Netanyahu tried mocking Biden, only to find out the joke’s on him

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The fingerprints were already apparent. The 22-second clip supposedly showing Biden ‘sleeping’ next to Bennett, made its first appearance on the Twitter account of Likud MK Galit Distal Atbaryan, a fanatic Netanyahu loyalist who was recruited by the former PM to join Likud before the last election.

In the hours following the Bennett-Biden meeting, the video shared by Distal Atbaryan racked up more than 5 million views, and rapidly crossed over into the pro-Trump social media circles who delighted in the confirmation of Trump’s nickname for Biden: Sleepy Joe.

Eventually, after critics online slammed the video as misleading, given that immediately after the clip ended, Biden spoke and responded directly to Bennett’s words during his supposed nap, Twitter flagged the video as “manipulated media.”

Netanyahu himself stayed away from the debate that followed in Israel over the incident, but many of his most prominent supporters in the media slammed Twitter for ‘silencing’ a Likud MK, and continued to mock Bennett and Biden.

Netanyahu was vacationing in Hawaii while all of this was happening. In general, he has avoided appearances in Israel’s media ever since his ouster from the Prime Minister’s Office. But whether in Israel or Hawaii, he has continued to use social media to communicate with his ‘base’ of supporters, including rambling “Facebook Live” sessions where he chats with a staffer filming him.

On Sunday, the off-camera voice brought up the White House meeting between Biden and Bennett. Netanyahu in response chuckled and said, “I heard. I heard that Biden was very, very attentive at this meeting. He dropped his head in agreement,” Netanyahu replied, lowering his own head and closing his eyes.

If Netanyahu and his social media minions were indeed behind the original “Sleepy Joe” video, and Sunday’s moment was his way of celebrating it, the move seems to have backfired badly.

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Even his diehard supporters failed to rally around the joke, and multiple critics on Twitter blasted it as “sad” and the move of a “kindergartener” or an “obnoxious 12-year-old.”

Members of the current coalition responded by pointing out that it was the leader of the opposition offending the U.S. president, not the sitting government in Israel. Labor MK Emilie Moatti tweeted: “the official State of Israel supports the United States, appreciates and honors its President, Mr. Biden.”

A few hours after the Facebook Live aired, the Likud Party made an attempt at damage control, tweeting: “Contrary to the distorted picture broadcast in the media, former Prime Minister Netanyahu did not criticize President Biden, whom he has known and cherished as a friend of Israel for 40 years. His criticism was directed solely at Naftali Bennett, who, during his visit to the White House spoke at length about nothing.”

But the damage had already been done.

That damage wasn’t just limited to the fact that Netanyahu simultaneously insulted his “cherished friend” Biden and heightened suspicions that he was behind the doctored video that sought to sabotage the all-important first White House meeting of a new Israeli prime minister.

The brief moment of mockery also offered a clue to Netanyahu’s state of mind, three months after moving into the opposition. Suddenly, the man viewed for years as a master politician, who many believed was currently plotting a brilliant strategic move that would return him to the Prime Minister’s residence, seemed like an online troll with too much time on his hands.

Openly ridiculing the U.S. president also implies that Netayahu is surrounded by social media sycophants, not clever strategists. It did not make him look like a powerful leader who sincerely believes he might himself be sitting in the armchair opposite Biden any time in the near future. The video intended to diminish and dismiss Bennett as he completes his first 100 days in office, should, instead, reassure and encourage him.