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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Netanyahu admits Israel faces prolonged ‘isolation’ over war in
Gaza
By Tal Shalev, CNN
Updated:
9:02 PM EDT, Mon September 15, 2025
Source: CNN
With global anger mounting over the nearly two-year war in Gaza,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Monday that Israel is
facing a “kind of isolation” that could last for years, and has no
choice but to stand on its own.
Speaking at a finance ministry conference, Netanyahu said Israel’s
economy would need to adapt to “autarkic characteristics” –
becoming more self-sufficient and less reliant on external trade.
“It’s a word I hate,” Netanyahu said, adding that it was he who
had brought a “free-market revolution to Israel.”
One of the key industries facing isolation is weapons trade, he said,
which may force Israel to avoid reliance on foreign arms imports.
“We’ll need to develop our weapons industry - we’re going to be
Athens and super Sparta combined. We have no choice, at least for the
coming years when we’ll be required to deal with these isolation
attempts,” he said.
Netanyahu’s statements mark a rare acknowledgement of the massive
international backlash Israel faces as it escalates its war in Gaza. He
has refused to change course, despite warnings from the United Nations
and others that a looming assault on Gaza City will lead to more death
and destruction, and amid mounting accusations that Israel is
committing genocide in the enclave, which Israel strongly denies.
Israel now faces partial or complete arms embargoes from France, the
Netherlands, the UK, Spain, Italy and others due to its conduct in the
Gaza war. The majority of its weapons imports however, come from the
United States, which hasn’t placed any such restrictions – and has
warned others from doing so. A Biden-era delay on a shipment of
2,000-pound bombs was quickly lifted by the Trump administration.
The Israeli public, hostage families, and even the military have
opposed expanding the war over concerns it could endanger the hostages
and worsen the humanitarian toll. But the prime minister has insisted
on pressing ahead.
For years, Israel has been considered an economic powerhouse regionally
and globally, driven in large part by its vaunted high-tech industry.
But the war has had an economic impact and is already the in the
country’s history.
Netanyahu partly attributed the isolation to “an extreme Islamist
agenda” which he claimed had a “very negative influence” on
European foreign policy. He also said rival states – “among them
Qatar” – have shaped global discourse on social media, which
“puts us into a kind of isolation.”
“This situation threatens us with the beginnings of economic
sanctions and problems importing weapons and weapon parts,” Netanyahu
said.
‘There will be no second chance’
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid slammed Netanyahu in response,
dubbing his statement that Israel is entering isolation as “crazy.”
“Isolation is not fate; it is the result of Netanyahu’s flawed and
failed policy,” Lapid wrote on X.
Gadi Eisenkot, the former Israeli military chief planning a political
run, also blasted the prime minister, saying, “There will be no
second chance to repair the damage caused by him and his partners who
abandoned the hostages and isolated Israel in the world.”
Later on Monday, Netanyahu addressed the “pessimists” about the
economy, saying Israel’s stock market is the “strongest in the
world.”
“Investing in Israel is the smart thing to do,” he said in a
statement, adding that Israel would continue to increase investments in
weapons production to avoid dependence on “weak Western European
leaders who surrender to extreme Muslim minorities in their
countries.”
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich appeared to echo the prime
minister’s statement, posting to X that the stock market is rising,
inflation is falling, and commending the country’s management of the
economy amid the war in Gaza.
Earlier Monday, Netanyahu spoke alongside US Secretary of State Marco
Rubio, who lavished praise on “the friendship that Israel has shown
towards the United States on so many issues we’ve worked on together
that extend beyond the causes of war and peace.”
The two criticized a number of countries, including France, Canada,
Australia and others that are set to recognize a Palestinian state
ahead of the United Nations General Assembly this month.
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