BEIRUT- Lebanese politicians on Thursday criticized Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil over a television interview in which he was shown saying that Lebanon did not have an ideological problem with Israel and was not against it having security. The comments, made to al-Mayadin television channel during a long interview on Tuesday, had just started attracting attention. Bassil stated during his interview“There is no ideological problem with Israel, and we do not reject its existence. Israel has the right to safety. All we care about is for people to recognize one another. We are people who accept the other but the problem is when the other rejects you,” Bassil, said when asked about normalizing relations with Israel. A former government minister called on Bassil to resign and a member of parliament also criticized him with Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouq leading the charge tweeting “The Cabinet should dismiss Bassil if he doesn’t recognize an ideological difference with Israel”; while MP Boutros Harb called on the Justice Minister to open a probe regarding the matter.  Bassil’s office later said al-Mayadin had distorted his comments through its editing of the interview, without explaining how. “The aim of taking his statements out of context is to distort his stance – the well-known stance that Israel is an aggressive entity that practices terrorism of the state. It is well-known who stands behind this campaign that aims to harm the stance which Bassil expressed at the Arab League,” the statement said.