Did Israel ex-PM say Netanyahu is using Modi playbook? It's a deepfake

Following the flydubai incident, where co-pilot Hamam al-Hammami attacked Captain Smit Machchhar to allegedly crash the Israel-bound flight, a video of Israel’s former prime minister and Opposition leader Yair Lapid has been widely shared online.In the video, Lapid could be heard saying, “Netanyahu is taking a page from Modi's political playbook. In India, Modi used the 2019 Pulwama attack as an election campaign to frame a political narrative against Pakistan. Now in Israel, Netanyahu is using the flydubai incident in the same way, turning a security crisis into an election narrative while diverting attention from the devastation he did in Gaza.”Israel’s legislative elections are scheduled for October 27. India Today Fact Check found that the video is a deepfake.OUR PROBEThe viral video featured Al Jazeera’s logo. So, we searched the news outlet’s YouTube channel and found the original footage, shared on April 9. This video shows Lapid speaking in Hebrew, while the viral one shows him speaking in English. It also predates the flydubai incident by several months. We reviewed the video’s English subtitles and found no references to PM Modi. However, he criticised Netanyahu several times. Lapid called Netanyahu’s campaign against Iran a “failure” and a “diplomatic disaster”.Lapid delivered these words in a televised address a day after US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire in the war against Iran. The Times of Israel published a complete English-language transcript of the address, which can be viewed here.The transcript does not feature any mention of PM Modi or the 2019 Pulwama attack, when a suicide bomber attacked a convoy of vehicles carrying Indian security personnel on the Jammu–Srinagar National Highway, killing 40 CRPF jawans.We then tested the video using the AI-detection tool, Hive Moderation. It concluded with 99.4 per cent confidence that the speech in the video was AI-generated.Thus, it’s clear that the viral video is a deepfake.- Ends