President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday thanked US President Joe Biden following his address to the American people and the world about the Hamas terrorist attack on Simchat Torah, in which over 1,000 Israelis were massacred.
“On behalf of the entire people of Israel, thank you President Joe Biden. You have shown once again what a great friend you are of Israel, its people, and the Jewish People as a whole. We are truly grateful,” Herzog wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In his speech, Biden said, "There are moments in this life, I mean this literally, when the pure, unadulterated evil is unleashed on this world. The people of Israel lived through one such moment this weekend."
"The bloody hands of the terrorist organization Hamas, a group whose stated purpose for being is to kill Jews," he added. "This was an act of sheer evil."
Biden stated that Hamas' brutality "brings to mind the worst rampages of ISIS."
"Sadly for the Jewish people, it's not new. This attack has brought to the surface painful memories and the scars left by a millennium of antisemitism and genocide of the Jewish people."
He declared: "In this moment, we must be crystal clear: We stand with Israel, we stand with Israel. And we will make sure Israel has what it needs to take care of its citizens, defend itself and respond to this attack."
"Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people's right to dignity and self-determination," Biden said. "Its stated purpose is the annihilation of the State of Israel and the murder of Jewish people. They use Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas offers nothing but terror and bloodshed, with no regard to who pays the price."
"Like every nation in the world, Israel has the right to respond, indeed, has a duty to respond, to these vicious attacks," the President declared. "I just got off the phone with my third call with Prime Minster Netanyahu, and I told him: if the United States experienced what Israel experienced, our response would be swift, decisive, and overwhelming."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday evening spoke with Biden for the third time since the outbreak of the war.
The President reiterated that the US stood by Israel and fully supports its right to defend itself. The Prime Minister thanked the US President for his unequivocal support and made it clear that a powerful and prolonged campaign – which Israel will win – will be necessary.
Netanyahu then told Biden, "Mr. President, Joe, I want to thank you for you continued and unequivocal support and the work of your entire administration to support us. The Israeli people were deeply moved by the emotion that Admiral Kirby showed in his interview yesterday. It was deeply moving, and it represented the depth of commitment that you have, your administration have and the American people have for Israel."
"Joe, I want to give you a clear picture of the difficult situation we face: We were struck Saturday by an attack whose savagery we have not seen since the Holocaust. We've had hundreds massacred, families wiped out in their beds in their homes, women brutally raped and murdered, over 100 kidnapped, including children.
"And since we last spoke, the extent of this evil, it's only gotten worse. They took dozens of children, bound them up, burned them and executed them. They beheaded soldiers. They mowed down these youngsters who came to a nature festival and just put five jeeps around a depression in the soil, and like Babi Yar, they mowed them down, making sure that they killed everybody.
"We've never seen such savagery in the history of the State. They're even worse than ISIS and we need to treat them as such."