Jerusalem – If Israel does not eliminate the Iranian threat, no one will, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.
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“Israel is not like other countries,” Netanyahu told his Likud faction in a meeting which came one week after his meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House. “We are faced with security challenges that no other country faces, and our need to provide a response to these is critical, and we are answering the call.”
“These are not regular times. The danger is hurtling toward us?The real danger in underestimating the threat,” Netanyahu said, addressing the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. “My job is first and foremost to ensure the future of the state of Israel … the leadership’s job is to eliminate the danger. Who will eliminate it? It is us or no one.”
“Our relationship with the United States is of great importance,” Netanyahu said. “Our situation today is different from our situation between 1996 and 1999. Our priorities must be inline with national security needs and we must unite in order to deflect the danger. The Defense Minister and I are working in coordination; he is not conducting an independent policy.”
Netanyahu added that he reached understandings Obama, among them that the most important goal for both countries is preventing Iran from attaining a nuclear military capability. Netanyahu told Likud members that Israel received a number of key pieces of defense aid from the Americans.
Addressing the differing Israeli and American approaches to the issue of West Bank settlements, Netanyahu said the issue resembled a disagreement between good friends.
“The Defense Minister and I are working in coordination; he is not conducting an independent policy,” he said. “During the elections I said that we are law-abiding and will deal with deal with the illegal outposts.”
Israel’s government and the American administration have expressed divergent views on how they perceive some of the most sensitive issues of the Middle East conflict.
The State Department said Sunday that the future status of Jerusalem would be determined through peace negotiations, despite Netanyahu’s declaration last week that the capital would “never again be partitioned and divided.”
“Jerusalem is a final status issue. Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to resolve its status during negotiations. We will support their efforts to reach agreements on all final status issues,” a State Department spokesman said when asked to respond to Netanyahu’s proclamation that Jerusalem would always remain under Israeli sovereignty.
At a state ceremony marking the annual Jerusalem Day on Thursday, Netanyahu said” “United Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. Jerusalem was always ours and will always be ours. It will never again be partitioned and divided.”
A U.S. Congressional delegation in Jerusalem said on Sunday that it was “skeptical” that Netanyahu’s government would be able to move the peace process with the Palestinians ahead.
The five-person delegation from the sub-committee on the Middle East was headed by Congressman Gary Ackerman from New York, who is considered one of Israel’s greatest friends on Capitol Hill. The delegation met with President Shimon Peres and other senior officials in Israel and in the Palestinian Authority.
The representatives had tough questions for the Israelis on construction in West Bank settlements and protested Israel’s intention to continue building to accommodate “natural growth.” They also expressed great concern over the siege on Gaza, noting that the civilian population was suffering greatly from a lack of food and medicine.
The prime minister said he had made the same declaration about the unity of Jerusalem during his recent visit to Washington, where he met with Obama over the peace process and Iran’s nuclear program.
“Only under Israeli sovereignty will united Jerusalem ensure the freedom of religion and freedom of access for the three religions to the holy places,” Netanyahu added.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said later Thursday that Netanyahu’s position on Jerusalem was a setback to the goal of a two-state solution, which is strongly supported by the Obama administration.
“Mr. Netanyahu, by saying that, he’s saying the state of conflict will be eternal,” Erekat said.
leiv meluchim v’surim byad hashem
finally some measure of accountability before prime ministers were not accountable to their party that elected them i wonder why
lets go bibi hit them out of the park enough talk already lets see some action.
I just hope Bibi does not cave to the incredible pressure
Bibi before you attack please give us ample time to Pray to Hashem first, because after all Hashem is calling the shots.
Go bibi go
Fine words – and in the meantime Barak goes on destroying Jewish homes, with Netanyahu’s full approval. If he’s so concerned about illegal building, why focus on a few dozen or a few hundred Jewish homes without building permits, when there are many thousands of Arab homes, just as illegal, which are constantly being built in order to secure Arab claim to the land they’re on? Not a single one of those has been demolished, or even threatened with demolition, while Barak seeks out Jews who are harming nobody as they stake a claim for Israel on land that will otherwise be overrun by Arabs. Remember that ALL Jewish “settlements” are on land that is either owned by Jews, or not owned by anybody (i.e. “state land”). There is no such thing as a Jewish “settlement” on land owned by Arabs.
If Bibi wants to do it let him do it already and TALK LESS.
He is so stupid to open he mouth about it first so that he invites pressure to talk him out of it.
If Bibi was serious he would just do it first and talk about later rather than talk first and make sure international pressure kills his plans.
What an idiot!
Why is everyone cheering up to BIBI to go ahead..Dont we know how much yiddis blood this will cost us….Are we allowed to act on the backbone of the jewish people who live in Israel and how this can spill out to other countries.? This is Misgare Beimois which satmere rebbe zt”l writes in his sefer Vyoel Moshe..Let the USA and the rest of the world take care of Iran and chas veshulem we get attacked Israel has its right to defend himself……Let hashem watch all over us barba kanfois huertz….
it is not that netanyahu does not want to give up jerusalem or have 2 states
remember he gave up chevron
he wants to start negoitating from that point (it is a smart negoitiating move) he starts of with i am giving you no land i am giving you peace and lets work from there. the arabs and the americans (friend like ackerman who needs enemies) want him to give in before he negoitiates this is at least the difference between him and labor or the other parties
go bibi be “good for the jews”
who realy knows whats better for israel and klal yisroal? Can israel win a war with all the arabs if they could not even win hamas?
I’m not sure if any of you have ever paid attention to middle eastern politics (Israel included), but they all talk big. saddam was talking big about nukes to keep his people and enemys (iran and other arab countries) in check. Iran didn’t start talking about nukes till saddam was taken out.I doubt they have them. Achmadenijad needs to bark and bark to appease his handlers and the right wing nut job islamofacists. And as we all know all Israeli pm’s do is talk a good game. In the end they always cave to U.S. pressure. Maybe someone should talk to the 78% of jews that voted in the arab loving obama
Why do people want to see so much bloodshed unleashed by the Zionists and just stay home and watch all the action? Why? Why do some frummelach like to tell others how to make war? Why????
“If Israel does not eliminate the Iranian threat, no one will”
The statement is incorrect. The proper statement is: If the United States, which dictates all Israeli decisions, does not give Israel the green light to eliminate the Iranian threat, no one will.
Why has Bibi not learned from the fist time around that the Israeli government not control its own destiny?
After Israel succeeds in destroying Iran’s nuclear capability in “one blow”, the whole Arab world will shiver, just as they did after the 1967 war. At that time Israel will be able to dictate peace terms to all of its Arab neighbors, and therefore, not only will it remove the Iranian nuclear threat, but it will also bring peace to that region!
In the iraq mission there an element of surprise. Not so here. Israel needs to pressure the US to remove the threat. Not the other way around. If israel destroys the nukes succesfully. There will be catastropihic consequenses. If they don’t there may be even bigger losses. This may be the final showdown
Most of the points here are pretty valid.
1. The odds of Iran striking E”Y with a nuke is a near certainty if we strike Iran. This will lead to tens-of if not hundreds-of thousands dead in E”Y
2. We absolutely CANNOT allow Iran to continue its enrichment. Iran MUST be stopped.
So what is the answer? I lean toward striking Iran, but at the same time I have to wonder whether Iran would ever REALLY have the nerve to launch an unprovoked strike on E”Y with a nuke. The US and allies would wipe Iran off the map if they did. However, if we strike first, we will not get that same support. It could guarantee massive loss of life in E”Y.
Those who think that there is a simple solution (on both sides of the issue) to this problem are fools who understand NOTHING about the geopolitical world. Go out and learn something about the way the world REALLY works for a change. NOTHING is that simple.
When hitr said he wanted to kill the jews, he did. Let’s learn the lesson that history and Gd wanted us to learn
We need to daven that the State of Israel be dismantled immediately. They have clearly not done anything to protect the Yidden anywhere, ever. There is always another reason why, of course. Never their fault. America and the Arabs – that’s all. Read sefer V’yoel Moshe even if you do or don’t belong to Satmar; it has nothing to do. Besides for Satmar Rav z”l being a great man, a person should accept the truth from whoever is saying it.
WW2 wasn’t arranged by the Arabs – our safety isn’t dependant on them just like it’s not dependant on Israel. It’s true that you and I can’t physically do anything to stop the sin of Zionism, but we do need to be upset with it- that’s halachically enough for us – if we want to be shielded from the consequences of this sin. And as mentioned above we need to daven that the State of Israel vanishes while all yiden are safe. Yes, Hashem is capable of that.
#2 b’h we had nissim all the time. IDF has to do their thing and hashem does the ness. #37 pogroms , spanish inquisition, gezeros tah, vetat, warshaw getto, auswitz,chelemeniki. etc etc pogroms every sunday after priests ruffeled up the E.Y.?
The oynish for Zionism is that Jewish blood will ch”v be hefker. WW2 was a direct answer to Zionism- even though there wasn’t yet an official State. Zionism was in the hearts of many yidden rch”l. And while it’s true that there were problems before Zionism started, R’ Elchonon Wasserman z”l hy”d said that when there are obvious reasons for something, one should first fix those problems and then see how to further deal with the rest. As for your last statement, there was never so much Jewish blood shed while the Jews were in relative peaceful times with the goyim. As for the Arabs, they also never displayed such numbers of murder before the erection of the State.