Israeli political correspondents are unhappy with the Prime Minister's new 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. And 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).

Michael Shemesh and Suleiman Maswadeh, Public Broadcasting's political reporters, complained that Dostri removed them from the 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 the N12 editorial team from the spokesperson group after they published a report that a statement Dostri issued in the name of a "senior official" was false.

The reporters are indignant 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 another type of creature that has undergone extreme chemical neutering. This is already the who-knows-how-many round in the unpopular game: PM's spokesperson kicks out journalist, journalist tweets. The journalists' organization condemns, the spokesperson brings the journalist back, and the cycle repeats. The only difference is that each time the spokesperson becomes more arrogant and the journalist more dejected.

Anyone following the relationship between Israeli media 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, and on all fronts. The media, for its part, continues to see itself as "institutional."

First, Netanyahu boycotts, literally, Israeli media. He boycotts Reshet Bet. He boycotts Kan 11. He boycotts Channel 12. He boycotts Channel 13. In fact, for years he has agreed to be interviewed (in Israel) only by the anchors of Channel 14, one of whom is his political advisor and all the rest serve him voluntarily (maybe).

Second, Netanyahu uses the media to deceive the Israeli public. Shabi Gatenyo has already exposed here in The Seventh Eye how Netanyahu's office distributes anonymous messages to a small group of reporters, in the name of a "senior diplomatic source" or another pseudonym, in order to promote spin, deception, or outright lies.

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 insulted journalists and claimed they published a complete lie, was itself a complete lie. Sometimes it's a matter of hours.

For example, just recently, in response to media reports, Netanyahu denied that he intended to replace the heads of the security bodies in the negotiation team with Hamas - with his associate Ron Dermer. The report was accurate, the denial was false. Netanyahu denied that he approved the entry of caravans into the Gaza Strip. The denial was false, the report 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 are personally affected, and their ability to continue serving Netanyahu's office's spin is impaired (for example, 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 satisfied. They don't care. The public is not their responsibility. Only when the fire reaches them do they suddenly raise an alarm. Heaven forbid they shouldn't have access to the same WhatsApp messages that Amit Segal receives.

And even then, neither they nor their bosses dare to do the obvious thing and tell the honorable Prime Minister: enough is enough. The PM seat is not your father's, despite your wholehearted belief in that. This is a public position and your duty of trust is to the public, not the other way around. 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 will not be harmed if Daphna Liel / Moriah Asraf / Yaron Avraham / some other reporter, stops publishing in their Telegram Channel the WhatsApp's messages from Dostri / Golan / Urich / some other lie, 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 and criminal Ben Gvir as a popular interviewee all the way to a ministerial office in the government, 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.

Thus, Netanyahu plays against the press as if he's in a jungle, and the Israeli press plays against Netanyahu as if they are in a tea party. He cheats, misleads, slanders, insults, incites. They compete among themselves who will type his messages first and press Send on Instagram.

For years, instead of a prime minister, we've had a fugitive criminal who is 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. He gets away with it because there is no entity facing him, neither in politics nor in the media, that would demand he be a human being, play by the rules, respect the basic norms required so that we don't slide into chaos.

In the Israeli media, there is a handful of people, a few dozen, 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 number of followers of their Twitter account. They know better than anyone that you can't believe a single punctuation mark in the messages that Netanyahu releases through his spokespersons. It's time they act accordingly.