Netanyahu shames media, praises IDF, boos 'Our Boys' via Facebook live
The prime minister's speech took place on Friday afternoon.
By OMRI RONPRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech where he expressed harsh sentiments against the media on Friday.Speaking via Facebook live, the prime minister claimed that many news outlets are outright hostile toward him and sometimes the country itself. He mentioned how the Hebrew daily Ha'aretz newspaper attacked Sagi Muki for being proud of Israel. He also called various news outlets "Gantz TV" and accused them of practicing "Soviet propaganda" in an attempt to remove him from his position as prime minister.He accused media of reporting only fragments of information from the investigations against him.This is not the first time that Netanyahu has been at odds with the media or made such sweeping claims against the way the press in Israel reports. In the course of the Facebook live stream, Netanyahu also spoke about the efforts of Israel's security to hold back enemy forces.He mentioned a recent conversation with US Secretary of Defense Mike Pompeo, during which Pompeo told him about the importance of partnership between IDF forces and the United States.Finally, the prime minister spoke about "Our Boys," the new TV series that looks at the murder of three Israeli teens in 2014, which sparked Operation Protective Edge.The show has lately come under controversy for its focus on the Arab side of the story. Netanyahu, too, called the show "an unfaithful and unpatriotic representation of the events."Netanyahu's criticism of the show was mostly centered on the way the show focused very little on the the murder of the three boys, saying that: "They took but a few minutes to show what happened to the three, and then the plot moves away from their heinous murder, and instead focuses on the horrible, but unique case of the murder of a single Arab child."His recommendation on how to deal with this representation of the events is to boycott the show and the network running it: Keshet, Channel 12.
Netanyahu said that he believed this was real democracy: to be able to choose what you want to watch and what you do not. The show also came under heavy scrutiny from the Choosing Life Forum, which consists of families who have lost children to the conflict, in which they claimed: "The show represents to people abroad a false image of a give and take: They murder us, and we murder them. The reality is completely the opposite. Israel has worked hard to capture and prosecute the people responsible for the child's murder, while the Palestinian Authority praises the murderers of the three boys, educating their kids to walk in their path."
