In two days the Knesset will choose a new president. The candidates are Ruby Rivlin (a.k.a. The Clown) of Likud, Colette Avital of Labour (my favourite, although, sadly, she has no chance) and Shimon Peres (Kadima), the 84 year-old deputy prime minister. Peres is currently the front-runner for the ceremonial role, although there's a rather recent precedent for a surprise result: Peres was a candidate in 2000, but lost to Moshe (yuck) Katsav because the Shas MKs decided, apparently at the, um, “suggestion” of their spiritual leader, to vote for the now disgraced former president.

Despite his age, Peres is impressively active and seems to be very physically fit. According to an item published last summer in one of the mass-circulation dailies, he climbed 12 flights of stairs to reach his apartment when the elevator stopped working during an electricity cut. Although he has played a prominent role in public life pretty much since the founding of the state, the consummate politician, diplomat and Nobel laureate receives a lot more respect abroad than he does in Israel. Abroad he is the cultured Wise Old Man, but in Israel he is often seen as a too-professional politician who lacks the populist touch, and / or a “loser” who has never actually won an election for any position. Since the president's job is primarily to represent Israel abroad, and given that Katsav embarrassed the country in the international arena, Peres is widely considered a good choice for the presidency, for the very fact that he is held in such esteem outside of Israel.

Last month Channel 10 broadcast a clip that shows Peres falling asleep during an interview. The interview was for an unnamed “foreign television station,” but it is pretty clear that it is for one of the Arab television stations. The interviewer speaks to Peres in Arabic-accented Hebrew, and translates Peres's first response into Arabic. All the foreign Arab media outlets employ 1948 Palestinians (a.k.a. Arab-Israelis) or Israeli Druze as their correspondents in Israel, because they are bilingual and can provide insider-outsider perspective to Arab viewers.

In the clip, which you can view by clicking on the photo of Sleepy Shimon below, Channel 10 anchor Yaakov Elon introduces the piece in his classic cynical style: “We've seen politicians showing signs of fatigue in public before, but not falling asleep during an interview. That's new!” The actual piece is narrated by correspondent Chico Menashe. He opens by showing footage of Ehud Olmert falling asleep during an official ceremony the day after the Winograd Report was published, then moves on to the Sleepy Shimon interview – which took place several months ago.

The interviewer for the Arab television station begins by asking Peres, who is already nodding off, “Do you think that Iran's nuclear program represents an existential threat to Israel?” Peres lifts his head and gives a coherent answer, even though he is more than half asleep: “It's an existential threat to Iran. Why to Israel? What will they do to Israel? I don't think they will do anything to Israel. Let them spend all their billions on building shelters and developing nuclear weapons. They will discover in 10 years that they made a mistake.”

The interviewer quickly translates his response into Arabic. Turning back to Peres, who has meanwhile fallen asleep again, the interviewer clears his throat nervously and says, hesitantly, “The president of Iran says frequently that he wants to wipe Israel off the map…”

At that point a female voice, off camera, is heard saying, “Shimon, I'm going to bring you a cup of coffee.” Peres looks up at his assistant with relief and says, “Yes, yes.”

Chico Menashe then reminds the viewers that Peres is far more active than most younger men. He shows footage of Peres, whom he describes as “the man and the legend,” descending from a helicopter, shaking hands with the pope, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, etc. etc. But still, says Menashe, this appearance of obvious fatigue won't do anything to help Peres win the presidency – especially given that no-one forgets how old he is.

The official response from Peres's spokesman regarding the interview is quite civilized. He explains that Peres had just returned from a long overnight flight from the United States and gone straight to work instead of first sleeping off the jetlag. He admits that the clip is rather embarrassing, but says he doesn't blame Channel 10 for broadcasting it -  because it was newsworthy and obtained legally. The spokesman did, however, blame the “unnamed foreign television station” for leaking the interview (cue ominous background music). I bet I know who is never going to obtain an interview with Peres again (mwahaha).

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