Netanyahu Turns his Fire on Labour

Natalie Lisbona and Andy Jehring got the Middle East scoop everyone was chasing this year - an interview with Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli PM had been harangued by every media outlet across the world for months but finally agreed to sit down and answer written questions from the Daily Mail in September. It was the first time he had spoken to a British newspaper in years and – while they didn’t know it at the time – came on the eve of his country’s incursion into Lebanon, making the interview even more remarkable. He launched a full-throated broadside at Sir Keir Starmer’s new administration which shook Westminster and dominated headlines before his troops crossed the northern border.

For British journalists to land the interview was a Herculean feat. Netanyahu had only given international newspaper interviews to Time Magazine in America and Bild in Germany since October 7. The US and Germany are Israel’s two biggest military backers, making their media Netanyahu’s preferred outlets. To persuade him to take time out of the war to speak to a British outlet – something he rarely does in peacetime - was something most thought impossible. It was achieved thanks to dogged determination by Natalie since the start of the war. She used her unrivalled contact book to repeatedly push key officials. Having landed the first wartime international interviews with the Israeli President Isaac Herzog and then Defence Secretary Yoav Gallant she earnt the top players’ trust by being firm but fair. Her relentless pursuit of Netanyahu continued, regularly consulting with Andy on strategy, before she finally got a breakthrough. The two fought tooth and nail with his people to negotiate final terms and bring it home. They then had 24 hours to turn round copy as Israel was on the brink of invading Lebanon which would kill the scoop.

The following day Netanyahu’s accusation that the ‘misguided’ new Labour government had ‘undermined’ Israel by pausing some arms export licences was picked up by nearly every major broadcaster and newspaper in the UK. Starmer’s administration was forced to hit back. The British PM’s spokesman and the FCDO gave a firm rebuttal as the Mail’s scoop left UK-Israeli relations on a knife edge. British Cabinet members were rolled onto the airwaves to defend the restrictions as ‘fair’ and ‘proportionate’, before Foreign Secretary David Lammy had to personally defend the position. Days later, the Israeli President Isaac Herzog intervened, saying: ‘We expect that all our allies will be side by side with us’ against Hamas.

The exclusive interview, taking the PM to task over his lack of peace plan, war crimes allegations, and corruption trial, also made waves in Israel. The article was picked up by every major television network and newspaper. The scoop was amplified by its timing. Unknown to Natalie and Andy, Netanyahu sat down to answer questions in the final stages of his preparations to attack Hezbollah’s pagers and invade Lebanon – making his quotes all the more powerful when they hit print.