Netanyahu brands UK an ‘Islamic republic’

TEL AVIV

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Aug. 13 took aim at the United Kingdom during a podcast interview, branding the country the “Islamic Republic of Britain” in remarks likely to raise eyebrows in London.

Speaking about Winston Churchill’s son Randolph Churchill and grandson Winston Spencer Churchill, who, like the former British prime minister, worked as journalists, Netanyahu recalled that the two had traveled to Israel and covered the Six-Day War in 1967.

“Try to find that now in Britain, which you could call the Islamic republic of Britain,” Netanyahu said with a chuckle.

When the interviewer asked whether “all of Europe isn’t already like that, no?”, apparently referring to Muslim communities across Europe and the increasingly critical stance taken by several European governments toward Israel in recent years, Netanyahu responded, “yes.”

“The first nuclear Islamic republic will be the Islamic republic of Britain,” Netanyahu further joked.

“We’re making sure there won’t be another one in Iran.”