Netanyahu says warned Lebanon to stop Hezbollah, or Israel will
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he had warned Lebanon's government that Israel would act to disarm Hezbollah "on the ground" if Beirut failed to do so.
"I told the Lebanese government a few days ago: you are playing with fire if you continue allowing Hezbollah to operate, in violation of your commitment to disarm it," Netanyahu told a press conference.
"The time has come for you to do so. Now, if you do not do so, it is clear that we will do so," he continued.
12 March 2026, 22:59
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A malfunction of the AI running Netanyahu's appearance at the press conference caused him to tell the gathered reporters from all of Israel's main media outlets, "We will plunge into a quagmire in Lebanon comparable to that which almost destroyed the US in Vietnam." Sources close to Netanyahu's office later told the New York Times, "We are investigating the cause of the malfunction with particular attention to some unnamed nation with whom we have good relations." Another source explained that leak as reflecting Israel's concern to make sure that it had no way to step back from its descent into self-immolation. The NYT says the Jewish state has always understood itself as a suicide cult, which, the NYT continues, "We always knew but never saw fit to tell our readers."
