Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke today (Monday) at the beginning of the Likud faction meeting and sharply criticized the media channels that engage in “a ceaseless tsunami of fake news” in order to thwart the reform of the justice system.
Netanyahu accused: “We are all witnessing an unprecedented attack by media channels mobilized against the government.” are completely mobilized in favor of the opponents of the reform. Live broadcasts, one-sided interpretations, biased polls, fake news 24 hours a day that doesn’t stop for a moment.
“I remind you with what silk gloves they caressed the previous government. How they went out of their way to disrupt every step and lack of step by Bennett and Lapid.
”But in the left media everything is the opposite. In the leftist media, refuseniks become heroes, road blockers who make the lives of thousands of Israelis miserable and block ambulances, become freedom fighters. In the left media, a reform that strengthens democracy becomes the ‘end of democracy’. Sorry, did I say ‘reform’? On the television channels it is a ‘legal coup’, a ‘regime coup’.
”You want to know what a coup is? In any reformed and viable democracy, the elected government is the one responsible for the army, the police, law and order. It is anchored in law and common sense. Someone other than the elected government will be in charge of the fight against Iran, the fight against terrorism, maintaining law and order? Who will do this, unelected officials? Will they be responsible for security or the fight against Iran? Will they be responsible for the fate of the people and the elected government? This is what they call democracy. This is the opposite of democracy. This is what the media channels, in a ceaseless tsunami of fake news, are trying to instill in the public.”
Netanyahu dismissed the report in News 12 about the freezing of security deals between the United Arab Emirates and Israel. ”I will give you one example. Propaganda Channel 12 opened the news yesterday with ‘a rift between the United Arab Emirates and Israel’. At the same time, our Ministry of Foreign Affairs is talking with senior officials in the Emirates about promoting an economic agreement that will pave the way for a free trade agreement. Israel’s ambassador to the Emirates calls senior officials in the Emirates government and they say ‘there was no such thing’. This is one example.
“In the face of lies, you can only do one thing – tell the truth and fight for the truth. This is what the public expects from us and this is what I ask you to do in the face of the tremendous surge of lies and fake news.
Netanyahu mentioned an article published today in the Wall Street Journal, “the most important newspaper in the world, which writes that ‘the reform will not make Israel less democratic.’
“In all the media channels outside of Israel, what captured the headlines in the last two days was the collapse of the SVB bank. It was at the top of the news and it was required. Here it is silenced, ignored as much as possible, for a simple reason: when the money was taken out it was at the top of the news, when the money is returned to Israel they must not hear about it, God forbid.”
The head of the administration accused: “There is a tsunami of Hindu consciousness here that we have never known, and this is something that is very dangerous for a democratic regime. But there is not only fake news here, but also a thought police that condemns people in the opposition for comforting Minister Yariv Levin on the death of his father, a thought police that condemns people in the opposition who stand by me when I come to shake the hand of MK Boaz Toporovsky after he was in a car accident. A thought police that justifies the opposition’s joining the shocking siege against my wife.
“We see mobilized propaganda channels that try to prevent the opposition from sitting down and talking with us in order to reach agreements. Nevertheless, I am expressing hope here. I hope that there will still be men and women in the opposition who will stand up and be ready to speak. I hope they will respond to our call because this will only help Israeli democracy and will also help establish the agreed reform we wish to pass here, and I hope they will find the courage and honesty to overcome the propaganda channels and come and do the right thing.
“The right thing to do is to talk, to try to reach agreements. It’s not too late and I’m not giving up yet,” Netanyahu stressed.