Netanyahu press statement, 22.8.1
Netanyahu press statement, 22.8.1Israel news photo: Flash 90

The alleged chemical weapons attack on civilians in Syria “proves yet again that we cannot permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to acquire the world’s most dangerous weapons,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.

The reports from Syria “raise the possibility that an extremely grievous crime has been committed by the Syrian regime against its citizens,” Netanyahu said. “This act joins a series of crimes committed by the Syrian regime, with the aid of Iran and Hezbollah, against the Syrian people.”

“It is absurd,” he said, “that UN investigators, who are in Damascus right now to investigate the possibility that chemical weapons have been used, are being prevented by the Syrian regime from reaching the affected areas.”

“Syria has become Iran’s testing ground,” he noted, “and Iran is closely watching whether and how the world responds to the atrocities committed there by its client state Syria and its proxy Hezbollah against innocent civilians in Syria.”

The chairman of U.S.-based group Americans for a Safe Israel, Mark Langfan, pointed Thursday to the events of the last two days on Israel's northern border and in Syria, as proof of why Israel must never cede control of Judea and Samaria to a Palestinian state.

In an interview with Arutz Sheva, Langfan observed that the Katyusha fire from Lebanon Thursday morning and the chemical weapons attack a day earlier combine to illustrate the danger that will face Israel if it cedes the high ground of Judea and Samaria. Katyusha rockets carrying chemical warheads, he said, would turn Tel Aviv into “Auschwitz 2.”