A popular podcast among young men shocked the Internet this week with an unexpected interview guest: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But Netanyahu’s attempt to appeal to young people seemed to turn online, where the interview has aroused many criticisms from viewers through the political spectrum.
His interviewers, Kyle Forgard and Aaron “Steiny” Steinberg, are members of The Nelk Boys, a group of social media influencers known for their vlogs and farce videos. The group, which has accumulated more than 8.5 million subscribers on YouTube, attracted even more fans after its content began to highlight more conservative political figures, including President Donald Trump, that the Podcast interviewed 2022,, 2023 And 2024.
Netanyahu One hour interviewWho filed the “full podcast of the Nelk Boys on Monday, met an extremely critical online reception, viewers accusing the podcasters of asking Softball questions and neglecting to repel the claims of Netanyahu.
Netanyahu and his government continue to face world indignation at the war in Gaza which followed the terrorist attack led by Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023.
The Podcast Youtube channel has lost more than 10,000 subscribers in one day, according to the Blade social social media monitoring platform. On YouTube, the best comments on the episode criticized the apparent lack of preparation of the hosts.
“I see so many things about what’s going on in Israel, Iran and Palestine, and to be honest, I really don’t know what’s going on there,” said Fordard in the episode. Steinberg said he also hoped to “study” by interviewing Netanyahu.
At one point, the subject of discussion turned to the common affection of Netanyahu and Trump for the burgers. Asked about the order of his essential McDonald’s, Netanyahu revealed that he prefers Burger King, leading Steinberg to answer, dismayed: “It’s your worst taken, I think.”
Throughout the rest of the interview, Netanyahu condemned anti-Israeli demonstrators as “non-American” and contrasting in Israel with life under the Oppressive diet in Iran. He also made a pricing against the Democratic candidate of the Democrat mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, qualifying his proposals as “nonsense” of the city. (Mamdani called the military actions of Israel in the “genocide” of Gaza and said that he Netanyahu would stopwhich is the subject of an arrest warrant of the International Criminal CourtIf he visited New York.)
When asked why he was “so hated around the world”, Netanyahu replied: “Well, a lot of propaganda. First of all, I am not hated worldwide. ” He said that Israel had received a lot of goodwill in Europe, saying that Israel’s attack on Iran also “released them because these Iranian missiles were also intended for Europe, and finally in America”.
“Propaganda is there, I don’t deny it,” said Netanyahu. “But people also have, you know, sometimes the truth is signaled. And what Israel did with President Trump is to safeguard the free societies of a threat. I mean, this Iranian diet hangs gays to cranes.”
Monday, 25 countries, including Great Britain, Japan and many European nations, called on Israel to end the war in Gaza – a sign of the dismay of the traditional allies of Israel on the humanitarian toll of the conflict. Nearly 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, according to Palestinian health authoritiesWith a large part of the population of the enclave chased from their houses and pushed to the edge of the famine.
The soldiers and representatives of the Israeli government have repeatedly accused Hamas of exploiting civil sites, including hospitals and schools, such as coverage of its operations, an accusation that health officials and Hamas have denied.
Israel also faced growing accusations of war crimes and genocide, especially in a case brought by South Africa before the International Court of Justice, the United Nations Superior Court. The court last year ordered Israel to do everything He could prevent genocidal acts in Gaza. Israel and the United States rejected the accusations of genocide.
Online, clips from Netanyahu’s interview Drew Viral Backlash Viewers, many of whom have accused Nelk boys “Genocide propaganda” platform And compared Netanyahu’s interview to interview Adolf Hitler.
The far -left political streamer Hasan Piker and the White Far -right Supremacist Nick Fuentes were one of those who criticized the last episode of “full podcast” on Monday during live broadcast on their platforms.
“You just presented someone who is a war criminal, someone who has a genocide, in a slightly neutral light,” Piker and Steinberg told Piker and Steinberg in his stream. “And you cannot be neutral when you have someone like Benjamin Netanyahu directly in the opportunity to speak to him. But that’s what happened, so there is moral guilt here for you individually.”
He added that even if he would agree to interview Netanyahu if he had the opportunity, he would be “well equipped” to verify his declarations and push the potentially questionable affirmations.
Exit, in response, replied that their style of interview could “give us the opportunity to get the biggest people in the world”.
“And I think you will know by the” complete podcast “when you look at it, it’s like” hey, these guys will have big guests. We couldn’t necessarily grill these people, “said Preverdard. “And that’s exactly what you’re going to expect.”
Fuentes, in his own stream With Forgard and Steinberg, also questioned the moral equivalence between him, which faced the online condemnation for his opinions and his beliefs, and “a foreign head of state who kills women and children”.
“He is someone who is committing what is an ethnic cleaning and a genocide,” said Fuentes.
The interview had trouble landing positively, even among some supporters of the Netanyahu military agenda. In Israel’s times On Tuesday, the contributor Elkana Bar Eitan expressed his disappointment that Netanyahu “blows up” on the podcast, despite the lack of perspective he obtained from the hosts.
“It was painful to see how Netanyahu, once a communicator master, missed this opportunity and showed that he had lost contact, even in English,” he wrote in an opinion article. “Despite friendly questions in the atmosphere and softball, Netanyahu appeared completely detached from reality.”
A representative of the “Full Send Podcast” refused to comment.
In a Video responding to the wrongSteinberg and Forgers said they planned to “give the other side the opportunity” to talk about their next episode, although it is not clear to what they are referring to.
“Someone has to do it,” said Forgard. “And if we have to take the fall and be the bad guys to have controversial people, I think we are ready to do so.”
