Netanyahu took a jab at Britain, Piers Morgan responded: "Idiot"
The prominent British presenter reacted sharply to Netanyahu's remark, which echoed a statement by the US Vice President from 2024. He said: "Someone said that the first Islamic republic with nuclear weapons will be the Islamic Republic of Britain."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was interviewed on the Avi Harush podcast and made a statement that caused a stir in Britain, leading to an unusual response from the popular British presenter Piers Morgan.
According to Benjamin Netanyahu, one cannot find the same sympathetic attitude toward Israel in Britain today as there was during the coverage of the Six-Day War. However, the controversial remark concerned the nuclear issue.
"Someone said that the first Islamic republic with nuclear weapons will be the Islamic Republic of Britain," he said, adding that Israel is ensuring that another one like it does not arise in Iran.
Knesset member Avi Dabus (The Democrats) attacked: "You are the Prime Minister, you have a responsibility, and you are sitting there joking about Britain — a member of the Security Council that is six times larger than Israel."
It should be noted that the expression is not new: Benjamin Netanyahu relied on a statement by US Vice President J.D. Vance. In July 2024, when he was still a senator and a vice-presidential candidate, at the National Conservatism conference in Washington, he said that Britain could be the "first truly Islamist country" to obtain nuclear weapons. J.D. Vance described a conversation with a friend about the danger of nuclear proliferation: "We thought — maybe it's Iran, maybe Pakistan already counts, and then we decided that maybe it's actually Britain, since Labour came to power."
