Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Monday, April 10, 2023

Netanyahu: European leaders tell me one thing in private, speak differently in public

10 April 2023, 9:33 pm 3 Edit

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and France's President Emmanuel Macron (R) prior to their meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris on February 2, 2023. (Ludovic Marin/AFP)

Netanyahu also denies that he is weakening Israel’s position on the international stage because of his judicial overhaul push.

He claims that European leaders with whom he has recently met say positive things to him in private, but then speak differently when they are not behind closed doors.

“When I meet the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, and Italy — which I did lately — what they tell me behind closed doors, as opposed to meetings when other people are there, reflects a completely different interaction,” says the prime minister.

Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, left, welcomes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at 10 Downing Street in London, March 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

“Afterwards, you know, proforma,” he says, those leaders have to stress their “I believe” in a solution of two states for two peoples. Everyone has to say that, and to say something about the judicial “reform.”