During MSNBC’s coverage of the explosions in Iran, host Ali Velshi stated that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has “used” Iran “to not deal with a lot of domestic issues, in terms of saying, Iran is the existential threat to Israel.” Although he acknowledged that “Iran helps” Netanyahu’s case “by saying, on a regular basis, that it would like to be the existential threat to Israel.”
Velshi said, “[L]et’s talk about this concept of containing versus not containing with respect to Israel and Iran, you and I have talked about this for years, Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran is the thing that he has used to not deal with a lot of domestic issues, in terms of saying, Iran is the existential threat to Israel. Iran helps, by saying, on a regular basis, that it would like to be the existential threat to Israel. The one thing domestically in Israel that this last week has done, is it puts Netanyahu in a stronger position for himself, maybe not for Israel, but for himself, because this is Netanyahu getting to say, this is the only thing I’ve ever warned everybody about, that Iran will come for us.”
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