In a speech before the Knesset on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu tied the the recent rocket attacks emanating from Gaza to the Iran threat, saying that “Gaza is Iran’s forward position.”
Netanyahu was speaking at a special Knesset session, called after 40 MKs signed a bill requiring the prime minister to give an accounting to the legislature. The session was titled “The political, economical and social failures of Netanyahu’s government.”
The Prime Minister used the opportunity to launch an offensive against his political opponents, lambasting them for the 2005 disengagement from Gaza: “Iran was let into Gaza, but it wasn’t we that let Iran into Gaza, it was you.”
Netanyahu said that Iran had taken over the Gaza Strip through its proxy, Hamas, and that Iran – not the Palestinians – is “the dominant element driving events in Gaza…Iran is building the infrastructures, Iran provides the money, and and in many cases Iran gives the orders.”
Referring to the divergent positions between Israel and the US regarding the imminence of the Iranian threat and the prudence of a military strike, he said that the US was unequivocal in its support for “Israel’s right to be able to defend itself by itself.” Nevertheless, he said he would act to protect Israel with or without US support, evoking former Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s decision to bomb Iraq’s reactor in 1981: “He was well aware of the international scrutiny – including from the United States and President Reagan, but he nevertheless fulfilled his duty.”
The Prime Minister also brushed aside claims that he was focusing on the Iran issue in order to avoid making peace with the Palestinians, saying that “it would be a dangerous illusion to think that such an agreement would stop Iran and its proxies.”