Did he know or not know? Three days ago (Thursday), during a press conference, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu claimed that he did not keep the Defense Minister and other senior officials out of the loop regarding the medicine deal. The Defense Minister was as surprised as others to learn of this from the media along with the rest of the Israeli public on January 12, but the document was sent to Minister Gallant the next day on the 13th of the month, as Netanyahu noted. As to the journalists’ question, Netanyahu refuted Netanyahu’s own claims: “an example of a tissue of lies,” he responded to questioning reporters.
According to the Prime Minister, “four days before the transfer of medicines, the Mossad Director sent a detailed memo with the outline to the Prime Minister’s Military Secretary, the Defense Minister and Nitzan Alon and the Chief of Staff of the Director of the Shin Bet, detailing the entire outline. There was no exclusion and this doesn’t exist.”
Srigim/JFeed asked the Defense Minister’s Office for comment, but they asked not to respond.
The Night of the Microphones
During the press conference, a ruckus occurred when an argument emerged between the Prime Minister’s Spokesperson and Channel 12 News reporter Yair Cherki after he asked a few questions. It should be noted that Cherki entered a few minutes before the statement and did not hear the request of reporters to only ask one question.
Like Cherki, though, a number of reporters asked a number of questions, with 11 being present and 4 not allowed to ask questions due to lack of time. The Prime Minister’s Office needs to think twice about how to properly manage public statements to allow everyone question time. This is not the first time this has happened, and the TV channels have an advantage over other reporters, since they get to ask before everyone else.
It should be noted that at a similar public statement by Minister Gantz, one of the journalists tried to ask another question, but the staff prevented him from doing so, after stressing just one question per reporter. Gantz read the map right, knowing that he’s probably on the way out from the cabinet, and the media is a central player for him for the day after. The same is true of Gallant who for now is not showing signs of breaking and allowing everyone to ask questions: time is not a factor, the public deserves answers, as is fitting.
Contrary to them, media marvel Netanyahu who constantly speaks to the media needs to know how to handle it properly instead of clashing with journalists (observers would think he rather enjoys it and gets brownie points from the base), he needs to announce that they have limits, but he needs to leave a special opening for media outlets appealing to members of his coalition. To get new audiences on board, it’s not enough to invite everyone to the Prime Minister’s Residents a day before elections.