Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) today regarding his determination to carry on the war in Gaza.
“We have to win this war,” he began. “The survival of Israel the future of Israel, the future of the Middle East, and beyond, depends on this victory.”
“This victory is within reach, because of the courage of our people and our soldiers,” he reassured the audience.
“How do we define victory? The destruction of Hamas's military and governing capability, the return of the hostages, and preventing Gaza from becoming a threat to Israel at any time in the future,” Netanyahu explained.
He moved on to address another issue: “There's also the northern front, where we want to return our people to a condition of security. Achieving that goal will be a stinging blow to Iran, which is behind everything we’re seeing here today.”
He also focused on the importance of the Iranian threat: “We all have to understand that this is not just Israel's battle, it is the battle for the victory of the of the Israeli, American, moderate Arab axis against the Iran axis, and unless we have victory we have terrible things for the future of the Middle East and beyond
“The people of Israel are united as never before, to have that victory over Hamas, to return the hostages, to ensure that Gaza doesn't become a terror haven and a source of threat to Israel in the future,” Netanyahu declared.
“We have to finish the job. No local Gazan is going to stand up to Hamas, they'll get a bullet through their heads. The four battalions in Rafah will come back, reconquer the strip, eliminate any opposition, and repeat the October 7th Massacre over and over and over again.”
“We have smashed nineteen of the twenty-four battalions Hamas had. People said to us “You can't go into ground action”. We proved that to be false - our forces can go anywhere.”
“When people tell us don't complete the job, what they're actually saying is don't win the war. Ostensibly they say it because they're worried about the civilian population. So are we. The army has presented plans to take over Rafah, destroy the remaining battalions, and a humanitarian plan for the civilian population.”
Netanyahu described the main challenge in sending humanitarian aid to Gaza: “The problem is not getting the trucks there, but distribution. How do you prevent looting? We’ve authorized some Gazans to distribute the supplies, but they will only do it if they think Hamas is gone. The people of Israel also don’t want the PA in charge there, because they will continue to educate Gazan children towards terrorism.”
He addressed some of the misconceptions of the situation outside of Israel: “The picture that is presented in the last few days and weeks in the United States is completely different from what I described. The great majority of people will tell you that they support what I just described, but add “You have an outlier Prime Minister with some extreme fringe groups and that's what's driving the policy.” That is deliberately false. I’ve said this to the President as well - there is unity among the people to achieve victory along the lines that I described. it is within reach, and we're going to do it.”