(July 30, 2026 \/ JNS)\n <\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touched on a wide range of topics in Wednesday\u2019s sit-down interview in Washington, D.C., with \u201cABC News Live Prime\u201d anchor Linsey Davis, including the Iran war and Jerusalem\u2019s relations with Washington, and how the American people view the Jewish state.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu denied that Jerusalem is running an influence campaign to sway U.S. public opinion against a diplomatic resolution with Iran.<\/p>\n
He addressed comments Vice President JD Vance made on \u201cThe Joe Rogan Experience,\u201d in an episode filmed on July 14 and released the following day, in which Vance accused elements within the Israeli government of \u201cmanipulating\u201d American public opinion and funding a paid effort to derail U.S.-Iran peace negotiations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, we\u2019re not actually. I had a very good conversation with the vice president this morning, and I think we straightened that out, because we\u2019re not. That\u2019s not our policy,\u201d Netanyahu said, adding that while individuals within his government may hold personal opinions, he alone sets government policy.<\/p>\n
As for the prospect for successful negotiations, Netanyahu said he is \u201cskeptical about Iran\u2019s modus operandi, I mean, the method of operating. They always lie, they always cheat, and they always play for time. Could that, within sufficient pressure\u2014diplomatic, economic pressure\u2014could that change? Give it a try.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hormuz Strait to lose strategic value<\/p>\n
Netanyahu said he expects Iran\u2019s choke hold on the Strait of Hormuz to lose its strategic weight after the war ends, predicting that oil pipelines will be rerouted around the vital waterway.<\/p>\n
The prime minister said he had anticipated Iran might attempt to block the strait, a route for roughly one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil supply, but said the consequences were impossible to forecast precisely.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought they could do it, but I thought they\u2019d also have to consider what would be the consequences if they do it, and nobody could predict that with accuracy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu said that once the conflict concludes, the strait will lose much of its leverage as energy infrastructure shifts elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think the straits are going to be that powerful a leverage, because people will move the energy pipelines out of the straits to the Red Sea, from there to Israel and the Mediterranean,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can unblock this choke point, and we will.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manipulation on social media harming Israel\u2019s image with Americans<\/p>\n
The premier said that the declining support for the Jewish state among Americans, as recent polls show, could be down to the \u201cproliferation of social media\u201d and actions of sovereign nations behinds the scenes.<\/p>\n
The information permeating on social media and countries\u2019 manipulation \u201cwith bot farms and other things\u201d are related to the change in levels of support for Israel, Netanyahu said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes it concern me? Yes, yes, it does. And I want bipartisan support for Israel, because I think that\u2019s a fundamental of our national security,\u201d the prime minister added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(July 30, 2026 \/ JNS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touched on a wide range of topics in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-566970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}