Netanyahu meets foreign journalists
Netanyahu meets foreign journalistsHaim Zach/GPO

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday evening attended the Annual GPO New Year's toast for foreign journalists at the Shalva National Center in Jerusalem.

He was asked about Israel's red lines regarding Iran and replied, "Our red line is our survival. We do what is necessary to protect the state of Israel against the Iranian regime that openly calls for the annihilation of the Jewish state."

"I'm not ruling out doing anything that we need to do to defend ourselves," added Netanyahu. “For the moment Israel's military is the only military in the world that is directly engaging the Iranian forces. We're doing that in Syria and pulling them back. Because what they want to do is bring their army right here, 1,500 kilometers from Iran to our border. Bring in missiles from 400-700 kilometers which covers all of Israel. Bring in 80,000 Shiite militias with the express purpose of destroying us.”

“My policy has been we're going to stop you. We're going to stop things, bad things when they're small. So we meet Iran head on in Syria and if we need to we'll do whatever else we need to do to protect ourselves. As you would too," the prime minister said.

He was also asked about the investigations against him and whether political considerations could influence early elections.

"I believe nothing will come of it because there is nothing in it. And it doesn't affect me, it doesn't affect my support, because people believe what I just said and they also believe that we're doing the right things for the country – economically, militarily, diplomatically.”

He added, “You can see the roads, the highways that are built. You can see the prosperity and the construction. And this is in the heart of the Middle East which is the most volcanic region in the world politically and in terms of security. Israel is like an island of progress. Not that we don't have challenges. We do, we just spoke about that but people can appreciate it. And I believe nothing will come out of it and I believe the Israeli public will also express that when the time comes."