{"id":64062,"date":"2026-03-20T06:50:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T05:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=64062"},"modified":"2026-03-22T19:42:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T18:42:31","slug":"the-manipulation-of-netanyahus-words-about-christ-and-genghis-khan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2026\/03\/20\/the-manipulation-of-netanyahus-words-about-christ-and-genghis-khan\/","title":{"rendered":"The manipulation of Netanyahu's words about Christ and Genghis Khan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is becoming sadly common for controversies to arise over manipulated or out-of-context statements.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/03\/05\/the-false-alternative-journalism-that-whitewashes-dictatorships-where-such-journalism-is-illegal\/\">The false alternative journalism that whitewashes dictatorships where such journalism is illegal<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/12\/24\/the-israels-prime-ministers-christmas-greetings-to-the-entire-christian-community\/\">The Israel's Prime Minister's Christmas greetings to the entire Christian community<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>Yesterday, <strong>@Disclosetv<\/strong>, a Twitter account linked to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Disclose.tv\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">an antisemitic media outlet of the German far right<\/a> that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/disclosetv-english-disinformation-made-in-germany\/a-60694332\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">has been involved in controversies about Holocaust denial<\/a> and other cases of disinformation, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/disclosetv\/status\/2034713271517794575\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">posted a video with this text<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>NOW - <strong>Netanyahu: \"Jesus Christ has no advantage over Genghis Khan. Because if you are strong enough<\/strong>, ruthless enough, powerful enough, evil will overcome good.\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Alongside this text, <strong>@Disclosetv showed Netanyahu uttering those words.<\/strong> Anti-Semites in various countries quickly spread the text and video, making it go viral and <strong>accusing the Israeli prime minister of delivering an anti-Christian message.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some have claimed it could be an AI-generated video, but that's not the case. <strong>The video is real, but it's deliberately cropped to hide the context.<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/live\/7d4ecFJlJy4\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The full video can be seen on the Reuters channel<\/a>, which broadcast the press conference live. The part in question can be seen in a section of Netanyahu's speech that begins at 19:43 in the video. <strong>Here is the full video<\/strong>; I've set it to start playing at that point:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7d4ecFJlJy4?si=DblK3O6JRv2H0jC0&amp;start=1183\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>To begin with,<strong> @Disclosetv concealed the fact that Netanyahu was quoting the famous historian Will Durant (1885-1981)<\/strong>. These words appear in his book \"The Lessons of History,\" published in 1968, in which <a href=\"https:\/\/fs.blog\/will-durant-religion-history\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Durant stated<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\"<strong>Nature and history do not agree with our conceptions of good and bad<\/strong>; they define good as that which survives, and bad as that which goes under; and <strong>the universe has no prejudice in favor of Christ as against Genghis Khan.<\/strong>\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Netanyahu quoted these words to warn of a possible victory by the barbarians.<\/strong> And he did so with an important prior nuance that is also missing from the viral tweet. <strong>Before the statement quoted by @Disclosetv, Netanyahu said: \"unfortunately and unhappily,\" but that channel omitted these words<\/strong>, perhaps because those two adverbials would have given a very concrete context to that statement, which was of no interest to that account dedicated to spreading disinformation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/netanyahu-transcript-we-have-to-be-more-powerful-than-the-barbarians-or-they-will-crash-our-gates-destroy-our-societies\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Times of Israel has published the full transcript of Netanyahu's press conference.<\/a> I include here the relevant portion in which Netanyahu uttered those words, in a context that explains the sense in which he said them, a sense that had no anti-Christian connotation whatsoever:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\"You know, if people want to be naive, then they don\u2019t see the kind of world we\u2019re living in. <strong>In this world, it\u2019s not enough to be moral. It\u2019s not enough to be just. It\u2019s not enough to be right.<\/strong> You know, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, someone that I admire a lot, was <strong>the historian Will Durant<\/strong>. Now, he wrote many volumes. I read most of them. He also wrote The Lessons of History, a very brief, 100-page book, in which <strong>he said, well, history proves that, unfortunately and unhappily, Jesus Christ has no advantage over Genghis Khan.<\/strong> Because if you are strong enough, ruthless enough, powerful enough, evil will overcome good. Aggression will overcome moderation.<\/p>\n<p>So you have no choice. <strong>If you look at the world as it is today, you have to be blind not to see that the democracies led by the United States have to reassert their will to defend themselves.<\/strong> And to oppose their enemies in time, while there\u2019s still time, before the jarring gong of danger wakes them up and wakes them up too late. This is where we are now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The fact that people don\u2019t see that<\/strong>, the fact that a lot of the news media are harking on a lot of fake news, but also a lot of shortsightedness, <strong>and do not see the historic period and the historic struggle that we are engaged in now, doesn\u2019t obviate these truths.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We are, we have to be strong. We have to be armed. <strong>We have to be more powerful than the barbarians, or they will not be merely at the gate. They\u2019ll crash our gates and destroy our societies.<\/strong> That\u2019s what Israel is doing now with the United States. And I\u2019m very proud of the fact that the Israeli people are standing strong, that the Israeli army is standing strong.<\/p>\n<p>We rose from October 7th. Our people, our soldiers, rose like lions. But <strong>in protecting ourselves and in joining with our great American friends, we\u2019re also protecting the entire world.<\/strong>\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I don't want to end this article without a reflection. <strong>I've already warned a few times about the need to be critical of what we read.<\/strong> This means not simply trusting the biased and incomplete information we receive, but rather seeking out the sources. <strong>On this blog, I make it a habit to give you direct access to the sources of each piece of information<\/strong>, as I've done in this article with Netanyahu's speech. Of course, <strong>it's a tedious task that doesn't lend itself to sensational headlines, so this blog will never have the same reach as certain disinformation channels<\/strong>, such as @Disclosetv, which bases much of its success on disseminating crudely edited and out-of-context quotes, as in this case.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The crisis in traditional journalism has led to the emergence of new sources of information.<\/strong> Among them are many digital media outlets that strive for accuracy in their reporting, but <strong>this wave has been infiltrated by many unscrupulous individuals who only seek to spread misinformation<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/03\/05\/the-false-alternative-journalism-that-whitewashes-dictatorships-where-such-journalism-is-illegal\/\">something they often do in service of certain dictatorships, as I warned here two years ago<\/a>. There are people who genuinely believe they are better informed by following accounts like @Disclosetv, which <strong>lie or conceal relevant data to promote distorted judgments<\/strong>, as they are based on manipulation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>No one, except the manipulators, can benefit from media outlets and propagandists that base their activity on deception in various forms<\/strong>, and unfortunately, are very successful at it. In this regard, I want to recall <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ENG0839\/__PXG.HTM\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">some words of Jesus Christ recorded in chapter 8, verse 32 of the Gospel of John<\/a>, which we should always keep in mind, especially Christians: <em>\"<strong>the truth will set you free<\/strong>\"<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Image: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=y_XDvZMPtT4\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">IsraeliPM<\/a>.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is becoming sadly common for controversies to arise over manipulated or out-of-context statements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10373],"tags":[2746,26501,95,26500],"class_list":["post-64062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-disclosetv","tag-israel","tag-will-durant"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-11 22:23:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}