Read our full cover story on Benjamin Netanyahu here. You can also read a full transcript of the interview here.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat down for a wide-ranging interview with TIME on Aug. 4 at his Jerusalem office. During the discussion with TIME Correspondent Eric Cortellessa, Netanyahu made a number of claims that lacked context, were not supported by facts, or were not true.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Following is a review of Netanyahu’s false statements during the interview. TIME has also published a full transcript of the conversation.
What Netanyahu Said: Regarding Israel’s tacit and direct support for Hamas before Oct. 7, “It’s not only my government. It’s the previous government, the government before me, and the government after me. It wasn’t bankrolling Hamas.”
The Facts: The Qataris began funding Hamas shortly after the Islamist terror group took over the Gaza Strip in 2007. Ehud Olmert was Prime Minister then, but Israel was not directly involved in those initial cash infusions. It wasn’t until 2014, under the approval of Netanyahu, that the Israeli government became directly involved in the financial transfers of $30 million a month. From 2012 to 2018, Qatar funneled roughly $1.1 billion into the Strip, directing the funds to cover humanitarian aid, fuel, and government salaries, according to an analysis provided to Israeli ministers. It’s unknown just how much was diverted by Hamas to build its vast network of underground tunnels and military installations.
Netanyahu’s government was so invested in the policy that when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sanctioned Hamas in 2018 and cut off salaries for government workers in Gaza, the Israeli government delivered the money into Gaza through cash-filled suitcases. At the time, Netanyahu’s Education Minister Naftali Bennett opposed the payments, calling it “protection money” that would buy only temporary quiet. Bennett would succeed Netanyahu in 2021, the first Prime Minister in a unity government that lasted nearly 18 months. While Bennett continued to allow Qatari money to fund Hamas, one of his first moves as the Israeli premier was to cancel the cash-filled suitcases sent into Gaza.
What Netanyahu Said: Regarding the impact of that support, “I don’t think it made that big a difference, because the main issue was the transfer of weapons and ammunition from the Sinai into Gaza. That’s what made them—it wasn’t so much a question of money. It was a question of availability.”
The Facts: With the more than one billion dollars Qatar funneled into Hamas’ coffers with Israeli cooperation, the group was able to buy and smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip. “Money is fungible,” Chip Usher, a retired senior analyst for the CIA, told the New York Times. “Anything that Hamas didn’t have to use out of its own budget freed up money for other things.”
What Netanyahu Said: Regarding his reported admission of support for Hamas, “That’s a false statement. I never said that.”
The Facts: Multiple Israeli news outlets reported Netanyahu’s quote from a 2019 Likud Party conference. He also reportedly told the journalist Dan Margalit in 2012 that he wanted to keep Hamas as a counterweight to the Fatah-controlled PA. Others in Netanyahu’s government have explicitly said that the strategy of funding Hamas was to prevent the emergence of a Palestinian State. In a 2015 interview, Netanyahu’s current Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said “the Palestinian Authority is a burden, and Hamas is an asset.”
What Netanyahu Said: “Oct. 7th showed that those who said that Hamas was deterred were wrong. If anything, I didn’t challenge enough the assumption that was common to all the security agencies.”
The Facts: Israeli security agencies did not uniformly say before Oct. 7 that Hamas was deterred. In fact, as Netanyahu was asked about in the interview, his own security chiefs warned him that Hezbollah and Hamas saw the societal division over his plan to diminish the power of the Supreme Court as weakening Israel’s deterrence. If Netanyahu challenged his security agencies, it was in the opposite direction: he refused to heed the warnings that Hamas saw an opening to strike Israel.
At the same time, Netanyahu himself said publicly on numerous occasions that Hamas was deterred from attacking Israel. Just months before Oct. 7, Netanyahu appeared on Israel’s Channel 14, a friendly right-wing network, to say that he fended off future attacks from the Gaza Strip after an 11-day round of fighting in 2021. In his 2022 memoir, Bibi, Netanyahu wrote that Hamas was sufficiently constrained and that he didn’t want to wage all-out war in Gaza when he was more concerned about Iran. “Did I really want to tie down the IDF in Gaza for years when we had to deal with Iran and a possible Syrian front?” he wrote. “The answer was categorically no. I had bigger fish to fry.”
What Netanyahu Said: Regarding the lack of prosecution of Israelis impeding aid to Gaza, “They have. I don’t know. I don’t know that they’re not prosecuted.”
The Facts: While Israelis caught trying to divert humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip have been detained for questioning, there have been no known indictments, according to the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation’s legal affairs reporter Avishai Grinzaig.
What Netanyahu Said: Regarding his trial on corruption charges, “That trial is unraveling now. You don’t hear about it very much, but it’s really unraveling.”
The Facts: Netanyahu’s trial on corruption charges has been moving forward. Over the summer, Netanyahu sought to delay giving testimony for his corruption trial to March 2025. Israel’s State Attorney’s Office opposed the request, and the Jerusalem District Court ruled against Netanyahu, ordering him to begin his testimony in December 2024.
What Netanyahu Said: Regarding illegal West Bank settlement activity, “I’ve not sought annexation.”
The Facts: This is not true. In January 2020, after President Donald Trump unveiled his Israeli-Palestinian peace plan at the White House, Netanyahu promised to annex the Jordan Valley and the settlements in the West Bank. The Prime Minister pushed a plan to extend Israeli sovereignty over that territory, roughly 30% of the West Bank, triggering a backlash in Israel, the United States, and throughout the Middle East.
Netanyahu caught Trump off guard. According to Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, the former President turned to his aides once he exited the stage and said, “What the hell was that?” Netanyahu was ultimately forced to withdraw his annexation proposal under pressure from the Trump Administration.
When Netanyahu returned to power in Dec. 2022, he appointed far-right ministers to key positions overseeing the West Bank: Bezalel Smotrich as Finance Minister and Itamar Ben-Gvir as National Security Minister. Both have undertaken a systematic effort to expand Israel’s footprint in the occupied territories, with Smotrich approving unauthorized outposts and streamlining settlement activities. As part of the coalition agreement, Netanyahu transferred substantial governing powers in the West Bank, except over security control, from the army to an apparatus headed by Smotrich. Israeli lawyers and human rights activists say the move amounts to de jure annexation. Netanyahu’s own coalition partners have said as much. In June, Smotrich told settlers of his plan to effectively annex the West Bank and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. “I’m telling you, it’s mega-dramatic,” Smotrich said. “Such changes change a system’s DNA.”
What Netanyahu Said: Regarding his control of the coalition government in Israel, “I run the show, I make the decisions. I formulate the policy.”
The Facts: Given Netanyahu’s fragile coalition, holding 64 seats in a 120-member parliament, he’s beholden to far-right cabinet members who have the power to topple his government and trigger snap elections. The White House has cited Smotrich as an obstacle to a ceasefire deal, saying his obstinacy was “jeopardizing” the hostages. Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have both threatened to quit and collapse the governing coalition if Netanyahu agrees to the proposed ceasefire deal by President Joe Biden. Together, they hold 13 seats in Netanyahu’s four-seat majority.
