Netanyahu Accuses Starmer, Macron, Carney of Being on ‘Wrong Side of History’

The Israeli prime minister commented after two Israeli Embassy staffers were fatally shot as they left an event at the Jewish Museum in Washington on May 21.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on May 21, 2025. Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the leaders of Britain, France, and Canada of being “on the wrong side of history” after they issued a joint statement on May 19 calling for an end to Israel’s latest offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu, in a video statement posted on the social media platform X on Thursday, said the leaders are “emboldening Hamas to continue fighting forever.”

“You won’t be surprised to learn that Hamas thanked President Macron and Prime Ministers Starmer and Carney for demanding that Israel end its war in Gaza immediately,” Netanyahu said.

“Hamas was right to thank them, because by issuing their demand—replete with a threat of sanctions against Israel, against Israel, not Hamas—these three leaders effectively said they want Hamas to remain in power.”

Netanyahu said that if Israel’s army ended the offensive, the Hamas terrorist group’s “army of mass murderers” would survive and eventually repeat the massacre of Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 taken hostage. Of those hostages, 58 remain in Hamas’s hands, only 23 of whom are still believed to be alive.

The Israeli prime minister said, “I say to President Macron, Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Starmer: When mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers thank you, you’re on the wrong side of justice. You’re on the wrong side of humanity, and you’re on the wrong side of history.”

Netanyahu made his remarks after two Israeli Embassy staffers, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, were fatally shot as they left an event at the Jewish Museum in Washington on May 21.

In announcing charges on Thursday, federal authorities said that suspect Elias Rodriguez, 31, told arresting officers: “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza.”

Rodriguez was heard shouting “Free Palestine” during his arrest.

Referring to the incident in Washington, Netanyahu said, “A brutal terrorist shot in cold blood a young beautiful couple.”

Netanyahu: Not a ‘Random Crime’

Netanyahu said they were not the victims of a “random crime.”

“The terrorist who cruelly gunned them down did so for one reason and one reason alone—he wanted to kill Jews. And as he was taken away, he chanted, ‘Free Palestine!’” he said.

Netanyahu claimed that Hamas was motivated by hatred of Jews.

“If they could get away with it, these Hamas terrorists would have slaughtered every last Jew on Earth,” he said.

Netanyahu’s comments come as international pressure on Israel over the situation in Gaza grows.

Britain, France, and Canada have been joined by several other countries this week in calling on Israel to end its offensive in Gaza and allow in more humanitarian aid for the estimated 2.3 million Palestinians there.

On May 20, the EU’s foreign affairs representative, Kaja Kallas, said the bloc is reviewing its association agreement with Israel, which includes free trade provisions, because of the “catastrophic” situation in the Gaza Strip.

She told reporters that “pressure is necessary to change the situation.”

In his statement on Thursday, Netanyahu rejected the criticism and said the international media was spreading lies.

On Tuesday, Tom Fletcher, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told the BBC that he feared that 14,000 babies could die in the next 48 hours if aid did not reach them.

Netanyahu said: “A few days ago, a top U.N. official said that 14,000 Palestinian babies would die in 48 hours. You see many international institutions are complicit in spreading this lie.”

Netanyahu said people who said Israel was starving Palestinian children had “bought into Hamas’s propaganda.”

Mayar Al-Arja, 2, who suffers from malnutrition, lies on a bed in a clinic in Nasser Hospital, Khan Younis, Gaza, on May 21, 2025. Abdel Kareem Hana/AP

He stated that since Oct. 7, 2o23, Israel has sent 92,000 aid trucks into Gaza, containing 1.8 million tons of aid, which he said was enough to feed everyone in the territory.

Netanyahu claimed that Hamas stole the aid, taking a “huge chunk” for themselves and selling the rest “at exorbitant prices” to Gazans.

“Then they used the money they stole to recruit new terrorists to continue their war against Israel,” he said.

Consulted With ‘Our American Allies’

Netanyahu said he had consulted with “our American allies” and, “together, we devised a mechanism to achieve this goal.”

He said: “American companies will distribute the food directly to Palestinian families. They'll do so in safe zones secured by our military. And this will allow us to complete our goal of destroying Hamas while enabling aid to reach the civilian population.”

Netanyahu said the first distribution zones would be built in Gaza in the coming days.

He said the plan was to have large safe zones in the south of Gaza.

“The Palestinian population will move there for their own safety, while we conduct combat in other zones, and receive humanitarian aid there without Hamas interference,” Netanyahu added.

Acting U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Dorothy Shea told the Security Council earlier this month that Washington was working with Israel to enable the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to start work in the territory by the end of the month.

The United Nations opposes the Israeli plan. On May 19, U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres “firmly rejects any forced displacement of the Palestinian population.”

In his statement, Netanyahu also appeared to rule out a two-state solution. He said such a state would never be free of Hamas.

“When you establish a Palestinian state, we’ve seen it, the radicals take over. Iran sends them in, and they take over. So don’t give us this talk, ‘It’ll be a peaceful Palestinian state'. It won’t be,” he said.

British armed forces minister Luke Pollard told Sky News: “I don’t recognise what Prime Minister Netanyahu has said about that awful event in the [United] States,“ adding, that  he wants to see ”a proper investigation, as we would do in all things, to secure justice for those people who have been murdered in the [United] States.”

Pollard said Britain condemns the killing of diplomats but, at the same time, the UK “should not remove ourselves from the need to secure a lasting peace in Gaza.”

The minister called for the release of all hostages, a cease-fire, and for “aid at scale” to be allowed into Gaza.