An atom bomb being exploded under water at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
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On Christmas Eve, responding to an apparently fake news story, the Pakistani defense minister threatened Israel with nuclear retaliation if Israel made good on a nuclear threat for Pakistan's supposed role in fighting ISIS in Syria.
The frightening back and forth between nuclear powers is bad enough. But what makes it worse is that the statement Asif is responding so strongly to apparently never happened.
According to the Huffington Post, an outlet called awdnews.com quoted a former Israeli government official, Moshe Yaalon, who resigned in May, but does not quote the current defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman.
Less than a day later, reports CNN, the Israeli Ministry of Defense responded on Twitter, saying, "The statement attributed to (former Defense Minister) Yaalon (regarding) Pakistan was never said. Reports referred to by the Pakistani Def Min are entirely false."
So-called "fake news" has become a hot-button issue since the surprise general election of Donald Trump. Some have gone so far as to attirbute President-elect Donald Trump's win to the proliferation of "fake news." Social media giant Facebook is involved in controversial internal discussions over efforts to combat the spread of fake news on social media. This is the first time the issue has had a tone serious enough to suggest potential military aggression between nuclear-capable countries.
Huffington Post also acknowledged that this is not the first time Asif has threatened nuclear war, saying in a September interview he would be open to using nuclear weapons against India.
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