Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made a speech via teleconference at the AIPAC conference on Tuesday, and used the opportunity to pass a veiled message to US President Joe Biden, saying that “our friends in the international community can’t say they support Israel’s right to defend itself, and then oppose Israel when it exercises that right.”
Netanyahu was responding to Biden’s comments on MSNBC over the weekend that Israel’s invasion of Rafah would be a red line. This week, Netanyahu held interviews with a number of English-language media outlets, including Fox, to try to counteract Biden’s claims that Israel is needlessly killing Gazan civilians and that the Israeli people do not agree with the war in Gaza.
The prime minister began by saying how much he appreciated the support Israel received from Biden and his administration.
“I hope it will continue,” Netanyahu added. “But let me clear. Israel will win this war, no matter what. In order to win this war we must destroy Hamas’ remaining terrorist brigades in Rafah. Otherwise, Hamas will regroup, rearm, and reconquer Gaza. That is an intolerable threat to our future, and we will not accept it. We will destroy Hamas, free our hostages, and ensure that Gaza doesn’t pose a threat to Israel again.”
“We will finish the job in Rafah while enabling the civilian population to get out of the way. We’ve taken measures to minimize civilian casualties that no other army in history has taken.”
“To our friends in the international community, I say: You cannot support Israel’s right to defend itself, and then object to Israel’s actions when it exercises that right. You cannot say that you support Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas, and then oppose Israel when it takes the necessary actions to achieve that goal. You can’t say you oppose Hamas’s strategy of using civilians as human shields, and then blame Israel for the civilian casualties that are the result of Hamas’ strategy.”
“For Hamas, every civilian death is a strategy. So it is wrong and immoral to hold Israel to a standard of avoiding civilian casualties that no other country on earth is held to.”
“Our victory is within reach. I know that the vast majority of the American people stand with us. I know that the overwhelming majority of Congress stands with us.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
I think we have all deduced that the support from Biden thus far was insincere. He was stuck doing it because of Congress, where the support is overwhelming. We are also sadly aware that Biden is a puppet, addicted to his teleprompter, unable to field questions, impulsive and reactive, and severely impaired. He began tche support knowing that this was expected of him. But the juice poured on by the Jew haters in Congress, who have been holding the strings for his entire presidency, has finally metastisized. We are beginning to see the real Biden, whatever is left of him, and it is more beholden to the Squad and the bitter liberals, whose hatred for Israel is sounding louder every day.
So, Bibi, your battle is not with Biden. He may not even understand you if you talk to him. The target is the Congress, and the allies there need to be strengthened. Remember speaking to Congress when the Dems boycotted your speech? Well, do it again, and again, and again.
He’s wrong on that point. We can support Israel and it’s right to defend itself but that does not give Netanyahu “carte blanche” to do whatever he wants.