Donors, deals, and dinner: Inside Netanyahu’s Manhattan night

The Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth on Sunday, September 28, 2025, revealed details of the extravagant dinner, arranged in part by their son Yair Netanyahu. According to the report, the event took place Friday evening at the luxury restaurant “Reserve Cut” in Manhattan, which was closed entirely to the public for the occasion.

The dinner was hosted by Simon Falic, a Jewish-American businessman known for his close ties to the Netanyahu family, who has previously hosted them at his home in occupied Jerusalem. Falic also invited several Jewish donors from Miami, among them Yair Netanyahu.

Sources told the paper that Yair influenced several key decisions during the trip — including the cancellation of the expected press conference after Netanyahu’s UN General Assembly speech.

That speech was delivered to empty seats, as most delegates had walked out in protest against Israel’s actions in Palestine. Reportedly, Yair intervened to stop the press briefing, saying his father should “only speak with Channel 14.”

The move drew backlash from the press, especially after the Prime Minister’s Office announced that a press conference would instead follow Netanyahu’s meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. Yet once again, without any clear explanation, journalists were barred from boarding the official flight from New York to Washington.

The episode recalled a similar banquet hosted last year by the Falic family in New York, which delayed Netanyahu and Sara’s return to Israel — even as the Israeli military launched a major operation in Beirut’s southern suburbs targeting Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, who was later martyred.

Netanyahu and his family have long been associated with such extravagant dinners, several of which have become scandals.

For example, according to the Hebrew daily Maariv, a few years ago new corruption allegations emerged against Netanyahu after Nir Hefetz, his former media adviser, handed police evidence showing that during a February 2010 trip to Moscow, Netanyahu and his wife ordered food, cigars, and alcohol worth $24,000.

According to Hefetz, Gil Sheffer, then head of foreign relations at the Prime Minister’s Office, informed him of the bill — which Netanyahu allegedly passed on to a billionaire guest at the dinner to pay on his behalf.