confuses it, Israeli journalists are content. They don't care. It's not their responsibility, the public. Only when the fire reaches them do personally they suddenly cry out. Heaven forbid they shouldn't receive the same WhatsApp messages that the teacher pet Amit Segal gets.

And even then, neither they nor their bosses dare to do the obvious thing and tell the honorable Prime Minister: enough is enough. The chair isn't your father's, despite your wholehearted belief in that. This is a public position and the duty of trust is yours to the public, not vice versa. If you don't immediately stop boycotting and lying wholesale, we will boycott you and stop publishing your lies.

The public's right to know won't be harmed if Daphna Liel / Moriah Asraf / Yaron Avraham / some other reporter stop publishing Netanyahu's WhatsApp messages from Dostri / Golan / Urich / some other PR, on their Telegram channels all-at-once-before-everyone-else. In fact, the public would be better informed if Israeli journalists decided to stop acting as a doormat for Netanyahu's spin.

The Israeli media, which normalized the racist Itamar Ben Gvir as a popular interviewee all the way to a ministerial office, continues to normalize the biggest lie of the late Netanyahu era: as if the rules of the game haven't changed. As if we're still in Kansas. As if there are still ceremonial rules and accepted norms.

While Netanyahu plays against the press as if he's in the jungle, the Israeli press plays against Netanyahu as if it's in the Tea Room at the Lords Club. He cheats, misleads, slanders, blasphemes, incites. They compete among themselves who will be the first to type his messages and press Send on Instagram.

For years, instead of a prime minister, we've had a fugitive criminal who's destroying the country on his way to getting a get-out-of-jail card. He has no conscience, no integrity, and doesn't care about burning down the club, even with all of us inside. This is possible for him because there is no entity facing him, neither in politics nor in the media, that will demand he be human, play by the rules, respect the basic norms required so we don't descend into chaos.

In Israel's media there is a handful of people, several dozens, who can change this trend. Senior managers and editors, political and diplomatic correspondents, who can decide that the State of Israel is more important to them than the tip of their Twitter account's fingernail. They know better than anyone that you can't believe a single punctuation mark in the messages Netanyahu releases through his spokespersons. It's time they acted accordingly.