Liberman defends ‘Goebbels’ comment but apologizes for any offense caused

Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman defends comments he made earlier today comparing former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, but apologizes if any offense was caused.

“Netanyahu has indeed forgotten that the people closest to him chose to call the Israel Police ‘the Gestapo’ but he still remembers very well how to use propaganda methods to harm me,” Liberman writes on Twitter, a reference to comments reportedly made by Yair Netanyahu several years ago.

But he adds that, despite that, “I did not intend to harm anyone and certainly not on an issue so close to my heart: the Holocaust and World War  II, in which some of my family were victims.”

Liberman says that “nobody will preach morality at me, and my actions speak for themselves,” noting efforts to boost welfare payments for Holocaust survivors in Israel.