After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress last week about the Iranian threat, Washington Post Beirut bureau chief Liz Sly tweeted some misinformation to her 5,000-plus Twitter followers about the Israeli leader's speech,
according to the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA).
"For those who believe that Iran threatens the Jewish state, but not the Jewish people, listen to Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, Iran's chief terrorist proxy,"
Netanyahu stated. "He said: 'If all the Jews gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of chasing them down around the world.'"
Sly quoted Nicholas Noe, editor and founder of
Middle East Wire, a translation service, who initially tweeted that the Netanyahu quote was false.
Sly retweeted Noe's claim, and the assertion drew a sharp rebuke from Tony Badran of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), who replied: "No, it's not. You don't know what you're talking about."
As it turned out, CAMERA noted, Badran was right, and Noe admitted it.
Noe conceded that Badran "found and pointed to a link to the FULL speech by Nasrallah in October 2002 where he says roughly what PM Netanyahu says he said."
Noe added that "Nasrallah has made a handful of anti-jewish [sic] comments over the last three decades, an aspect of Hezbollah's history in general that is vital to understand clearly."
In response to Badran’s challenge, Sly responded by stating that the quote was “highly contentious" and had been "refuted by Hezbollah."
CAMERA said Wednesday that there is no record of Sly acknowledging that the quote Netanyahu attributed to Nasrallah was correct.
The online magazine
Tablet found the original 2002 speech by Nasrallah and translated it.
Here is the full quote which Netanyahu briefly summarized in his speech to Congress:
"But I’ll tell you. Among the signs […] and signals which guide us, in the Islamic prophecies and not only in the Jewish prophecies, is that this State [of Israel] will be established, and that the Jews will gather from all parts of the world into occupied Palestine, not in order to bring about the anti-Christ and the end of the world, but rather that Allah the Glorified and Most High wants to save you from having to go to the ends of the world, for they have gathered in one place — they have gathered in one place — and there the final and decisive battle will take place."
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