Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday 11 Menachem Av was interviewed on American Fox News, German ZDF and French CANAL + iTele.

Prime Minister Netanyahu told Fox News: “What you have right now is this terrific conflagration in the Middle East. You have ISIS taking swaths of Iraq and Syria. It’s now pushing into, right close to Lebanon and perhaps into Jordan. That’s very, very dangerous and ISIS is basically a sister movement of al-Qaeda. You have Hezbollah, radical Shiites fighting radical Sunnis; you have Hamas; and you have in Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and in North Africa a plethora of Islamist terrorist groups. Now, look, they’re all fighting among themselves, but they all agree that once they destroy, vanquish their Muslim moderates who are there who don’t share their views and they behead them and do horrible things to them. And then they have to get to Israel, which is the Western country in the region…but we’re the Small Satan. For all of them, you’re the Great Satan. The radical Shiites are backed by Iran. The radical Sunnis have various backers and so on, and these people fight among themselves who’ll be the king of the hill. But one thing they agree on, it’s going to be an Islamist hill and it’s going to be a world dominated by their unforgiving creed, their violent ideology which rejects modernity, rejects human rights, rejects, puts women as chattel, all minorities are subjugated or eliminated. I mean, it is a terrible, terrible world view with these competing sects who want to enforce it on the rest of humanity, those of humanity who will be left alive. A good portion will be destroyed. Now, this is the danger: that you have 21st century weapons with early medieval doctrines here, wedded together. And this is a great danger for the world. Israel is on the front line facing this terrible force and should be given support and who is the world supporting? Is it supporting Hamas, this, a terrorist tyranny of the worst kind, that is cruel to not only to us, but to its own people? Or is it supporting this vibrant, beleaguered democracy, Israel, that is trying to legitimately defend itself? And I think everybody should ask themselves that question, because by supporting Israel, you’re supporting yourself.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu told ZDF: “Hamas is part of a movement, an Islamist movement that wants to reconstruct an Islamic dominion without human rights, without plurality, women as chattel, no rights for minorities, for gays, you name it. They either don’t exist or they should be executed. This kind of unforgiving creed has anti-Semitism as part of its horrible doctrine. And that, when we see that spreading in parts of Europe, we‘re grateful when we see strong leaders like Angela Merkel, and some others in Europe, stand up forcefully against this anti-Semitism. I think that’s, we need support for Israel, but also the fight against anti-Semitism, and the liberal values that we all share. Support for the liberal values that we all share.”

Mr. Netanyahu told CANAL+iTele: “It’s not Israel’s battle. It’s your battle. It’s the battle of France, because it’s the same battle. If they succeed here, if Israel’s the one that’s blamed here and not the terrorists, if we don’t stand together, then this terror plague will come to you. It’s just a question of time. It will come to you, it will come to France.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)