Netanyahu struggled with English
The Israeli Prime Minister, whose previous press conference did not have positive outcomes for him and who received a firm response from John Kirby, Joe Biden’s advisor, regarding his insistence on military presence at border crossings, decided to hold a press conference in English to strengthen his position. He repeated the positions and statements of the previous press conference with more emphasis and, as usual, with images and maps. However, this time the story was different, and he had to respond to recent criticisms and battle a wave of attacks stemming from the grief of families of hostages executed by Hamas.
His explanations about the importance of the Philadelphi Corridor and the necessity of maintaining security and military oversight of this crossing were 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 expect. NBC and CNN journalists explicitly asked about the executed hostages and the chances of the remaining hostages returning alive.
Jeremy Diamond, a CNN journalist, asked a question about more than 40,000 Palestinian victims that was so direct and harsh it visibly caught Bibi off guard.
Repeated questions about the Philadelphi Corridor and noting that he had not mentioned its importance in the past eight months, despite having all this time to order an attack on this crossing and only now reaching the area, clearly backed him into a corner.
Netanyahu’s responses were delivered in a firm voice but were not convincing. Naturally, he does not need to convince anyone, as he repeatedly pointed out that he had previously agreed to a ceasefire and that Hamas was the reason for the lack of agreement.
Naturally, he did not mention that he himself was the one who suddenly changed the subject of the discussions to the corridor, 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 of military to civilian casualties, which was an extremely audacious response. Following this, journalists with numerous questions about the Philadelphi Corridor deemed 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.