Netanyahu Calls Britain an “Islamic Country with Nuclear Weapons”

Israel–UK relations have deteriorated sharply since Andy Burnham became Britain’s new prime minister.

In a podcast interview with Israel’s Army Radio (Galei Tzahal), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a broadside against Britain’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, and Britain more generally.

“Islamic Republic of Britain”

“Go to Britain today and you will see that it is the Islamic Republic of Britain,” Netanyahu said.

The interviewer played along: “Isn’t all of Europe like that now?”

Netanyahu doubled down: “Yes, but you know, someone once said that the first Islamic republic with nuclear weapons will be the Islamic Republic of Britain.”

The remark is, of course, a rather poor argument.

The Muslim world already has a nuclear-armed state: Pakistan, which developed nuclear weapons in the 1980s and conducted its first publicly acknowledged nuclear tests in 1998.

Whatever one makes of Netanyahu’s rhetoric, relations between Israel and Britain—already strained—have deteriorated further since Burnham took office. His government has adopted a markedly more critical position toward Israel. Shortly before becoming prime minister, Burnham apologized for Labour’s initial response to Israel’s military operations in Gaza, saying the party had “got it wrong” and needed to “do better” under his leadership.

In July, he said he would “do more to put pressure on the Israeli government,” including imposing additional sanctions on individuals and organizations and potentially banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements.

The Israeli left, however, has hardly rallied to Netanyahu’s defense.

Avi Dabush, who is running for the Knesset with the opposition Democrats party, criticized Netanyahu for mocking an “important ally” at a time when “Israel is facing unprecedented global isolation.” Dabush also argued that Netanyahu had suffered a devastating diplomatic defeat.

“This is what happens when… we cannot rally the countries of the world around our interests,” he wrote on social media.

I suspect Israel’s predicament is considerably worse than Avi Dabush suggests.

Netanyahu’s policies have made the very notion of “Israel’s interests” politically toxic—not only abroad, but even in the United States.