MK Danny Illouz, Likud, spoke to to Arutz Sheva – Israel National News on the occasion of the 100-day anniversary of the October 7th massacre and defined two goals for the cuurent war: destroying Hamas and rescuing the hostages.
Danny Illouz, Likud, said, “We've said from day one to all of our friends around the world that this will be a very long war. This is what we're seeing today. We didn't expect to get a quick win here. We knew that it would take a lot of time. We have already released a large number of our hostages in the previous deal, but we still have a lot of hostages that need to be released. Hamas has not yet been defeated. I don't know if we're midway in this war or less than midway. This will be a long war and we need a lot of patience. The goals of this war have not changed. After we saw the evil of Hamas on October 7th, after we saw this group that raped women and flaunted them around, burned children alive and kidnapped the elderly, after we saw this evil, we understood that we have to completely eradicate it from the face of this earth, and this is exactly what we're going to do. We’re going to eradicate Hamas from the face of this Earth. It's not done yet; we're in the process of doing it. We need patience.”
MK Illouz added, “I completely disagree with the defense minister’s decision to allow PA Arabs to work in Israeli cities [as Israel has continued to experience terror attacks, such as the attack in Raanana, and the thwarting of a massive attack in Adura in Judea and Samaria]. I think that it would be a big mistake to allow Palestinian workers to come back into Israeli cities. I want to remind you that 80% of Palestinians living in Judea and Samaria, not Gaza, supported the October 7th attack. That means that this is the main feeling in the Palestinian society. While we're fighting a war in Gaza, we cannot allow the danger of having these people come into our cities. We've seen that one illegal worker in Raanana yesterday committed a terrorist attack and we won't be able to control what happens when there's hundreds of thousands of Palestinian workers coming back into our cities. This needs to be stopped. I call on the defense minister not to push this forward and if he does, I'll use the parliamentary tools I have in order to try to stop it.”
"Some say that harming Arab economy will bring terror, but MK Illouz says that “this is exactly what was said to us also before October 7th. It was said that if there's a good economic situation in Gaza, then there will be no violence. We've seen this theory blow up in our face both literally and figuratively. So it's not something that I accept. It's not something that I can accept after October 7th. We will not go back to the mistakes that were made before October 7th. We need to fix our ways and this is one of the ways that we need fixing," he said.
On the international court case against Israel in the Hague, MK Illouz commented, “What's going on right now in the Hague is nothing more than a theater of the absurd. We can compare this to another time in history when the Allied Forces defeated the Nazis and it would be like bringing the US and England to court, when they are appearing before judges who are Nazi sympathizers, judging whether it was right or not for the Allied Forces to save the Free World. That's basically what we are seeing right now. Israel is a freedom loving democracy. Hamas is a terrorist organization, not much different in its ideology to the Nazis. We have Hamas sympathizers judging Israel on whether Israel is committing a genocide or not. I want to remind you that Hamas is calling for genocide in its Charter. It's really the theater of the absurd. I think that Israel shouldn't have taken part in it. Right now I do not know exactly what the result of the court case will be, but I'm not optimistic and I don't think that it should influence in any way what Israel does. We know that our way is the right way, and we'll need to move forward with or without international support. We'll try to gain international support, because we obviously understand the value of it, but we'll move forward with or without it.”
MK Illouz said that he believes that “Israel is very grateful for US support and I do not see yet any call for a ceasefire from the US. I do see some disagreements. It happened in the beginning already with the issue of how much humanitarian aid and what type of humanitarian aid we should bring in. Right now we have some disagreements, but these are disagreements between friends. Even so, I do want to say something very clear, even to the US. We hope to gain your support. We believe we are right and deserve your support, but with or without your support we will continue in this just war until we defeat Hamas, because it's an existential question for us here in Israel. We cannot allow the massacre of October 7th to go on with a weak answer, or to go with no answer. The only possible answer has to be the eradication of Hamas and we will move on until we achieve this goal.”
Regarding the possibility of new elections MK Illouz said, “As I said, I think that we're in for a very, very long war. It's not going to be a short war. As long as this war is going on, any questions about political things or about elections are completely irrelevant. On the contrary, I hope that more people would join the current emergency government in order for us to be a united front against Hamas. The day after the war, which I don't on the horizon, but it will come on someday after we defeat Hamas, then we will be able to go back to the political discussions, to the disagreements. We're a very, very dynamic democracy, with people with different opinions and we'll get to that on the day after the war. But right now we must stay laser focused on our mission to win this war.”