Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Hamas had proven itself to be ISIS, or “Daesh,” the so-called “Islamic State” that horrified the world with its brutality — and that Israel would treat Hamas accordingly.
Netanyahu recounted some of the horrific killings carried out by the Iranian-backed Palestinian group, including dragging children out of their homes to be murdered.
“We always knew who Hamas was. Now the whole world knows,” Netanyahu said. “Hamas is Daesh, and we will treat it exactly as the civilized world treated Daesh.”
Netanyahu vowed to wage war against Hamas, and said the war would achieve five objectives:
- To remove Hamas terrorists from Israeli communities and Israeli territory;
- To launch a “massive” attack on Hamas in Gaza;
- To maintain calm on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, and its eastern frontiers in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank);
- To proceed with diplomatic normalization with the rest of the Arab and Muslim world; and
- To unite Israels.
To the latter end, Netanyahu repeated his offer to opposition parties to join an emergency national unity government.
“The rivalry between us is over. We are all united. And when we are united, we win.”
Netanyahu promised that the attacks on Gaza had only begun, and that “every place Hamas uses against us, will be transformed into ruins.”
The prime minister thanked President Joe Biden for his support, saying that the United States had responded to Israel’s security needs “in word and deed.”
He also warned Israelis against sharing “fake news” designed to hurt morale or unity.
Netanyahu later shared a message in English:
He said, in part:
“Once, the Jewish people were stateless. Once, the Jewish people were defenseless. No longer.
“Hamas will understand that by attacking us, they have made a mistake of historic proportions. We will exact a price that will be remembered by them and Israel’s other enemies for decades to come.
…
“Hamas is ISIS.
“And just as the forces of civilization united to defeat ISIS, the forces of civilization must support Israel in defeating Hamas.”
Notably, Netanyahu did not mention Iran.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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