"I completely agree with the leaders of Hamas," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a video address he posted in his Twitter account, asking his followers to spread the word, and even to rewrite his statement into their own words to share more personally.
What has he found to agree upon with his long-time opponents? Nothing to do with peace or reconciliation — but the nature of the ongoing protests on the Gaza fence line.
"I completely agree with the leaders of Hamas […] who've said this over the past few days," he said, and proceeded to quote Mahmoud al Zahar, one of Hamas' co-founders.
"Calling the actions of Palestinians on the Gaza border ‘peaceful' is a clear ‘deception.'"
The prime minister also ‘agreed' with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who said that the aim of the protests is to "tear down Israel's border and tear out [Israelis'] hearts."
Another Hamas official Bibi ‘agreed' with was Hamas politburo member Salah Bardawil, who acknowledged that 50 of the 62 killed during clashes last week were members of Hamas movement, which Israel considers a terrorist group.
To prove his words, Netanyahu included a short video clip showing an alleged Palestinian protester in Guy Fawkes mask waving a meat cleaver, saying that Israel only "targets terrorists" like that particular protester and insisting that every other nation would "do exactly the same."
Netanyahu's take isn't original. Early last week, Israeli Ambassador to UK Mark Regev made a very similar statement, also saying that he ‘agrees' with Zahar, Sinwar and Bardawil.
"I agree with Hamas when its founder Mahmoud al-Zahar admitted publicly that its strategy of labelling events in Gaza as ‘peaceful protests' was a deliberate ‘deception' because there is nothing peaceful about knives, machetes, guns, pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails and improvised explosives: all of which the Palestinians used in their ‘peaceful protest,'" Regev was quoted as saying in the Sunday issue of the Daily Mail, as Sputnik reported earlier.