Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clarified his remarks that Israel’s economy may “need to adapt to … autarkic characteristics” on Tuesday, after a dip in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Netanyahu made his original comments at a conference held by the Israeli Finance Ministry on Monday, where he said that “Israel is in a sort of isolation,” and that he hates the idea that Israel will have to behave like an autarky, or self-reliant economy.

“I believe in the free market, but we may find ourselves in a situation where our arms industries are blocked. We will need to develop arms industries here — not only research and development, but also the ability to produce what we need … There’s no choice,” he said, adding that Israel will need to be “Athens and super-Sparta.” 

Israeli markets dropped in response, and business and industry leaders came out against Netanyahu’s remarks, saying that “an autarkic economy will be a disaster for Israel,” and “this vision … will make it hard for us to survive in a developing globalized world.” 

A day later, Netanyahu called a press conference to do damage control amid the widespread concern in Israel, clarifying that his comments were specific to the Israeli defense industry. 

In the defense industry, he said “there are limitations that are not economic, but political.”

“If there’s one lesson from this war, it is that we want to be in a situation where we are not limited. We want to defend ourselves by ourselves and with our own weapons,” Netanyahu stated. “We are going to produce an independent arms industry that is very strong that can withstand any political constraints.”

Israel will “build a defense industry that will match the best in the world,” he added. “You saw some — not even all — of it in the 12-day war with Iran.”

The prime minister also talked about Israel working on technology for underground warfare.

Netanyahu said western European countries implementing arms embargoes against Israel are  “pressured by minorities in which some are very extreme,” as well as “advanced propaganda against us.”

Netanyahu said that his intention in the speech at the Finance Ministry was to tell its workers that “we are aiming for security independence and I asked them to cut bureaucracy.”

“Within that [speech], there was a misunderstanding,” he said.

“A concentrated, closed market is not what I usually like,” he said. “I turn to the markets. But we are using all of the means needed to create a strong defense industry.”

Netanyahu expressed “full faith in Israel’s economy.” 

“Israel’s economy is very strong,” he said. “It has amazed the whole world in recent decades and more than amazed the world in the last two years, in which we are fighting a war. … Against all predictions, the shekel is stronger than it was before the war … Unemployment is at a historic low. In recent months, there is a large flow of investors in the Israeli economy.”

Netanyahu presented graphs showing the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange rising at a higher rate than the S&P, that the shekel is strong against the dollar and GDP per capita is rising, that Israel’s debt to GDP rate is lower than that of the U.S. and the average for advanced economies, and that Israel is second in the world — after the U.S. — in receiving foreign investments for research and development.

“I don’t underestimate the attempts to economically isolate us, but the world wants the products that Israel makes,” he added, mentioning artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. “This is the health, the vibrancy of Israel’s economy. This is a very powerful economy, an economy of 10 million people, but very gifted people.” 

In the press conference, Netanyahu also said he had spoken on the phone with President Donald Trump several times since Israel’s strike aimed at Hamas leaders in Qatar last week, including one in which the president invited him to the White House.

Netanyahu said he will be meeting with Trump in Washington on Sept. 29.

Following the press conference, Yair Lapid, Israel’s opposition leader, said that Netanyahu “lost contact with reality.”

“You cannot run a market when there is no trust in the government and no trust in the prime minister,” Lapid said. “On Netanyahu’s watch and that of the current government, Israel’s credit rating was lowered for the first time in history, and then it happened again. There is a sharp reduction in Israeli exports. There is a sharp decrease in investment from abroad. High-tech, the engine of the market, is in an unprecedented crisis.”