Netanyahu admits Israel is economically isolated, will need to become self-reliantTimes of Israel, Sep 15, 2025
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted on Monday that Israel is facing increasing isolation on the world stage, and will have to become more self-reliant in the years to come.
His comments, delivered as European countries have called for arms embargoes and sanctions against Israel during the ongoing war in Gaza, were seized on by political opponents and high-tech industry groups who blamed the premier for Israel’s troubled status on the world stage.
“Israel is in a sort of isolation,” Netanyahu acknowledged, at a conference of the Finance Ministry’s accountant general in Jerusalem.
“We will increasingly need to adapt to an economy with autarkic characteristics,” he continued, calling the term for economic self-sufficiency, closed off from global trade, “the word I most hate.”
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Netanyahu first addressed demographic changes in Europe, where “limitless migration” has resulted in Muslims becoming a “significant minority — very vocal, very, very belligerent.” These countries’ Muslim citizens are pressuring European governments to adopt anti-Israel policies, he claimed.
“Their focus isn’t Gaza, it’s opposing Zionism in general, and sometimes an Islamist agenda that challenges those states,” the premier added.
“This is creating limitations, and all sorts of sanctions, on Israel — it’s happening. It’s a process that’s been at work for the last 30 years, and especially in the last decade, and that changes Israel’s international situation. Clear as day,” he said.
The situation could bring arms embargoes and — though these are only threats for now — “the beginnings of economic sanctions,” the prime minister warned.
The second challenge, according to Netanyahu, is the investment of Israel’s “rivals — both NGOs and states, like Qatar and China” — to “influence Western media with an anti-Israel agenda, using bots, artificial intelligence, and advertisements.” He cited TikTok as an immediate example.
“This puts us in a sort of isolation,” he said, adding that Israel can fight demonization and incitement if it invests “very large sums” into efforts to counter those narratives.
But for now, he said, Israel must quickly establish the capacity to produce everything it needs militarily without depending on foreign trade.
“We are Athens and Sparta. But we’re going to be Athens and super-Sparta,” he said. “There’s no choice; in the coming years, at least, we will have to deal with these attempts to isolate us.”
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