Rare clip shows frustrated PM at press conference dress rehearsal

An news channel aired on Monday, April 1st, 2024, what it claimed to be a video mistakenly sent to them showing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu frustrated as he rehearses for the press conference he held on Sunday evening.

“Channel 13” said that Netanyahu conducted a review shortly before inviting the media into the room, and it appears that the footage was mistakenly transmitted to the channel.

In the video broadcast by the Israeli channel, Netanyahu examines the opening lines of his speech, repeatedly pausing to ask questions and give instructions to his aides regarding the room’s condition, air conditioning, sound system, and word choice in his pre-prepared script displayed on the teleprompter.

At times, the Prime Minister, who attended a meeting of the War Cabinet after the press conference and then underwent surgery for a hernia, appeared somewhat disturbed and impatient as he reviews the best way to start his speech.

According to the video, Netanyahu says as he enters the room, “What is this distance? Are you crazy?” It is not clear what he is referring to, although it may be the teleprompter. He adds, “Come closer, what is this?” and continues, “Close the door and turn off the air conditioner immediately.”

The Prime Minister asks the people behind the camera, “They will hear that, won’t they? Did they hear it?” perhaps referring to the media members waiting outside the room, and at one point wonders, “How does it look?”

In the beginning of his preparations, the Prime Minister reads, “Citizens of Israel, good evening,” before stopping and wondering, “Why good evening? Well, it doesn’t matter.” Then he delivers the following lines in different ways before appearing satisfied.

He continues to praise the Israeli army operation that lasted for weeks in the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City – as he did when journalists were allowed to enter and he opened the press conference shortly after – before stopping to ask a teleprompter operator why the word “perfect” wasn’t used in the text. At that moment, it was clear that he was starting to lose his patience, and he continued, saying, “The operation was perfect.”

Netanyahu proceeds in the video clip, saying, “This doesn’t look like a medical center,” in reference to Shifa Hospital. Then he repeats the phrase, but this time with a more mocking tone. He said, “This doesn’t look like a medical center, it looks like a terrorist center.”