Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett valiantly tried to remain patient with CNN International’s Christiane Amanpour during a Wednesday interview also broadcast in the U.S. on PBS, but ultimately Amanpour’s desire to equate Palestinian terrorism with the Israeli response to it led Bennett to label her talking points as “a lie.”
Bennett didn’t initially call Amanpour a liar, instead informing her that “the way the facts were presented is not accurate” when she omitted that ISIS terrorists started the recent cycle of violence by murdering Israelis.
When Amanpour didn’t learn from this and accused Israel of storming the mosque on the Temple Mount, Bennett did his best Ronald Reagan impression:
Yes, well, Christiane, there you go again starting the story in the middle. But the actual fact is that, last Friday, at about 5 AM in the morning, roughly 300 Palestinian rioters entered Temple Mount Mosque with explosives, with stones. They began desecrating their own mosque, burning, throwing stones, and preventing about 80,000 decent Muslims from going to pray.
Amanpour wasn’t pleased at being called out:
Mr. Prime Minister, you say there I go again. Clearly, there's violence. We all watch it. We can see -- we can see what happens. But let me now quote your own -- your own Israeli security people. Again, the context, the West Bank has been occupied since 1967. Settlers are allowed to be there. It is a minority. I know that. But they're there. And they are violent, this minority… [Major General Yehuda Fuchs] said in an interview with the New York Times that he was concerned about what he called settler terrorism and was exerting a lot of effort to avoid it. He said his job is to make sure both Israelis and Palestinians are safe. So, if he says that, what is your response to that?
Bennett finally had enough, “No, what you have been projecting is blatantly false.” As the two then started talking over each other, Bennett continued, “The overwhelming majority -- I will tell you why I say it, because it's a lie, simply a lie.”
Amanpour retorted “you cannot tell me I’m lying,” arguing that Bennett simply repeated what she said about a tiny minority of Israeli extremists, to which Bennett shot back “I can” and “you are misrepresenting the facts.”
The number of extremists aside, Bennett again confronted Amanpour on her bias, “And I object the symmetry that you're trying to create here, because, out of a half-a-million of good Israelis, decent…”
Amanpour interrupted again, “There's no symmetry. I'm talking about your own generals,” after Bennett asked if he could be allowed to finish his sentence, he concluded this portion of the interview by again pointing out:
But who's getting murdered? We're seeing Palestinians murder Israelis. We're not seeing Israelis murdering Palestinians. And that's why there's no symmetry here. And I also object. These are not occupied territories. They're territories in dispute. And we have claimed to -- our own place, as well as them. I get it. No one's going anywhere. We have to figure out how to live together. That's my job, to provide security for Israelis, dignity for Palestinians.
Amanpour’s anti-Israel bias is nothing new, but this time there was someone there to correct her in real time.
This segment was sponsored by viewers like you.
Here is a transcript for the April 20 show:
Amanpour and Company
4/20/2022
11:05 PM ET
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: You know, he might say the same about you and the government, hoping that you will step up to the plate as well. There are something like 14 people on each side now, from the Israeli side and from the Palestinian side, who have been killed in these latest clashes. And you say your defense and security policies are devoid of politics. However, this is a picture that the world has gotten used to now. It's constant cycle of killing, bloodshed, all sides really, really in desperate, dire straits, collective punishment, and just numbers, huge numbers of dead regularly in Israel in 2022. So that's the fact.
And there's no -- there doesn't seem to be any attempt to negotiate an end to the actual conflict. I just wonder whether you're spending any energy and political capital, with this diverse coalition, to actually try to end this conflict?
NAFTALI BENNETT: Well, first of all, the way the facts were presented is not accurate. Israel is peaceful. And about a month ago, unfortunately, a new wave of terror was thrown upon the Israeli public. We lost 14 people in four different terror attacks in Be'er Sheva, Hadera, Bnei Brak, in Tel Aviv's center, where Arab Muslim terrorists, some of them affiliated with ISIS, just came with rifles and started shooting people on the street. This is unacceptable. So I object to the notion of, you know, both sides. No. When they don't attack us, we have no issues with them. But when they do attack us, I have to fight back and hit them at their terror bases. And that's what any leader would do. And that's what I'm doing.
Now, regarding the broader picture, look, you know, I'm not going to take experiments on the security of the Israelis. Last time in Gaza, we did it about 15 or 16 years ago. We handed Gaza over to the Palestinians. We pulled back to the '67 lines. We pulled out and expelled the Jews living in Gaza.
And what we got in return is hell, tens of thousands of rockets shot at us. I'm not in the business of playing experiments on the Israeli people. What I will do and I am doing is people-to-people peace, bottom up, getting more jobs for Palestinians, better paid jobs, improving the economy. That's what I believe in and I have to say that the Palestinians are experiencing unprecedented prosperity.
AMANPOUR: The jobs issue that you have just said is jeopardized, because there has been a blockade against some towns leading into Israel. So, Palestinians say that that doesn't help them with the jobs.
But what I want to ask you is, when you say people to people, let's just take what's happening on the Temple Mount, Haram al-Sharif. When the world sees and when Palestinians see and when your region sees Israeli soldiers inside that mosque, it creates a lot of tension, a lot of unease. Why do you allow Israeli soldiers to go into that mosque?BENNETT: Yes, well, Christiane, there you go again starting the story in the middle. But the actual fact is that, last Friday, at about 5 AM in the morning, roughly 300 Palestinian rioters entered Temple Mount Mosque with explosives, with stones. They began desecrating their own mosque, burning, throwing stones, and preventing about 80,000 decent Muslims from going to pray.
My responsibility as prime minister of Israel is to provide freedom of prayer to everyone in Jerusalem, including Muslims, which is why I had to send in policemen to remove the rioters. And it worked. Indeed, 80,000 Muslims went on later to pray peacefully. So, when faced with violence, you have to act tough.
AMANPOUR: Mr. Prime Minister, you say there I go again. Clearly, there's violence. We all watch it. We can see -- we can see what happens. But let me now quote your own -- your own Israeli security people. Again, the context, the West Bank has been occupied since 1967. Settlers are allowed to be there. It is a minority. I know that. But they're there. And they are violent, this minority. And it is generally deemed illegal by the rest of the world, the settlers in occupied territory. But that's a background to what I'm going to quote you. Major General Yehuda Fuchs, who is the commander of your Israeli troops in the West Bank -- is he not, Major General Yehuda Fuchs? He said in an interview with the New York Times that he was concerned about what he called settler terrorism and was exerting a lot of effort to avoid it. He said his job is to make sure both Israelis and Palestinians are safe. So, if he says that, what is your response to that?
BENNETT: No, what you have been projecting is blatantly false.
AMANPOUR: Why do you say that?
BENNETT: The overwhelming majority -- I will tell you why I say it, because it's a lie, simply a lie.
AMANPOUR: No, sir, you can't...
BENNETT: The overwhelming majority of the half-million Israelis...
AMANPOUR: You cannot say that to me. You cannot tell me I'm lying.
BENNETT: Let me finish. Christiane, I can.
AMANPOUR: Mr. Prime Minister, I said a minority of extremists.
BENNETT: Well, you are misrepresenting the facts.
AMANPOUR: That's what I said. That's what I said.
BENNETT: Well, it's a tiny minority.
AMANPOUR: That's what I said.
BENNETT: A tiny minority. And I object the symmetry that you're trying to create here, because, out of a half-a-million of good Israelis, decent...
AMANPOUR: There's no symmetry. I'm talking about your own generals.
BENNETT: Could I finish the sentence, Christiane?
AMANPOUR: Yes.
BENNETT: Out of half-a-million Israelis that are decent and law-abiding Israelis living in Judea and Samaria, there's several hundred, perhaps even less, who apply violence from time to time. But who's getting murdered? We're seeing Palestinians murder Israelis. We're not seeing Israelis murdering Palestinians. And that's why there's no symmetry here.
And I also object. These are not occupied territories. They're territories in dispute. And we have claimed to -- our own place, as well as them. I get it. No one's going anywhere. We have to figure out how to live together. That's my job, to provide security for Israelis, dignity for Palestinians. I'm working on that very hard. And we're succeeding. The problem is that the Palestinian leadership is totally corrupt, incompetent. So we have to do the job because there's no one to work with on the other side. And we have to take care. And, indeed, we're adding jobs, better jobs. But at the end of the day, my utmost responsibility is to provide security to the Israeli people.
