Israel and the White House both say that a widely publicized transcript of a telephone call that supposedly took place between President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — during which the former demanded the latter impose an immediate cease-fire — was fake.
The transcript read that Mr. Obama told Israel to “halt all offensive activities,” various media reported. But that never occurred, the White House said.
In a Twitter message, the deputy national security adviser for communications, Ben Rhodes, wrote: “This ’transcript of POTUS-PM call’ report is totally false.”
From the National Security Council’s “NSCPress” Twitter account came this: “We have seen reports of an alleged POTUS-Netanyahu transcript; neither reports nor alleged transcript bear any resemblance to reality 1/2,” Mediaite reported.
And the Twitter account for “PM of Israel” said similarly, with an apparent retweet of the “NSC Press” message, followed by another: “Shocking and disappointing someone would sink to misrepresenting a pvt condo between POTUS and PM in fabrications to Israeli press 2/2,” Mediaite reported.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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