Claim:
In 1990, Netanyahu was quoted as saying, “America is a golden calf and we will suck it dry, cut it up and sell it piece by piece until there is nothing left except the greatest welfare state in the world, which we will create and control.”
Evaluation:
In late 2023, rumors spread online that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once said, “America is a golden calf, and we’re going to suck it dry, chop it up, and sell it piece by piece until there’s nothing left but the biggest welfare state in the world, which we’re going to create and control… That’s what we do to countries we hate. We’re destroying them very slowly.”
The alleged quote was not new and had appeared repeatedly on both X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit since at least 2017.
Netanyahu is said to have made this statement in 1990, although he did not take office as prime minister until 1996. This is the full quote attributed to Netanyahu, which has also appeared in other social media posts:
If we get caught, they’ll just replace us with people of the same mold. So it doesn’t matter what you do, America is a golden calf and we’re going to suck it dry, chop it up and sell it off piece by piece until there’s nothing left but the world’s largest welfare state, which we’ll create and control. Why? Because it’s God’s will and America is big enough to take the hit so we can do it over and over again. That’s what we do to countries we hate. We destroy them very slowly and make them suffer because they refuse to be our slaves.
This text accompanies the quote in memes like the one above:
Benjamin Netanyahu, then employed as a Soviet agent, in a secret conversation recorded in 1990 at the Finks Bar in Jerusalem, a well-known Mossad meeting place. Directly from the transcript of the recording, which was witnessed and 100% authenticated. Here you can see him making the satanic sign “666” at this meeting.
Published by Gordon Duff, Veterans Today.
Sources:
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/03/12/shockwaves-part-iii/
https://new.euro-med.dk/20150320-veterans-today-rewrites-us-history-much-worse-than-you-ever
The source of the meme is listed as “Gordon Duff, Veterans Today.” Veterans Today is a website that, in our experience, publishes anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi, and Holocaust-denying material. Vice described Veterans Today as “conspiracy-oriented.”
Duff, the executive editor and director of Veterans Today, stated in a 2012 interview, “About 30% of what is written on Veterans Today is patently false. About 40% of what I write is at least intentionally partially false, because if I hadn’t written false information, I wouldn’t be alive.”
Veterans Today has a disclaimer that reads as follows (archived here):
Since the content posted by VT’s completely independent international authors is uncensored, VT cannot guarantee absolute validity. All content is the sole property of the author. The opinions expressed DO NOT necessarily reflect the views of VT, other authors, partners, advertisers, sponsors, affiliates or technicians. Some content may be satirical in nature. All images are the responsibility of the author of the article and NOT VT.
The first link (archived here) takes us to a page written in 2015 by James Preston, who claims to be a social psychologist with a PhD. The second link doesn’t work, either because the page has been deleted or because the URL is incomplete.
(Image via Veterans Today)
The article itself claims that Netanyahu is the “operative head of the Khazarian mafia” (an anti-Semitic cliché) and that the statement was recorded while meeting at Fink’s Bar in Jerusalem, a real bar that closed in 2005. Although the article claims that the quote comes from the transcript of a recording, such a recording was never presented as evidence.
https://media.snopes.com/2024/03/veterans_today_conspiracy_doc_netanyahu_golden_calf_quote_single_page.pdf
(Veterans today)
In summary, while Veterans Today claimed that this quote was “100% authentic,” we found no evidence to support this claim, nor any proof that the quote even existed prior to the 2015 article in which it was published. In addition, Veterans Today has a reputation for spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. For this reason, we rate this claim as “unsubstantiated.”
Sources:
Fact check: NO evidence that Netanyahu once said: “America is a golden calf and we will drain it” and “destroy it” | Top News. January 18, 2024, https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2024/01/fact-check-no-evidence-netanyahu-once-said-america-is-a-golden-calf-and-we-will -suck-it-dry-destroy-it.html.
‘https://Twitter.Com/AlgerianPalest/Status/921115692136529920′. X (formerly Twitter)https://twitter.com/AlgerianPalest/status/921115692136529920. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
‘Https://Twitter.Com/LadyVelvet_HFQ/Status/1730786770982256956?Lang=en’. X (formerly Twitter)https://twitter.com/LadyVelvet_HFQ/status/1730786770982256956?lang=en. Retrieved March 4, 2024.
Kasprak, Alex. “Did Representative Paul Gosar promote a Holocaust-denying website in an email to his constituents?” SniffApril 17, 2023, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/gosar-veterans-today/.
Preston, James. “Shockwaves (Part III).” Veterans todayhttps://www.veteranstodayarchives.com/2015/03/12/shockwaves-part-iii/.
“Remembering Fink’s in Jerusalem, politicians and celebrities ate there.” The Jerusalem Post | JPost.ComSeptember 20, 2020, https://www.jpost.com/opinion/remembering-finks-in-jerusalem-politicians-celebrities-dined-there-642974.
Thompson, Alex. “9/11 ‘Truthers’ Vow Never to Forget.” ViceSeptember 12, 2016, https://www.vice.com/en/article/pa499n/911-truthers-vow-to-never-ever-forget.
White, Gregory. “Israeli PM: ‘America is a very easy thing to move'”. Business Insiderhttps://www.businessinsider.com/israeli-prime-minister-america-is-a-thing-you-can-move-very-easily-2010-7. Retrieved March 4, 2024.
