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Photo: Avi Ohayon, GPO
Prime Minister Netanyahu on his way to the US
Photo: Avi Ohayon, GPO

Netanyahu: Hamas, Islamic State share the same fanatic ideology

During his UN speech, prime minister reiterates Israeli position Iran must not be allowed to obtain nuclear bomb: 'Would you let ISIS enrich uranium or develop IBMs? Then you can't let Iran either.'

Defeating the Islamic State, but leaving Iran with a nuclear bomb would be akin to winning the battle but losing the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday in his speech at the UN General Assembly.

 

 

Read Netanyahu's full speech here.

 

In his speech, the prime minister drew a link between the threat Israel faces from Hamas in Gaza, to the threat the international community at large faces from the Islamic State. "Hamas, like the Islamic State, wants a caliphate," he said.

 

"Hamas' immediate goal is to destroy Israel but has a wider goal the same as ISIS," the prime minister said. "ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree. When it comes to their ultimate goals: Hamas is ISIS and ISIS is Hamas."

 

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"Israel's fight against Hamas is world's fight against militantism," Netanyahu asserted. "The fight against militant Islam is indivisible. That's why Israel's fight against Hamas is your fight. Israel is fighting what your countries might be force to fight tomorrow."

 

Hamas, Islamic State, Hezbollah and other militant Islam organizations "all share a fanatic ideology. They seek to create ever expanding enclaves of militant Islam. Where there is no freedom or tolerance," Netanyahu warned.

 

"The Nazis believed in a master race. The militant Islamists believe in a master faith."  

 

Netanyahu at the UN: 'Hamas has the same goal as ISIS' (Photo: AFP) (Photo: AFP)
Netanyahu at the UN: 'Hamas has the same goal as ISIS' (Photo: AFP)
  

Rouhani's 'crocodile tears'

Not unlike these militant Islam organizations, Iran is just as dangerous, the prime minister said. "Iran with a nuclear weapon will be the most grave threat to us - militant Islamists with a nuclear bomb."

 

"It's one thing to confront militant Islamists in a pickup truck with a rifle, another thing when they have weapons of mass destruction," he said. "Would you let ISIS enrich uranium or develop intercontinental ballistic missiles? Then you can't let Iran either." 

 

"To defeat ISIS and to leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power is to win the battle and lose the war," Netanyahu added.

 

Netanyahu at the UN: 'Don't be fooled by Iran's manipulative charm offensive' (Photo: Shahar Azran)
Netanyahu at the UN: 'Don't be fooled by Iran's manipulative charm offensive' (Photo: Shahar Azran)

 

"Iran's President Rouhani stood here last week shedding crocodile tears," the prime minister accused.

 

"Don't be fooled by Iran's manipulative charm offensive," he cautioned. "It's designed for one purpose only: To lift the sanctions and remove the obstacles on Iran's path to the bomb."

 

"Allowing that to happen would be a grave danger to our common future. Once Iran produces atomic bombs the charm and smiles will disappear," he continued.

 

Netanyahu enjoyed applause when the assembly hall when he reiterated Israel's position that "Iran's nuclear capabilities must be fully dismantled."

 

'Hamas uses children to protect its rockets'

Turning his attention back to the fight against Hamas and Operation Protective Edge, the prime minister asked the congregated delegates "What would your countries do if thousands of rockets were fired at your cities?"

 

"You wouldn't let terrorists fire rockets at your cities with impunity," Netanyahu said, answering his own question.

 

"Israel justly defended itself against both rocket attacks and terror tunnels," he said.

 

Hamas, Netanyahu said, was fighting a propaganda war. "Hamas cynically used Palestinians and UN schools as shields and storage sites while firing at Israel."

 

He also responded to accusations from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in his own UN speech, that Israel had committed "genocide" in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge.

 

"We did not deliberately target civilians in Gaza and we regret every civilian casualty," Netanyahu said. "No other country and no other army in history has gone to greater lengths to avoid casualties among the civilian population of their enemy. Our soldiers uphold the highest moral values of any army in the world - they should be admired not condemned."

 

Hamas, on the other hand, "was doing everything it could to target civilian lives," he said.

 

Netanyahu presenting photo of Palestinian children playing near a rocket launcher (Photo: AFP)
Netanyahu presenting photo of Palestinian children playing near a rocket launcher (Photo: AFP)

 

"Hamas deliberately placed its rockets where Palestinian children lived and played," Netanyahu continued, pulling out a photo from a France 24 report during the war, showing Gazan children playing near a rocket launcher. "These are the real war crimes," he said. 

 

"Israel was using its missiles to protect its children, Hamas was using its children to protect its missiles," he charged. "Hamas deliberately put its rockets in hundreds of residential areas."

 

UN Human Rights Council an 'oxymoron'

He censured the UN Human Rights Council as well, criticizing them for their hypocrisy in condemning Israel for its actions while "sending a message to terrorists everywhere: use children as human shields."

 

"The UNHRC has betrayed its noble mission to protect the innocent. The Human Rights Council has become the Terrorist Rights Council," Netanyahu said. "Even the term 'UN Human Rights Council' is an oxymoron."

 

Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly (Photo: EPA)
Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly (Photo: EPA)

 

According to Netanyahu, the UN Human Rights Council's "bias against Israel" is a new form of anti-Semitism.

 

'I'm willing to make a compromise'

The prime minister saved the topic of the Israeli-Palestinian peace negoations, halted in April, for last.
 
"I am ready to make a historic compromise," he said.
 
"A broader rapprochement between Israel and the Arab world may help facilitate Israeli-Palestinian peace," Netanyahu said. "Israel is prepared to work with Arab partners to confront dangers and seize opportunities."
 
The Arab peace initiative, however, "should be updated according to current realities."
 
"In any peace agreement I will always insist that Israel be able to defend itself by itself," the prime minister stressed. "Some may still not take Israel's security concerns seriously. Make no mistake. But I do and I always will."
 
Netanyahu concluded his speech by quoting Prophet Isaiah: "For the sake of Zion, I will not be silent. For the sake of Jerusalem, I will not be still."

 

"Let us light a torch of truth and justice to safeguard our common future."

 


פרסום ראשון: 09.29.14, 19:07
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