WASHINGTON — Speaking by satellite feed to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference this morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that “the chain of attacks from Paris to San Bernardino to Istanbul to the Ivory Coast and now to Brussels, and the daily attacks in Israel, this is one continuous assault on all of us.”
“In all these cases, the terrorists have no resolvable grievances. It’s not as if we could offer them Brussels or Istanbul or California or even the West Bank. That won’t satisfy their grievances because what they seek is our utter destruction and their total domination. Their basic demand is that we should simply disappear,” Netanyahu said. “Well, my friends, that’s not going to happen.”
Netanyahu’s address to the group was scheduled long before twin blasts hit Zaventem airport in Brussels, followed by another explosion an hour later at Maelbeek metro station.
“The only way to defeat these terrorists is to join together and fight them together. That’s how we’ll defeat terrorism, with political unity and with moral clarity,” he added.
Netanyahu continued with his message that Israel “must never be an issue that divides Americans,” but instead is “a great cause of liberty that unites Americans.”
He slammed the United Nations for its “consistent, systematic discrimination” against Israel, noting “only Israel is permanently scheduled for condemnation at the U.N. Human Rights Council — not Iran, not Syria, not North Korea.”
“Why would anyone think that the U.N. could decide on a fair and secure peace for Israel? Yet amazingly, there are some who believe exactly that,” he said. “They seek to impose terms on Israel in the U.N. Security Council. And those terms would undoubtedly be stacked against are. They always are. So such an effort in the U.N. would only convince the Palestinians that they can stab their way to a state. Mind you, not a state next to Israel, but a state instead of Israel.”
Netanyahu said he hopes the United States “will maintain its long-standing position to reject such a U.N. resolution” establishing a Palestinian state — an issue foremost on AIPAC attendees’ list as thousands flood Capitol Hill today for their lobbying day.
“I was glad to hear the presidential candidates from both parties reaffirm this basic principle…. The best formula for achieving peace remains two states for two peoples in which a demilitarized Palestinian state finally recognizes the Jewish state.”
The prime minister stressed he’s “ready to begin such negotiations immediately, without preconditions, anytime, anywhere.”
“That’s a fact. But President Abbas is not ready to do so. That’s also a fact. There is political will here in Jerusalem. There is no political will there in Ramallah,” he said.
Netanyahu showed a video of the incitement taught to Palestinian children, emphasizing that the generation is “taught to hate” by Fatah as well as Hamas; the former praised the killer of American student Taylor Force as a “hero and a martyr.”
On Iran, Netanyahu underscored that the Islamic Republic “remains fully committed to genocide — our genocide.”
“Its leaders loudly, openly, even proudly, they say and proclaim that their goal is to destroy Israel,” he said. “Iran sends deadly weapons to Hezbollah and Lebanon against us. It bankrolls Hamas and Islamic jihad in Gaza against us. It seeks to open a new terror front on the Golan against us. And it offers thousands of dollars for each Palestinian terror attacks against us.”
“I believe that both those who supported the nuclear deal and those who opposed it, can at the very least work together to stop Iran’s aggression and terror and hold Iran accountable for its transgressions. Since the nuclear deal, Iran has continued to conduct ballistic missile tests, in defiance of its international obligations,” Netanyahu continued.
“As you’ve heard, Iran recently fired a ballistic missile with a Hebrew inscription painted on it. It said, Israel must be wiped out. So ladies and gentlemen, the writing is not on the wall. It’s on the missile.”
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