Yair Netanyahu has claimed that the pro-Palestineprotesters demonstrating across America are 'paid agitators' who are 'calling for the destruction of the United States'.
Netanyahu, the Florida-based son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, suggested the protesters are anti-American, alleging that'real Americans' are 'righteous people' who support democracy.
The 32-year-old, appearing on Newsmax's Sunday Reportto discuss the rescue of four hostages from Hamascaptivity, argued that Israel and the US have 'shared common Judeo-Christian values' and 'share the same interests'.
He also claimed that Americans have demonstrated an 'overwhelming support to Israel', despite the numerous protests that opposing the Gaza war that have continued to sweep across the nation.
His remarks come one days after a huge pro-Palestine rally outside the White House in DCdescended into chaos with smoke bombs let off and attendees claiming they were pepper sprayed.
YairNetanyahu, (pictured) the Florida-based son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, appearedon Newsmax's Sunday Report to discuss the rescue of four hostages from Hamas captivity. During his interview, Netanyahu claimedthat the pro- Palestine protesters demonstrating across America are 'paid agitators' who are 'calling for the destruction of the United States'
Netanyahuclaimed that Americans have demonstrated an 'overwhelming support to Israel' as it fights its war with Hamas. Pictured areIsraeli soldiers along the border with Gaza in southern Israel in April this year
Netanyahu, declining to comment on theBidenAdministration's commitment to Israel, suggests the wave of protests are not an accurate representation of the American public's response to the war.
'I am not going to comment on the Administration, but regarding the American people,all polls show that there's an overwhelming support to Israel,' he said.
'The American people are a righteous people, they're moral people. They're standing up with the democracy, which is the strongest ally of the United States, with Israel, the shared common Judeo-Christian values and share the same interests and overwhelmingly support for Israel.'
He went on to allege that the protesters supporting Palestine are 'paid agitators' and the 'same people from the 2020 riots'.
'They're paid agitators by [George] Soros and by foreign government who is hostile to the United States,' he continued, adding that the pro-Palestine protesters 'burn American flags' and 'destroy American monuments and statues'.
He added: 'They're calling for the destruction of the United States while at pro-Israeli protests you have a lot of real Americans who wave the American flag and the Israeli flag and sing the national anthem, and you can tell the stark difference between between the two groups.'
Netanyahu, 32, has been in Miami, Florida since at least April 2023, despitean unprecedented 360,000 reservists having been called up in Israel
Netanyahu also commented on the successful rescue mission of four hostages by Israeli special forces on Saturday. Pictured is a view of Israeli helicopter, carrying the hostages
Netanyahu said of the rescue: 'All Israelis were celebrating yesterday for celebrating life, celebrating the release of innocent hostages.' Pictured is Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant (in black) approving the operation to rescue the hostages together with top military chiefs
Netanyahu also commented on the successful rescue mission of four hostages by Israeli special forces on Saturday.
Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, had been abducted from the Nova music festival during Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war.
They were freed on Saturday afterspecial forces swooped intocentral Gaza's crowded Nuseirat refugee camp. The Israeli military said the extraction team and captives came under heavy gun and grenade fire, which killed one police officer, while Israel's air force launched strikes that reduced nearby buildings to rubble.
'This is a very happy day for all Israelis and all Jews, and I think all decent people around the world,'Netanyahu said of the rescue. 'All Israelis were celebrating yesterday for celebrating life, celebrating the release of innocent hostages.'
He slammed Hamas for the 'torture, the death, and the kidnapping of innocent civilians' and accused Palestinian civilians of supporting these acts, claiming that there were 'cheerful crowds inside Gaza' following the terrorist group's October 7 attack.
He said:'That's the main difference between them and us. We celebrate life and then they celebrate hate and death.'
Netanyahu also stated that while there is a 'lot of concern for innocent Palestinian civilians', people 'need to remember' that civilians in Gaza 'democratically voted' Hamas into power in 2006.
'They supported them until now. They didn't rise up against them until now,' he added.
Palestinians walk on the rubble of destroyed buildings following an operation by the Israeli Special Forces in the Nuseirat camp, in the central Gaza Strip on June 8, 2024
Civil defense teams try to extinguish the fire that broke out after Israeli attacks on Nuseirat camp in Deir al Balah, Gaza on June 08, 2024
Palestinians children search through the rubble of their home a day after an operation by the Israeli Special Forces in the Nuseirat camp, in the central Gaza Strip on June 9, 2024
Netanyahu has been in Floridasince at least April 2023. He wasblasted for staying in Miami while reservists returned home to fight againstHamas.
An unprecedented 360,000 reservists were called up last year - many of them dropping everything to fly back to Israel, even abandoning honeymoons.
But Netanyahu remained in Miami, to the irritation of some of the troops.
'Yair is enjoying his life at Miami Beach while I'm on the front lines,' one soldier, a volunteer serving on Israel's northern front, toldThe Timeslast October.
'It's us who are leaving our work, our families, our kids, to protect our families back home and the country, not the people who are responsible for this situation.
'Our brothers, our fathers, sons, are all going to the front line, but Yair is still not here. It does not help build trust in the leadership of the country.'
Netanyahu, who studied theatre at high school, undertook compulsory military service and worked in the spokesman's unit of IDF, rather than as a combat soldier.
Military service is compulsory for the majority of Israelis when they turn 18. Men have to serve 32 months and women 24.
After this, most of them can be called up to reserve units until the age of 40, or even older, in case of national emergency, and they fight alongside the regular troops in times of war.
Reservists are also used in non-combat roles, meaning that Netanyahu's lack of frontline experience would not automatically exempt him.
Yair Netanyahu, 32, is seen with his father in a photo last year. Since at least April 2023, the Israeli Prime Minister's son has been living in the United States
Netanyahu is picturedsorting donated supplies to IDF soldiers and Israeli families impacted by the Israel-Hamas war, with NGO Yedidim USA, in Fort Lauderdale on October 17, 2023
Netanyahu's Newsmax interview came after thousands of Gaza war protestersheld a 'red line' rally near the White House on Saturday, voicing anger at what they said was President Joe Biden's tolerance of Israel's bloody military campaign against Hamas.
Chanting 'From DC to Palestine, we are the red line,' the demonstrators held a long banner scribbled with the names of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, as the fighting enters its ninth month.
Biden has faced criticism for playing a balancing act on key ally Israel's actions in the conflict.
The White House said in May that a deadly Israeli strike on Rafah did not cross a 'red line' that Biden had seemingly set two months earlier when asked about a potential invasion of the southern Gazan city.
The protesters - almost all wearing red clothing - held Palestinian flags and signs saying 'Biden's red line was a lie' and 'Bombing children is not self-defense.'
The White House stepped up security with an additional anti-scale perimeter fence ahead of the demonstration, which saw chartered buses ferrying in people from as far afield as Maine and Florida.
Five months from his election battle with Republicancandidate Donald Trump, Biden is facing pressure to hang onto Muslim and young voters, blocs seen as crucial to his reelection bid.
Rescued hostage Noa Argamani embraces her father, Yakov Argamani, after being saved
AlmongMeir Jan, 22, is seen crying as he is greeted by his close relativesat the Sheba Tel-HaShomer Medical Centre, after his rescue from the Gaza Strip by the Israeli army on Saturday
Shlomi Ziv, 41, who was captured while serving as a security guard at the festival, was seen hugging and kissing his loves ones and in a tearful reunion at the hospital on Saturday. His sister Revital Nasi and cousin Liat met him at the hospital
AndreyKozlov, 27, had been working as a security guard at the music festival after immigrating from Russia to Israel alone a year and a half earlier. He is seen crying at the hospital as he connects with his loved ones via telephone
A senior Hamas official also urged the US on Monday to pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza, ahead of the planned visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the region to push forward ceasefire efforts.
Blinken is set to visit Egypt and Israel on Monday. He also aims to ensure the war does not expand into Lebanon.
'We call upon the US administration to put pressure on the occupation to stop the war on Gaza and the Hamas movement is ready to deal positively with any initiative that secures an end to the war,' senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said.
In his eighth visit to the region since Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, triggering the bloodiest episode in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Blinken is also set to travel to Jordan and Qatar this week.
He is set to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo before traveling to Israel later on Monday, where he will meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, according to a State Department schedule.
On Monday, Palestinian residents said tanks had been trying to thrust deeper towards the north in the early hours of Monday, edging Shaboura, one of the most densely populated and militant stronghold neighborhoods at the heart of the city.
A huge pro-Palestine protest outside the White House on Saturday descended into chaos with smoke bombs let off and attendees claiming they were maced
Smoke billowed in front of the White House on Saturday as a speaker delivers a speech to a crowd calling Israel a 'butcher of Gaza'
Cops were seen making their way through the throngs to shouts of 'Free Palestine' and 'f*** the police'
Activists were bussed across state lines to attend the huge rally on Saturday, which marked eight months since the war began
Israeli tank forces have since seized Gaza's entire border strip with Egypt running through Rafah to the Mediterranean coast and invaded many districts of the city of 280,000 residents, prompting around one million displaced people who had been sheltering in Rafah to flee elsewhere.
Blinken's visit comes after President Joe Biden on May 31 outlined a three-phase ceasefire proposal from Israel that envisions a permanent end to hostilities, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the reconstruction of Gaza.
The Hamas attack killed 1,200 people and took some 250 others hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
In response, Israel launched an assault on the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said in its Sunday update.
