Netanyahu To Douglas Murray: ‘Everyone Understands The Need To Eradicate Hamas’

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — In a candid exclusive interview with New York Post columnist Douglas Murray, Prime Minister Netanyahu stressed that Israel’s war with Hamas is part of a major confrontation between Israel and the moderate Arab states and Iran and its proxies, “who are killing Americans as we speak.”

Netanyahu spoke prior to the revelation that three US servicemen had been killed in Jordan and 34 injured in an attack blamed by the US on Iran. Netanyahu stressed that the current war is between radical Islamists and the western world, and despite the large-scale demonstrations supporting Hamas, most people and national leaders understand that Israel must crush Hamas.

“I think in America, the great majority of people support Israel. They understand instinctively that Israel is fighting their battle. They understand instinctively what the terrorists, the radical Islamists, say. They say we’re the small Satan. America is the great Satan,” Netanyahu said.

Douglas Murray interviews Netanyahu pic.twitter.com/E7BWdXRSEO

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Referring to Hezbollah, Netanyahu said that Israel would use either diplomacy or military power to push the terrorist entity away from Israel’s borders. Netanyahu admitted for the first time that it is Israel that has been taking action deep inside Lebanon, also hinting at its responsibility for the elimination of Saleh el-Harouri earlier this month.

On the ground inside Gaza, Netanyahu remains committed to his goals of eradicating Hamas and ensuring the release of the hostages.

“Look, you know this statement, ‘A man’s got to do what a man’s gotta do’?, ” Netanyahu said. “Remember the days when you can actually say that? Well, today you say, ‘A person has to do what a person has to do.’ Okay. Well, let me extend that. A nation has to do what it has to do to survive. And if we take action both in the south and in the north, that is understood by many to be a just action.”

Yet apart from that, surely Israel’s allies realize the scale of the Iranian threat, and the fact that Israel is having to fight Iran’s armies on four fronts at the moment?

“Everybody, of the leaders that I speak to, they all understand that,” Netanyahu added, explaining that his battle to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weapons is a battle that the world should be more supportive of. “But again, we’ll do what we need to do,” he adds. “Israel will do what it needs to do to protect itself.”

The believes that Israel has succeeded in delaying Israel’s quest for a bomb “probably by a decade.”

For someone who has made it his life’s mission to protect the Jewish state, the failures of Israel’s security apparatus on Oct. 7 clearly hit hard.

Knowing that it will be used against him by his political opponents, he refuses to be drawn out on any personal responsibility for, or failures on, that day. But in Israel, many people — including a majority of the public — seem to think that this is the end of Netanyahu’s road. Murray asked Netanyahu if his political career has ended in failure.

“I don’t care,” the prime minister answered. “This whole legacy obsession is one that I don’t really care very much for. It’s not my biography that counts. The sands of time, you know, will wash away. The waves will wash away everything. All the footprints in the sand. But, you know, we have to do what we can in the time that we have available to defend this country and to assure its future. And that’s what I’m doing. That’s what I care about.”