Netanyahu blocks toilet: Israeli PM needs 20 agents to go to bathroom

Netanyahu was out for dinner with his wife in the Sherry-Netherland Hotel’s Harry Cipriani restaurant when nature called. As he got up, half of his 40-strong crew of security agents followed him.

According to a bystander, a few went into the bathroom with him, while “one watched the door and the rest lined up with their arms up to form a human barricade, so nobody could enter the bathroom or even get close.”

The agents are part of the elite Shin Bet arm of the Israeli Security Agency.

It wasn’t just the toilets that had a wall of men surrounding it. The hotel itself was surrounded by a ring of security personnel and the restaurant was barricaded, giving New York diners a taste of Israel’s infamous security checkpoints.

“In order to get to the restaurant, you had to walk around the block to a barricaded area, which was manned by security and attack dogs,” a witness said. “Guests were patted down and had to go through metal detectors.”

The Israeli prime minister is in New York for the annual UN General Assembly Debate. He will also meet with presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in two separate meetings on Sunday.

The meetings will be closed to the press and their locations have not been released. Netanyahu will meet with Trump in the morning and Clinton in the afternoon.

The Times of Israel reports the Trump campaign reached out to Netanyahu first, and that his office then made contact with Clinton, in order to appear neutral.

Netanyahu also caused security to be stepped-up when he attended the Broadway play ‘Hamilton.’