Netanyahu struggled with English
The Israeli Prime Minister, whose previous press conference did not end well and who received a strong response from John Kirby, Joe Biden’s advisor, regarding his insistence on the military presence at border crossings, decided to hold a press conference in English to strengthen his position. He repeated the positions and statements from the previous press conference with more emphasis and, as usual, with images and maps. However, this time the situation was different as he had to respond to recent criticisms and deal with a wave of attacks stemming from the grief of families of hostages executed by Hamas.
His explanation about the importance of the Philadelphi Route and the necessity of maintaining security and military oversight at this crossing was accompanied by additional emphasis and reference to maps and images. Netanyahu’s repetitive explanations turned into a nightmare with the start of journalists’ questions, which he did not anticipate. Journalists from NBC and CNN directly questioned him about the executed hostages and the chances of the remaining hostages returning alive.
Jeremy Diamond’s question from CNN about more than 40,000 Palestinian victims was so direct and harsh that it clearly caught Bibi off guard.
The repeated questions about the Philadelphi Route and the point that he hadn’t mentioned its importance in the past eight months, despite having enough time to order an attack on this crossing, clearly cornered him.
Netanyahu’s responses were delivered with a firm voice but were not convincing. Naturally, he does not feel the need to convince anyone as he repeatedly mentioned that he had previously agreed to a ceasefire, and that Hamas was the reason for the lack of agreement.
He naturally did not mention that it was he himself who suddenly changed the subject of discussions in the negotiations regarding the crossing, bringing the negotiations to the brink of collapse.
In response to the harsh and formidable question from the CNN journalist about the victimization of people in Gaza, he spoke of the Israeli military’s significant achievement in recording a one-to-one ratio in military and civilian casualties, which was an extremely audacious response. After that, journalists, with numerous questions about the Philadelphi Route, considered him responsible for the lack of agreement and the non-release of hostages. This press conference, with all the bitter questions from journalists and Netanyahu’s persistence and audacity, came to an end, and now everyone is waiting for the hours when he will finally respond to Biden’s final plan.