Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave an interview to Brett Baier of Fox News on June 15. He was asked about the Israeli reports that Iran was close making to a nuclear weapon, which contradicted what U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had told the Congress in March. Netanyahu, in his interview, without going into any details, simply asserted that his intelligence was much better than DNI Gabbard’s.
The generally unruffled Netanyahu was, however, nonplussed when Fox asked about Trump’s reported caveat against killing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, refusing to say anything about his private talks with U.S. President Donald Trump and speaking only in generalities about the existence of false reports.
When Fox pressed about whether Israel had been totally coordinated with the U.S. on this operation, he foundered a bit, stating simply that President Trump would do what was good for the United States and he would do what was good for Israel. He would also not indicate when he had told President Trump that Israel was prepared to attack Iran.
Netanyahu again tried to play the part of protecting Trump against Iran, which he called “Trump’s enemy.” He repeated earlier claims that Iran was behind the two attempts on Trump’s life. When Baier pressed for further intelligence on the matter, he said that they did it through proxies! He also claimed that the Iranians were prepared to give nuclear weapons to their Houthi allies, thereby posing a major terrorist threat to the U.S. and others. While he would not say whether he sought regime change in Iran, he claimed that 80% of the Iranian people could rise up against the “theological thugs” allegedly running the country.
When Fox asked about the Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s comments that Iran would stop its attacks if Israel stopped its attacks against Iran, Netanyahu replied, “Hogwash!” He said he would not agree to any cessation, and that the campaign would continue, adding that it would change if the Iranians accepted President Trump’s conditions. He was also pressed on the 55,000 Palestinians whom Israeli operations have been killed in Gaza. He again blamed it on Hamas, who, he alleged, keep civilians in Gaza as human shields. When Fox raised the accusation that the Israelis were trying to chase the Palestinians out of Gaza and take it over, he proclaimed that these were all lies. He then praised President Trump’s earlier proposal for making the Gaza Strip a “Riviera on the Mediterranean,” saying that the inhabitants would have a choice of leaving for better quarters or staying amid the rubble.
