Israel's televised debates Kan revisits the archives

Mar 14, 2015

Prompted by Gadi Eisenkot's invitation to Netanyahu the previous night, Shahar Glick surveys archival election debates. He presents Mordechai's 1999 challenge to Netanyahu as a defeat that discouraged later debates, and says Netanyahu won the 1996 exchange with Peres. Their excerpts contrast peace/security and fear. A Begin–Peres excerpt concerns defence from the Jordan to the sea, sovereignty and Arab autonomy. A Shamir–Peres exchange contrasts inflation with employment. The report then shows Rina Matzliah proposing a studio debate and the 2015 remote Netanyahu–Herzog exchange, including Herzog's verbal slip. Glick's evaluations of winners, humiliation and causation remain his interpretation. The precise date of the Begin–Peres footage and the 1984 moderator attribution are unresolved; the archived English speaker labels are retained.

Kan recalls Netanyahu's remote appearance during Herzog's studio interview in 2015, after Matzliah asks about a future face-to-face debate. The excerpt includes criticism, Herzog's slip about keeping Netanyahu united, and Glick's judgement that Herzog looked helpless. It is a brief on-air overlap, not an agreed formal studio debate.