More than words: why it’s important that Netanyahu and Bennett met in English

Spokesmen for both Netanyahu and Bennett have pointed out that they are not disclosing details, in an effort to build trust between their bosses.

A statement by the leader of the Religious Zionist Party, Bezalel Smotrich, after an earlier meeting with Netanyahu that the prime minister’s office was being called inaccurate and manipulative, gave even more reason to keep the press and the public in the dark about the Netanyahu-Bennett meeting.

But a small detail from the meeting that is exclusive to The Jerusalem Post Saturday night speaks louder than words: It was presented in English.

There were those who underestimated the significance of the meeting in a language in which Netanyahu and Bennett felt comfortable. Both spent much of their lives in the United States, and Bennett was raised by American parents in Israel and spoke English at home. .

Nevertheless, the tweet about the fatal meeting held in English spread like wildfire on social media. Twitter reported nearly 200,000 impressions of the tweet in half a day, even though it was published in Israel at 10:25 pm during Shabbat in the USA, which is by far not the best time. Most responses to the English tweet were in Hebrew.

Why then did it matter so much that the meeting was held in English?

There was a difference between Netanyahu talking to his associates and having coalition talks with the head of another political party, Channel 13 and Yediot Aharonot commentator Nadav Eyal, author of Revolt: The Worldwide Uprising Against Globalization, said. Netanyahu and Bennett must have followed in the footsteps of Israel’s founding fathers, who knew many languages ​​but insisted on running the country in Hebrew, he said.

“It’s bad taste to have a conversation about forming an Israeli government in a foreign language,” Eyal said. ‘There is a meaning in statesmanship: you cherish Hebrew and run your business in Hebrew. They must have pointed out to speak Hebrew. ”

Some on Twitter recalled angrily reminding Netanyahu’s government to pass the Nation-State Act, which formally declared Hebrew to be Israel’s only official state language.

While the British-born Eyal called Netanyahu and Bennett’s decision to speak English ‘provincial’, others on Twitter accused them of snobbery and attitude, suggesting it was proof that they belonged to the non-English-speaking masses in their constituencies are disconnected. .

“Sounds like an Alpha contest,” wrote Sara K. Eisen, a brand and communications manager who was once a top official of the Jewish Agency.

Then there were those on Twitter who praised them for being able to speak English at a high level and said it fit with Netanyahu’s slogan of last year’s election about him being in a ‘different league’.

With Netanyahu’s presidency and his career in jeopardy as his mandate to form a government progresses, it is his worldliness that Israelites will sooner or later try to replace. In the polls Likud conducted during the election, it is said that Israelites have a leader that the world listens to and who can call the head of Pfizer at 3 p.m.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Likudniks who speak perfect English, such as MK Nir Barkat and Yuli Edelstein, Minister of Health, are doing well in the surveys among party members about who Netanyahu should succeed.

The fact that the conversation was leaked in English also helps Bennett to appear to his doubters that he is prime ministerial material, as his chances of forming a government may be approaching.

Then it can be the opposite again. For two men who really despise each other, it might take the language of Shakespeare to sit together while they plan how to stab the other in the back.