In a press conference held Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit a common theme through his English remarks: addressing what he considered to be “fake news.”
• He opened by addressing a persistent online rumor that he was dead. “First of all, I just want to say, I’m alive and you’re all witnesses,” Netanyahu said to the assembled media.
• The prime minister also provided an update on the ongoing conflict in Iran, saying that the nation is no longer able to enrich uranium or manufacture ballistic missiles.
“Despite the fake news that is, unfortunately, being spread, since the start of the war 20 days ago, we are winning and Iran is being decimated,” Netanyahu said. “Iran’s missile and drone arsenal is being massively degraded and will be destroyed. Hundreds of their launchers have been destroyed, their stockpiles of missiles are being hit hard and so are the industries that produce them.”
He continued, “What we’re destroying now are the factories that produce the components to make these missiles and to make the nuclear weapons that they’re trying to produce.”
• Before taking questions, Netanyahu also weighed in on speculation that Israel “dragged the US into a conflict with Iran.” He deemed this claim, unsurprisingly, “fake news.”
• “Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do? Come on. President Trump always makes his decisions on what he thinks is good for America and, may I add, what is also good for future generations,” he said.
