Newsweek covers the social media response of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif following comments made by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to Israel Aerospace Industries.
First, Netanyahu stands next to nuclear BOMB factory and threatens Iran with annihilation. Now, he openly boasts about his “OFFENSIVE" missiles that can reach anywhere. And he still whines about Iran's Deterrent and DEFENSIVE missiles, and the West parrots his “concerns".
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) December 18, 2018
Zarif is clearly confused. Firstly, the Israel Aerospace Industries facility isn’t a “nuclear bomb factory.” And what did Netanyahu actually say?
PM: "They are developing offensive missiles here that can reach anywhere in the area and any target. This is the offensive power of Israel which is very important for us in all sectors. They are developing weapons systems here with special capabilities that no other country has." pic.twitter.com/4GOxFkwThm
— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) December 17, 2018
Contrary to Zarif’s assertion, Netanyahu didn’t actually mention Iran and certainly never spoke about threatening the country with “annihilation.”
That didn’t stop Newsweek, however, from giving Zarif a free ride.
Iranian threats against Israel
There’s only one side that has made existential threats against the other. For example:
- In April 2018, the head of the Iranian army said Iranian forces were working to “annihilate” Israel and predicted they would achieve success within 25 years. “The Army will move hand in hand with the IRGC so that the arrogant system will collapse and the Zionist regime will be annihilated,” General Moussavi said, refering to the Revolutionary Guards.
- In June 2018, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said: “Our stance against Israel is the same stance we have always taken,” tweeting “#Israel is a malignant cancerous tumor in the West Asian region that has to be removed and eradicated: it is possible and it will happen.”
Granted, in August 2018, Netanyahu said during a visit to the Dimona nuclear reactor:
“Those who threaten to wipe us out, put themselves in a similar danger, and in any event will not achieve their goal,” adding, “our enemies know very well what Israel is capable of, they know our policy, and anyone who tries to harm us—we will harm them.”
Unlike the Iranian regime, Israel has no desire to destroy an entire country and its people. To claim that “Iran and Israel have both continued to exchange existential threats” draws a false and immoral equivalence between the genocidal intentions of Iran and the comments made by Israel to deter Iranian aggression.
Newsweek needs to find a moral compass.
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