The Jerusalem Post

Seven more myths from Netanyahu

- • By GIL HOFFMAN

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has continued his marathon of interviews ahead of Tuesday’s election.

After an examinatio­n – published in Friday’s Jerusalem

Post – found that not everything Netanyahu has said over the past two weeks was entirely accurate, here are seven more incorrect statements he has made in interviews:

1) Rockets on South:

In a Channel 13 interview on Saturday night, Ayala Hasson asked Netanyahu how many rockets have been fired in the last year and a half. After he answered “A few hundred,” Hasson corrected him and said 1,800.

2) Interview with Al Jazeera:

Netanyahu told both Army Radio’s Yani Cozin and Channel 13’s Udi Segal in interviews on Sunday that he has interviewe­d with Al Jazeera. “I interviewe­d there, and there they let me talk,” he said. But sources at Al Jazeera said that not only has Netanyahu not interviewe­d with the network, neither have any of his cabinet ministers since Naftali Bennett did in 2014. Al Jazeera Jerusalem producer Mimi Daher tweeted an interview request to Netanyahu on Sunday night.

3) Opposing Iran deal:

Netanyahu keeps saying that his competitio­n in Blue and

White, Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, supported the internatio­nal community’s JCPOA deal with Iran. Lapid’s efforts against the deal were reported in Friday’s article. Gantz pointed out on Sunday that he also opposed the deal, which was signed after he left the IDF, but he recommende­d ways to make the best of the situation. “Whether good or bad, it’s a done deal” he said then, and that Israel needs to make the best of it via internatio­nal intelligen­ce cooperatio­n.

4) South fence: Netanyahu in interviews on Sunday said that Gantz and Lapid opposed

building the security fence on the Egyptian border that helped end the influx of migrant workers. Both supported the fence. 5) Blaming Blue and White strategist: Netanyahu said in a statement on Friday evening that Blue and White’s American strategist Joel Benenson was behind a false leak about Israel spying against the White House. His accusation has been vigorously denied. 6) Blue and White’s finance minister: Netanyahu told Army Radio that while he took steps that gave Israel one of the world’s strongest economies, Blue and White would appoint former Histadrut Labor Federation chief MK Avi Nissenkorn as finance minister if the party forms the government. This has been denied for months by Nissenkorn, Gantz and Lapid.

7) Mozes meetings: Defending his own role in criminal cases involving the media, Netanyahu told Army Radio that Lapid was never probed for his “dozens of secret meetings” in a secret location with Yediot Aharonot publisher Arnon Mozes. Lapid denied the accusation on Sunday.

The Post reviewed recent interviews with Gantz and did not find inaccuraci­es. The Likud declined to submit examples of incorrect statements by Gantz. •

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