Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a hot mic moment on Wednesday, slamming the European Union’s “crazy” policy towards the Jewish State. Netanyahu is currently in Hungary, meeting with Prime Minister Orban and leaders from Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland.
Thank you to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for the warm welcome in the Hungarian parliament. pic.twitter.com/8Dgz3HFHuK
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) July 18, 2017
The Times of Israel reports:
“I think Europe has to decide if it wants to live and thrive or if it wants to shrivel and disappear,” he said in a closed-door meeting whose content was accidentally broadcast to journalists outside the room. “I am not very politically correct. I know that’s a shock to some of you. It’s a joke. But the truth is the truth — both about Europe’s security and Europe’s economic future. Both of these concerns mandate a different policy towards Israel.”
During the meeting, Netanyahu also urged the leaders of Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland to close their borders to refugees from Africa and the Arab world, and praised the administration of US President Donald Trump for its “stronger” position on Iran and Syria.
“The European Union is the only association of countries in the world that conditions the relations with Israel, that produces technology in every area, on political conditions. The only ones! Nobody does it,” Netanyahu said in the minutes before officials realized the meeting was being overheard by reporters, and cut the feed.
“It’s crazy. It’s actually crazy,” he said, referring to the EU’s insistence on conditioning some agreements with Israel on progress in the peace process. He referred the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which has not been renewed since 2000. He urged the prime ministers who were present — Hungary’s Viktor Orban, the Czech Republic’s Bohuslav Sobotka, Poland’s Beata Szydlo and Slovakia’s Robert Fico — to work toward convincing Brussels to advance talks about renewing the agreement without reference to progress in the peace process.
Haaretz published Netanyahu’s hot mic comments to its YouTube channel.
