Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told hundreds of attendees at a JNS event in Surfside, Florida, on Wednesday that more than two years after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, “Israel has come out of this war stronger than ever before.”
Speaking at the Shul of Bal Harbour, Netanyahu said Israel’s economic resilience is a central pillar of that strength. “Stronger than ever before economically. What does strong mean? Well, we just signed a $37 billion gas deal,” he said. “That’s strong. We just had Nvidia - they decided to have a massive investment in Israel, and we welcome it.”
Netanyahu emphasized that Israel’s growing alliances and regional partnerships are the product of national power. “We have opened up opportunities for peace that have never existed before. In the first term of President Trump’s office, we did the Abraham Accords that brought four historic peace accords with four Arab states,” he said. “We’re committed to do more.”
“It’s peace through strength,” he added. “It’s prosperity through strength.”
Netanyahu devoted a significant portion of his remarks to confronting antisemitism. “I say to you, members of the Jewish community of the United States, the last thing you should do before antisemitic attacks, as they attack you - the last thing you should do is lower your head and seek cover,” he said. “That’s not what you should do. You should stand up and be counted. You should fight back.”
“You should delegitimize your delegitimizers,” he continued. “Nobody will fight for you more than you fight for yourself.”
“When Israel is strong, others want to partner with us. You stand up and be counted, and you will see the difference,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.”
“Don’t cower. Don’t lower your head,” he added. “Speak up. Stand up. Fight back. That’s the important thing: fight, fight, fight. And then shall win, win, win with God’s help.”
Netanyahu also commented on the efforts to return the body of the last remaining hostage in Gaza, Ran Gvili. “We shall return him and we’re working on it right now,” he said. “He shall be back. The first one in, last one out, but he’ll be back.”
Netanyahu also praised the United States and its leadership. He cited the “friendship of the United States and the support of a president like no other: President Donald J. Trump.”
“I appreciated the fact that at the beginning stages of the war President Biden came to us well. But President Trump has been unflinching, consistent. He never wavers,” Netanyahu said. “His gut, his heart - we don’t say ‘gut,’ we say his kishkes - his instinctive support for the State of Israel, his understanding of what is right and what is just.”
“That’s been there from day one, and we have shown what happens when the president of the United States and the prime minister of Israel have no daylight between them: Wonderful things. Wondrous things can happen,” he said.