As the mainstream consensus solidifies that the war on Iran has been a colossal failure, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was invited onto 60 Minutes this past Sunday to insist that it is going swimmingly.
Netanyahu briskly ran through all the familiar tunes. Iran wants to “kill Americans” and “destroy America.” The country’s government is still looking to produce nuclear material and must be stopped, but somehow it’s also at its “weakest point” ever and on the verge of collapsing.
At one point Hitler is inevitably cited, but pointed out that, unlike Iran’s leadership, not even the Führer said “death to America, death to Britain.”
Israeli officials have historically encountered an inviting environment at 60 Minutes, but the space has become even safer ever since self-described “Zionist fanatic” Bari Weiss took control of CBS News. Just weeks ago, Weiss reportedly ousted London bureau chief Claire Day for being insufficiently pro-Israel.
Netanyahu had his work cut out for him, as a majority of Americans oppose the war. However, the Israeli leader was able to rattle off a barrage of false statements without anything in the way of pushback from Washington correspondent Major Garrett, who conducted the inyerview.
Netanyahu began with disproven claims about October 7th, claiming that Hamas had, “Beheaded– our men, raped our women and then killed them, burnt our babies,” which prompted no response from Garrett.
There was also nothing from Garrett when he went onto make the farcical claim that Israel “is the most discriminating military on the planet in history,” or when he flat out lied by asserting the Lebanon beeper attacks of 2024 resulted in “no collateral damage.”
Garrett didn’t question Netanyahu’s incredible claim that many Iranians refer to him as “Beloved Bibi” and try to name streets after him.
The Prime Minister was allowed to go on a lengthy diatribe about how social media bot farms are allegedly turning people against Israel. He was asked if it was possible people were coming to such conclusions organically, but the inquiry was brushed off and Garrett didn’t push him on the issue.
There’s dozens and dozens of polls showing that Israel’s reputation has plummeted among the U.S. population and any one of them could have been brought up in the form of a follow-up inquiry. For instance, Garrett could have pointed out that a recent Pew survey found that 60% of Americans have a negative view of the country. Can a shift that drastic really be chalked up to bot farms?
What’s interesting is that that statistic was mentioned in voiceover from Garrett amid the interview, but not to the Prime Minister.
Netanyahu also claimed that social media users are being presented with “many falsifications and vilifications” about Israel that are “unfounded.” Garrett asked for no examples to back up this allegation.
Another great time to bring up U.S. popular opinion would have been when Netanyahu began talking about Israel eventually weaning itself off U.S. military aid. “I want to draw down to zero the American financial support, the financial component of the military cooperation that we have,” he told Garrett.
The Prime Minister has touted this talking point for awhile, claiming that Israel wants to maintain a certain level of financial independence. The position has been embraced by Republicans like Senator Lindsey Graham and Democrats like former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. It’s also been adopted by the liberal Zionist group J Street.
Under this vision, Israel would continue to receive the weapons that it uses to kill Palestinians, they’d just have to pay for them, as opposed to getting them for free from the United States.
“This is out-of-the-box thinking,” an Israeli official told Axios last fall. “We want to change the way we handled past agreements and put more emphasis on U.S.-Israel cooperation. The Americans like this idea.”
The move is a clear PR strategy meant to resemble some sort of substantial shift. In other words, it’s a direct response to the fact that Israel historically unpopular. Again, a great time for Garrett to press Netanyahu on this issue.
Garrett never uttered the word “genocide.” He didn’t ask Netanyahu about the International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest. He didn’t ask about the recent letter from two dozen House Democrats that calls on the White House to acknowledge Israel’s not-so-secret stockpile of nuclear weapons. He didn’t ask about rising settler violence in the illegally-occupied West Bank. He wasn’t asked about the many Iranians who have been killed in the bombing.
The 60 Minutes did get rave reviews from former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren.
“Just watched Netanyahu’s interview on 60 Minutes and noted how CBS uncharacteristically stated that Hamas’s casualty figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians and, for the first time, referred to ‘Hezbollah terrorists’ and not Hezbollah militants,” tweeted the pro-Israel diplomat. “Thank you, Bari Weiss.”
