Television presenter, Guy Zohar, checked whether White House spokesman John Kirby really termed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s video "embarrassing.”
In his remarks in English, Kirby stated that the video Netanyahu published was "perplexing, to say the least, certainly disappointing." He also stated that it was as "vexing and disappointing to us as much as it was incorrect."
The words "perplexing" and "vexing" were mistranslated as "embarrassing."
Zohar listed the media sources in Israel that quoted Kirby, among others a Channel News 13 reporter who quoted Kirby as saying, "This video is very embarrassing." Kan News claimed that "the Americans called his video 'embarrassing'." Channel 12 News quoted the White House as saying, "Netanyahu's video is embarrassing and disappointing."
Opposition leader Yair Lapid even attacked Netanyahu and claimed that Kirby said the Israeli Prime Minister was 'embarrassing.'
Zohar responded: "It is not certain that they will take this that well, because Kirby did not say 'embarrassing.’ John Kirby used the word 'perplexing,’ which was translated into the Hebrew word ‘embarrassing.’”