Netanyahu Tells Israeli Audience That ‘Intimate Knowledge’ About U.S. Politicians Gives Him Leverage Over D.C.

Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told an Israeli audience that his “intimate knowledge” of U.S. politicians gives him leverage over them—a remark that, in his telling, helped steer Washington toward war with Iran.

Netanyahu asserted that compromising knowledge of U.S. politicians gave him the means to push the United States into war with Iran for Israel’s benefit—despite broad U.S. public opposition to a conflict most Americans saw as contrary to their country’s interests.

Netanyahu made the remarks on Channel 14, a network widely seen as sympathetic to him, during a live interview on the program The Patriots hosted by Yinon Magal. 

The timing matters because Netanyahu was speaking to a domestic audience in Hebrew, not to American viewers. In that setting, the “intimate knowledge” line functioned as a campaign boast—a claim of unique personal clout in Washington that no rival could match.

Netanyahu and his Likud party are currently facing a serious challenge from former military chief Gadi Eisenkot’s centrist Yashar party following the results of the Israeli election.