Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu released a statement offering condolences to Paris on Wednesday night, after Islamists launched a horrific shooting rampage at the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine office which killed 12 people.
"On behalf of the citizens of Israel, I offer condolences to the President of France, the bereaved families and the French people," Netanyahu stated. "Israel as a whole stands with you during this difficult time."
"Two years ago we saw a very large upswing in international terrorism, [specifically] Islamist terror," he continued. "Radical Islamist terror does not know borders, and therefore the struggle against it must be cross-border."
Netanyahu noted that he warned the international community of such an upswing before, and even reiterated this warning recently.
"I was standing UN podium a few months ago and I said that if Hamas terrorism, Hezbollah terrorism, ISIS and al-Qaeda terrorism does not stop here and now, it would spread all over the world," he said, adding that "if we do not fight it consistently, with unity and determination, the horrible acts we saw today in Paris will not be the last or the worst."
"The purpose of Islamic terrorism is not an agreement, is not based on borders, and is not based on Israel - not mainly Israel and not even first and foremost Israel," he continued. "The main goal of Islamic terrorism is to destroy societies, and countries, to stamp out human civilizations based on freedom and the culture of choice, and to impose in its place a fanatical dictatorship which returns humanity to another era."
"Therefore, free societies and all civilized people must unite and fight this terrorism," he urged. "To fight it means both physically and against false arguments, and to no way accept their justifications for their motives. Above all, we must support each other on the same cohesive and assertive front [against it]."
Earlier Wednesday, two or three heavily armed gunmen stormed the offices of the Charlie Hebdo weekly, shouting Islamist slogans as they fired.