Gutnick Still Making Headlines

By COLlive reporter

Australian Lubavitch businessman Yosef Gutnick seems to be back in the game, attending public events and making some headlines.

Gutnick, who owns homes in Melbourne and Jerusalem, arrived in Israel this past Wednesday and was said to have a full schedule.

He sat near the Israeli Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger at an event in his honor at the Mayanot Institute, and on Friday he met with the Rebbe of Toldos Avraham Yitzchak, Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Kahn.

One of Kahn’s son-in-laws, Rabbi Arye Leibish Teitelbaum served as a Kashrus supervisor and was murdered by terrorists at the Chabad House in Mumbai, India.

At the meeting, the two spoke about Chabad activities in Mumbai. Gutnick, who recently visited the city, said that Lubavitch bochurim are in town doing the work of slain Rabbi Gabi Holtzberg and his wife Rivka.

In other news, popular columnist Ben Kaspit who writes in the Israeli daily Maariv, wrote this on Friday:

“As a mushroom after the first rain, Yosef Gutnick arrived in Israel on the eve of the Independence Day. He is the one who gave Benjamin Netanyahu the final push into the Prime Minister’s office in 1996 when he financed the campaign “Bibi is good for the Jews.”

“Now they are trying to get him a meeting with Netanyahu. After all, they are old friends. They will meet in the end. Obviously they will meet. The question is which Netanyahu Gutnick will find this time. Gutnick, his men say, is not here for political reasons.

“Maybe a picture with Netanyahu will help Gutnick in business, especially in India, and there is nothing not legitimate about it. On the other hand, there is a war over Netanyahu’s heart. From all over, people are trying to identify which Netanyahu do we have here.”