Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Tuesday with a delegation of former top National Football League stars, all members of the Professional Football Hall of Fame.
The delegation is currently touring Israel at the initiative of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
Netanyahu was presented with his very own NFL American football helmet by the Patriots team owner. “We have two of the greatest quarterbacks sitting in this room,” said Kraft as he also handed the prime minister a brand new football, “but they don’t have the skills that you have. “I’ve seen you throw a football,” Kraft continued. So … “
“It depends who runs interference for me,” Netanyahu grinned back.
“You need good blockers,” Kraft responded with a chuckle.
Lifting the ball, Netanyahu asked, “Any takers?” And hurled the football straight at one of the players in the back, who caught it handily and tossed it back to the prime minister, who caught it just as easily. It’s clear from the throw that Netanyahu spent more than a few hours playing the game in his earlier years while in school in the States.
But later in the footage, he replied to a question in a more serious vein, saying, “You ask, what is the policy for that?
“You seek peace, but you gotta be strong,” he said. “If you’re not strong you’ll never get peace, and if you’re not strong, it’ll be in war and turmoil. And the worst thing is, you’ll lose.
“So, I’m sure that when you prepare for your games, you don’t say, well, uh, gee now, do I need to be strong, fast, nimble? Is that a question? No. Your game is not different from ours.
“Only difference is, if we lose, the consequences are — immutable. And we’ve had enough of that in our history.
“So we won’t let that happen again.”