Following is an excerpt from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s remarks, on Tuesday, 16 Kislev 5774, at a conference on Israeli-French innovation:

“What we are seeing is the future. I think where radical Islam is trying to take us is the past. We are for modernity. They are for a dark medievalism. We’re for opening up our societies for everyone – men, women, minorities, the right to be different. They’re for uniform suppression of a rigid doctrine and they want to back it up with weapons of death.

“They shouldn’t be allowed to do that. I think it would be a grave mistake to repeat the mistake that was done vis-à-vis North Korea, another closed society, doctrinaire, rigid and aggressive. I think in the case of Iran, there is an opportunity. It would be a great mistake to capitulate before Iran when they have all reasons right now to respond to the pressures that have been put on them. Rather than surrendering to their charm offensive, it’s important that they surrender to the pressure that can be brought to them to have them abandon their nuclear program.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)