Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who is visiting the US for meetings with members of Congress, appeared on Fox News on Sunday and said that Israel’s message is that it will not allow a terrorist state on its borders.
“We've got a job to do. We were attacked by a savage, barbaric terror organization which murdered, raped, burnt 1,400 Israelis – women, babies – and we will not tolerate a terrorist state next to us and we need to get the job done,” said Bennett.
“We'll do the job. We're not asking anyone else to do it. What we are telling everyone: ‘Do not tell us to stop in the middle,’” he added.
Bennett stressed that there is consensus across Israel that the job of eradicating Hamas needs to be done.
“Wall to wall, from the left to the right, religious, secular - all Israelis are united with one understanding: That there will be no more Hamas state on our door. We lived with that for about 15 years. We got to do the job. Just imagine: I was here in 9/11 in Manhattan, and imagine if Al-Qaeda wasn't in Afghanistan but in Mexico, on your border. Would America allow that to happen? Of course not. So we're going to complete the job and we will not appreciate anyone asking us to stop in the middle,” he stated.
Bennett admitted that it is tough for a soldier to have to go into Gaza and fight but added that “it's the job of soldiers to go in and fight, including being in harm's way, in order for civilians to never have to be slaughtered.”
“One story that keeps on pounding me every day is, right now, there is Avigail Adan, she's four years old and she lost her two parents on that day of slaughter, on that Saturday, and her older brother and sister, Amalia and Michael, they hid in a cupboard while the terrorists killed the parents and they are alive and Avigail, right now on her own, is in Gaza. She's being held hostage. A four-year-old girl! My youngest girl is called Avigail and I cannot imagine her being alone after her parents were slaughtered in front of her eyes in the hands of this terrorist group,” said Bennett.
“There are 230 hostages, babies. There's Kfir who's six months old. A six-month-old hostage! We will complete this job. This is the job of the Jewish state. We were taken by surprise and that is not okay, but now we collected ourselves and we're fighting back and we'll complete the job, which is to eliminate Hamas and bring home all the hostages.”
Asked about the pro-Palestinian Arab protest which took place outside the White House, Bennett replied, “I know that, widespread, American people are good people. They're people who believe in freedom and liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and I can only assume that the people out there are either radical Islamic believers and then I've got not much to say, or ignorant people who simply don't know what we're facing. We are fighting total evil, the very pure epitome of evil, and we have to continue.”
To the question of what does the future look like for Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister, Bennett replied, “I don't want to get into that. He's the Prime Minister of Israel right now and I back his government, not withstanding all disagreements. We have one government right now and one army and we've got an enemy that we have to defeat. I can tell you that all Israelis are united.”