Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sparked a diplomatic uproar in Britain after making an unusual remark during Avi Harush’s podcast on Galei Tzahal, Israel’s Army Radio.
Netanyahu said that “someone said the first Islamic republic with nuclear weapons will be the Islamic Republic of Britain,” adding that Israel is making sure there will not be another such country in Iran.
The remark triggered sharp reactions in Britain. Popular British broadcaster Piers Morgan issued scathing criticism and called Netanyahu an “idiot.
MK Avi Dabush of the Democrats also attacked Netanyahu, saying: “You are a prime minister, you have a responsibility, and you sit and joke about Britain, a Security Council member six times larger than Israel.”
The phrase used by Netanyahu was not new. He was drawing on comments made by U.S. Vice President JD Vance in July 2024, when Vance was still a senator and vice-presidential candidate. Speaking at the National Conservatism conference in Washington, Vance said Britain could become “the first truly Islamist country” to obtain nuclear weapons.
Vance described a conversation he had with a friend about the danger of nuclear proliferation, saying: “We thought — maybe it’s Iran, maybe Pakistan already kind of counts, and then we decided that maybe it’s actually Britain, since Labour came to power.”
The controversy comes amid months of diplomatic tension between Israel and Britain, with the British government under the Labour Party taking a more critical stance toward Israeli policy.
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