Israel must win its war against Gaza’s Iranian-backed Hamas terrorist organization if the Jewish State is to survive, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned members of the AIPAC delegation on Monday in a speech to the group in Jerusalem.
“How do we define victory? We define it as the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, as the return of the hostages, which we’re working right now, and also as preventing the return, Gaza from becoming a threat to Israel at any time in the future,” Netanyahu said.
“There is also the northern front, where we want to return our people to a condition of security. That requires that Hezbollah move back. That is also part of our goals, which we will not give up on. Very important,” the prime minister emphasized.
“If we achieve these goals, then we will also deliver a stinging blow to the Iran terror axis, which is behind everything that we’re seeing here today. That is something that we all have to understand, that this is not just Israel’s battle. It is a battle for our future, but it’s also the battle for the victory of the Israel-America-moderate Arab axis against the Iran axis,” he noted.
“Unless we have that victory that I talked about, then we have a defeat.
“A defeat spells terrible things for our future and for the future of the Middle East and beyond the Middle East. Because this is a war of civilization against barbarism, those who want to bring back the Middle East to the Middle Ages, early Middle Ages, and those who want to see it going to the century of progress and advance in the 21st century. That’s really the battle. It’s a very, very big battle,” Netanyahu warned.
The prime minister also addressed the rising, slanted criticism of Israel emanating from the Democratic party, the White House and the State Department.
“The picture that is presented in the last few days and weeks in the United States is completely different from what I described. It’s not the unity of the people. You can go into any cab, go into a mall, walk down the street and talk to people. The great majority will tell you that they support what I just said, the goals that the government has set.
That’s not the description you have, of an outlier prime minister who put some extreme fringe groups, and that’s what’s driving the policy. False. I would say deliberately false. They know it’s false. But that falsehood is perpetrated and it’s wrong.
“There is unity among the people to achieve victory along the lines that I described. It is within reach and we’re going to do it. I’ve said this to the president. I’ve said it to the people that I’ve talked to. They keep saying that local politics is interfering with this. They may be right. On which side of the pond?” Netanyahu asked pointedly.
“We have to win this war. We have to stand together and win this war. We have to stand together here, and we have to stand together there. Because it’s the right thing to do. Because it’s the necessary thing to do. Because it’s the one thing that will assure the viability, future and security of the State of Israel.”
