NETANYAHU ASKS FOR A PLAN TO BYPASS BANKING SANCTIONS — CALLS BLOCKCHAIN “ONE OF THEM” — NAMES NO CURRENCY AND NO ONE TO WRITE IT

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a TV interview broadcast October 23, 2026 that Israel could face banking sanctions and that he has asked for a plan to get around them. Asked whether blockchain is an alternative, he answered "One of them. Certainly," in the Jerusalem Post's translation. He spoke of currencies that can bypass sanctions. He did not name one, and he did not say who is writing the plan.

Start from first principles. A banking sanction works because money that moves through banks needs a bank to say yes. Banks clear through other banks, and those answer to states. A government that controls the gate can close it. That holds for a dollar, a shekel, a central bank digital currency, and any token with a company behind it that can freeze an address.

Only a network with no one to ask keeps working when every gate says no. That is the property bitcoin was built for: anyone can send, and no one can block a valid payment. States usually describe that property as a loophole for others. Here a sitting head of government named it as something his own country may need.

The plan does not exist yet, and blockchain covers tokens that can be frozen and one that cannot. Which kind the plan picks will show whether it buys any real way around a sanction. At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $81,398.