Netanyahu Blames Social Media Rise for Drop in US Support for Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday on "60 Minutes" that the sharp decline in US public support for his country lines up with the explosion of social media use.

"Israel has gone to unbelievable lengths to get innocent civilians out of harm's way," Netanyahu said. "We text message millions of text messages to them—make millions of phone calls to them, pamphlets, leaflets, you name it, OK? We have seen the deterioration of the support for Israel in the United States almost—I would say, it correlates almost 100% with the geometric rise of social media."

He added that manipulation of social media by several countries contributed to the shift. "And that by itself is not what caused it. And I don't believe in, you know, in censoring them or anything. But I'll tell you what happened. We have several countries that basically manipulated social media. And they do it in a clever way. And that's something that has hurt us badly."

Netanyahu admitted Israel made "mistakes" in its war against Hamas but stressed they were not intentional. "Israel is besieged on the media front, on the propaganda front, and we've not done well on the propaganda war," he said.

He told host Major Garrett that persistent negative messaging could sway views against anyone. "I can paint you as a monster," Netanyahu said. "And if I say it often enough, enough people will believe it."

An NBC News poll in March showed 32 percent of Americans viewing Israel positively, compared to 39 percent negatively. The change hit Democrats and independents hardest, while Republicans remained supportive.

The opinion shift came amid Israel's war in Gaza and US-led strikes on Iran. Netanyahu said the conflict with Iran continues despite progress.

"I think it accomplished a great deal, but it's not over, because there's still nuclear material, enriched uranium that has to be taken out of Iran. There are still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled. There are still proxies that Iran supports. There are ballistic missiles that they still want to produce. Now, we've degraded a lot of it. But all that is still there, and there's work to be done," he said.