Peres doesn’t know the words
In Christmas greeting video, president appears to botch the lyrics to 'Jingle Bells'
JTA — Israeli President Shimon Peres sent out a mostly boilerplate Christmas greeting last week, but what jumped out were the video’s first 22 seconds, where Peres stands at the center of a group of kids dressed in Santa suits, all singing “Jingle Bells,” accompanied by a piano.
Discerning viewers will note, though, that Peres — while admittedly moving his mouth most of the time — doesn’t seem to know the words to the song. He looks like he’s employing the same technique he used in the 1990s, when he didn’t appear to know the words to Arik Einstein’s “Ani v’Ata” in an impromptu duet with Benjamin Netanyahu.
It isn’t surprising, of course, that an Israeli man born 90 years ago in Poland wouldn’t know the words to an English Christmas standard. Given Peres’s constant talk of peace, perhaps this would have been a more appropriate selection.