Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regrets comments he made about the Holocaust in a speech to the World Zionist Congress on Tuesday, which sparked outcry across the world, and at home in Israel, analyst Avigdor Eskin told Sputnik on Thursday.
"He was widely criticized at home," said Eskin, explaining that Netanyahu was forced to explain his comments to Israelis.
"He was asked by many people to explain what he meant," which led to Netanyahu qualifying his comments on Wednesday to say that he did not want to undermine the role of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in the Holocaust, said Eskin, who explained that the historical inaccuracy of the statement roused anger in Israel.
"Hitler started exterminating Jews before the meeting with the Jerusalem Mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini, which took place November 1941."
"It wasn't true in 1941, he didn't check the facts well enough. He shouldn't have said it, I think he himself will agree today. He shouldn't have said anything that could be perceived as undermining the role of Adolf Hitler, even if he didn’t mean it."
"This one sentence makes his statement problematic, and this is how it was received in Israel," said Eskin, who also informed listeners about the impact of Netanyahu's comments on the prospects for peaceful relations between Israelis and Palestinians.
The analyst points out that the Israeli Prime Minister has expressed a wish to meet with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas in an effort to stop the wave of violence and terror attacks that have swept Israel in recent weeks, which Eskin himself attributes to followers of the Islamic State.
