Netanyahu hits out at Macron while critiquing ‘unacceptable style’ of his son Yair’s ‘screw you’ tweet

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to distance himself from his son Yair’s tweet saying “screw you” to French President Emmanuel Macron after the latter said Paris could recognize a Palestinian state in the coming months. The prime minister rejects his son’s choice of language, but broadly endorses Yair’s critique.

“I love my son Yair, a true Zionist worried for the future of the country. Like every citizen, he is also entitled to his personal opinion, though the style of his response to President Macron’s tweets calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state is unacceptable to me,” Netanyahu writes in Hebrew on X.

The premier says Macron is making “a terrible mistake” by “continuing to advance the idea of a Palestinian state in the heart of our land whose ambition is the destruction of the State of Israel,” noting neither Hamas nor the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority have condemned the October 7, 2023, terror atrocities.

“We will not risk our existence because of illusions detached from reality and we will not accept moral preaching about establishing a Palestinian state that will endanger Israel’s existence from those who are opposed to giving independence to Corsica, New Caledonia, French Guyana and additional territories,” Netanyahu adds in an echo of his son’s remarks.