More than three decades after the case that placed her against her will in the heart of Israeli political life, Dr. Ruth Barr, former strategic advisor to Benjamin Netanyahu and the heroine of what was known as the “hot tape case,” broke her silence in her first interview, speaking about her relationship with Netanyahu, and the way in which his image as a political brand was built, leading to her vision of the method he later adopted to remain in power and divide society into two confronting camps.

According to a report by journalist Ben Caspit in the Israeli newspaper “Maariv,” Bar said, 33 years after revealing the relationship between Netanyahu during the case known in Israel as the “hot tape,” that the Israeli prime minister was convinced at the time that there was a recording, and therefore decided to control the event himself.

Recalling the night in which she became one of the most famous women in Israel, after Netanyahu appeared on Channel One and admitted to cheating on his wife, Sarah, she said: “He was sure at that moment that there was a tape, so he had to control the event and lead it.”

She added: “On the one hand, it aroused a lot of ridicule, and people were asking: Why do you go on TV and admit that you cheated on your wife? On the other hand, it aroused emotional involvement among a very large number of viewers.”

The beginning of Bar’s acquaintance with Netanyahu goes back to 1989. She said: “Eli Arad called me and asked me if I was ready to meet Netanyahu. Of course I agreed.”

She added: “They told me that Bibi wanted me to watch his TV appearances and analyze them, identifying strengths and weaknesses. They put on a tape and I watched it. It was good, but there was a lot that needed to be corrected. He listened to all my notes.”

She continued: “I conducted a lot of research with him. We would examine matters before and after the appearance, and I wrote many theses and documents. He would also ask me to come to his public appearances and analyze them, and he would ask me for my opinion on the quality of the appearance, the messages, body language, and everything.”

Regarding her impression of him politically and as a human being, Barr said: “I was his advisor and pollster for 3 years, and the first thing I noticed about Bibi was his extreme sense of superiority. It was a deep sense of superiority, almost frightening.”

She added: “He was convinced that he was above everyone. He would contemptuously describe everyone else as employees. This contempt could be heard even in the tone of his voice. All his opponents were, in his eyes, small, miserable and insignificant. This was my first impression of him, and I still remember it today.”

The interview coincides with the release of Barr’s book “Brain Under the Influence,” which the report described as the outcome of her life’s project, and includes her professional conclusions, including the “survival classes model” that she developed.

The book includes a large amount of professional material, in addition to a broad political presence and detailed analysis of most of the electoral campaigns that Israel witnessed.

Bar’s words gain special importance, according to the report, based on the fact that she was part of the narrow team that participated in shaping Netanyahu’s image at the beginning of his political career, before his public personality became established in its known image later.

During the rare interview, Barr also addressed the campaigns of the candidates in the upcoming elections, the early beginnings of what she described as the “poison machine,” in addition to Netanyahu’s management in recent years.

In this context, she said, “Netanyahu realized that in order to survive, he had to divide the people into two polarized camps, and this is what he did.”

The interview was not limited to politics, as Barr also spoke about the major personal tragedy that accompanied her life, after she lost two of her three children, one in a shooting accident and the other in a traffic accident.

She said: “Shmuel and I lost two children. Two very heavy disasters befell us.”

She added: “Shoham, our daughter, was killed on April 30, 2004 in a traffic accident in India. Two months before that, in February, we went to visit her there in India. She was 21 and a half years old, and she traveled on a trip after the army with her boyfriend.”

She continued: “We were pampering her, and we bought her a car in Israel, and we swore that she would not take anything else, just a car. But they rented a motorcycle. He was driving, and she was killed.”

She pointed out that 11 years later, in 2015, her son Omer was killed in a gun accident as a result of an accidental bullet discharge. He was 37 years old.

33 years after the case that linked her name to Netanyahu, Ruth Barr returns to the forefront not only through the old scandal, but as a person who says she knew closely the early stages of making his political image, and today she offers an examination of the traits and methods that saw their roots before they turned into a fixed part of the Israeli scene.