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No, Benjamin Netanyahu wasn't prescient about the World Trade Center buildings coming down
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• The video with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is from a 2006 CNN interview, years after 9/11.
• During the interview, Netanyahu mentions his 1995 book, which refers to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and predicts a second attack. But this does not prove he knew about 9/11.
• Learn more about PolitiFact’s fact-checking process and rating system.
TikTok users shared a video of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying militant Islam would bring down the World Trade Center as proof that he knew about 9/11 before it happened.
But the video occurred years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It’s from a 2006 CNN interview in which Netanyahu says, "So, I wrote a book in 1995, and I said that, ‘If the West doesn’t wake up to the suicidal nature of militant Islam, the next thing you will see is militant Islam bringing down the World Trade Center.’"
TikTok identified these posts as part of its efforts to counter inauthentic, misleading or false content. (Read more about PolitiFact's partnership with TikTok.)
Netanyahu is referring to his 1995 book, "Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorists." In it, he predicts the World Trade Center could be attacked a second time.
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He writes of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which occurred in a parking garage, killed six people and injured more than 1,000 other people. According to the FBI, Ramzi Yousef, who helped plan the 1993 bombing, was hoping the attack would cause one of the twin towers to collapse the other.
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In his book, Netanyahu wrote, "In the worst of such scenarios, the consequences could be not a car bomb but a nuclear bomb in the basement of the World Trade Center." But this does not mean he knew that commercial planes would be used to bring down the towers Sept. 11, 2001.
The Anti-Defamation League said that conspiracy theories implicating Jews and Israel in the 9/11 attacks rely on "centuries-old antisemitic tropes about Jews supposedly manipulating world events for their own benefit."
We rate the claim that Netanyahu knew about 9/11 before it happened False.
Our Sources
TikTok post (archived), Jan. 14, 2024
CNN, "Encore Presentation: Interview with Benjamin Netanyahu", Dec. 22, 2006
Google Books, Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorists, 1995
The Associated Press, "‘Powder keg’ for 9/11: 1993 trade center bombing remembered", Feb. 26, 2023
Federal Bureau of Investigation, "World Trade Center Bombing 1993", accessed Jan. 19, 2024
Anti-Defamation League, "Antisemitic Conspiracies About 9/11 Endure 20 Years Later," accessed Jan. 19, 2024
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No, Benjamin Netanyahu wasn't prescient about the World Trade Center buildings coming down
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