Benjamin Netanyahu Says Israel Will Draw Down U.S. Financial Support To Zero Over A Decade

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his first US television interview since the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran on February 28, told CBS News he wants to “draw down to zero the American financial support” and said, “let's start now and do it over the next decade.”

“In a rare interview carrying striking political and media messages, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged a decline in popular support for Israel within the United States, while also revealing his desire to gradually end American military aid, and blaming social media for what he described as the 'great damage' done to Israel's image, amid the Gaza war's repercussions and the growing influence of social media in shaping public opinion”

Al-Jazeera Net

TRT World framed the interview against the Gaza war, saying Netanyahu did not speak of accountability for “the more than 72,000 Palestinians killed in the Israeli genocidal war in Gaza.”

Al-Jazeera Net

The CBS News transcript also shows Netanyahu linking the war’s continuation to nuclear material, with Major Garrett asking about removing enriched uranium and Netanyahu replying, “You go in, and you take it out.”

In the same CBS interview, Netanyahu declined to give a timetable, saying, “I'm not gonna give a timetable to it,” while calling the mission “a terrifically important mission.”

Netanyahu told CBS’s “60 Minutes” that Israel’s deteriorating support in the United States correlates with social media, saying, “correlates almost 100 per cent with the exponential growth of social media.”

Brussels Signal reported Netanyahu described social media as “the “eighth front of war”” and said he believed “several countries” had “manipulated social media” in a “clever” way that had badly “hurt” Israel.

AnewZ

In the CBS interview, Netanyahu also addressed the Lebanon front, telling Major Garrett that what Iran wants is for Hezbollah to remain “to continue to torture Lebanon, continue to hold its people hostage.”

TRT World, however, said Netanyahu mixed diplomacy with political messaging and highlighted what it described as what he did not say about accountability for Gaza and Lebanon civilians under Israeli strikes.

Reporters Without Borders said Netanyahu will be welcomed in Washington despite violence against journalists in Gaza, and it condemned the invitation of a head of state responsible for the killing of more than 100 journalists in Gaza.

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he wants to “reduce to zero” the military aid Israel receives from the United States over the next decade”

Brussels Signal

RSF said, “Since October 7, 2023, Israeli forces have killed more than 100 journalists in Gaza and Lebanon,” and it called on President Biden and members of Congress to pressure Netanyahu to end the massacre of journalists and to open media access to Gaza.

RSF also described a media blockade, saying the Israeli government has maintained a blockade on Gaza that prevents the entry of international journalists into the enclave, as well as vital supplies for Gazan journalists.

In the same RSF statement, the organization warned that the “maintenance of the blockade preventing Israeli, Palestinian and international media from entering the Gaza Strip” and the refusal to ensure journalists’ safety constitute “odious violations of international law.”