AJ
⚡️ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was interviewed on TV on Thursday, saying: “Today we attacked Beirut and yesterday in Tyre, and our forces have crossed the Litani river – we are hitting and will hit them very hard and we will solve the drone threat – the struggle continues, it has no end, unless you surrender.”
🔹 Speaking about Gaza, Netanyahu said that Israel controls 60% of the Gaza Strip: “And my Directive is to move to 70% – we’ll start with that – we are in a process where we can leverage our power in many directions, we will still need to put pressure on Hezbollah, but right now we are also grappling with Hamas.”
🔹 Proud of how Israel are doing, despite clear issues on all fronts, the PM said that Israel is no longer merely a regional power, because it is already a global power, and why a global power? “Because we possess world-class technologies,” he said: “Today they see it – in the Gulf and elsewhere – we are now in a position to leverage our power in many directions.”
🔹 Netanyahu claimed that Israel’s GDP per capita was approaching $70,000 GDP, alleging they bypass Britain, Germany, Italy – everyone – but admitted Israel still had a long way to go.
Speaking about the recent bad press Israel have received due to their committed and proven actions, Netanyahu said: “We face delegitimization in much of the world – but not in India – in India, there is an absolutely crazy love for Israel, truly crazy,” adding: “I think I have more followers from Inida than from anywhere else.”
🔹 Netanyahu next spoke about funding the military: “If you want tanks, aircraft, submarines, intelligence, and cyber capabilities, you need money – and where will this money come from? ‘Let’s heavily tax the rich?’ Thank you very much – everyone from Israel will flee from here.”
🔹 Instead, Israel chose the opposite approach, he said: “Free the economy and impose lower taxes on a much larger economic pool – that is how we generate the resources.”
🔹 Speaking on the Lebanon front and FPV drones, Netanyahu said: “I went to the southern front six weeks ago and they showed me an FPV drone that was so small,” adding that he said it was a threat, a word he wouldn’t use too much, but this was a strategic threat to the country.
🔹 Netanyahu said: “This is a global pandemic, because we see it between Ukraine and Russia, and we have no doubt that here too will be the first country in the world to provide solutions.”
🔹 Germany has been approaching Israel recently because it wants to rebuild its military, Netanyahu said, stating the Chancellor told them: “You have industries with amazing technologies – we want to partner with you.”
🔹 Netanyahu said: “80 years after the Holocaust, when we were defenceless and incapable on the soil of Europe, and where a third of our people were killed – Europe now comes to us and wants us to protect them.”
🔹 Speaking about the issues in the Persian Gulf, Netanyahu said that as a result of the crisis, the world diversified its energy resources, finding oil in new places and created new supply routes, stating: “That is what is going to happen here as well – I’m already telling you – they will begin searching for energy pipelines that move westward instead of the through the Gulf,” adding: “And we have the opportunity to be on that route to the Mediterranean – we will see great changes!”
🔹 The Israeli Prime Minister then endorsed expanding Israeli settlements across what he described as ‘the Land of Israel,’ calling the settlement expansion a ‘national mission,’ adding that both he and the Minister of Settlements Orit Strook had approved new settlements just before his remarks.
🔹 Netanyahu argued that Arab states, like the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco, normalise relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords not because of the pathway to a Palestine state, but because they viewed Israel as a powerful ally against Iran.
🔹 “The Abraham Accords with four Arab countries were born not because we went to the Palestinians and said, ‘we recognise a Palestinian country…’ No, we did not do that,” Netanyahu said, adding: “We made peace for peace, but peace for strength.”
🔹 Netanyahu said regional countries sought alliances with Israel because cooperation strengthened both sides economically and militarily against what he described as a shared Iranian threat, adding that states in the region feared being ‘conquered by Iran,’ while dismissing concessions toward Palestinian statehood as a ‘sign of weakness.’
