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Netanyahu: �Gaza is a frontline battle between Militant Islam and the rest of the World�
I was on a One Jerusalem bloggers call with Likud Party Leader, former Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Listen to the One Jerusalem bloggers call with Netanyahu, here.
Netanyahu’s Churchillian cadence was honed in his early years as the son of a famous Israeli academic growing up in America. He is a leading opposition candidate for PM in the upcoming February 10th elections. Electioneering for the general election in Israel has all but ceased during the Gaza conflict with Hamas. Netanyahu, however, has been ubiquitous in the Western media. He has given hundreds of interviews conveying the legitimacy and urgency of Israel’s fight against the Jihadi Hamas terrorist army. He has focused on the “highway of rockets” aimed at Israeli citizens for nearly eight years.
This bloggers call had an opening question from
Washington Times columnist,
Diana West relayed by One Jerusalem President, Allen Roth: “Is this battle a local affair or a battle on behalf of the West?” Netanyahu replied the Gaza battle has “enormous implications for Israel and the West. It is the frontline between Militant Islam and the rest of the World”. As Netanyahu further commented, “there are enormous global consequences if Iran has a victory or defeat in Gaza.” This is according to him, “a fight against Militant Islam backed by Iran.” He chastised the world for “giving credence to firing rockets on [Israeli] civilians.” In effect the world would be legitimizing Militant Islam. In my view he is perhaps the first Western leader who has understood the grave consequences of not confronting the “nuclear umbrella” of terrorist state sponsor, Iran. Iran is intent on using proxies to fulfill its annihilationist aims against Israel and others in the Middle East. An Iran not above giving Islamic terrorists the weapons of mass destruction.
Using the paradigm of “just versus unjust wars, just goals and unjust means” Netanyahu clearly considers Hamas conducting an “unjust war with unjust means.” Israel had no option but to act in self defense ferreting out terrorists.
Roth followed with a question about the possible results of the Gaza operations when the fighting stops? Netanyahu stated clearly that “Israel cannot tolerate an Iranian forward base.” It must remove the threat of rocket firings and close the land connection between Gaza and Sinai that facilitated smuggling of weapons, munitions, and technical experts via Egyptian territory.
I asked Netanyahu whether the conflict in Gaza has finally ended the peace process begun with Oslo for a Two State solution leading to a Palestinian state. He replied that Israel must first re-establish security in the area. It might assist in shoring up moderates among West Bank Palestinians with economic enterprises and programs. However, he was convinced that any final peace settlement was not realistic. As he put it, “you cannot build on the apex of a pyramid; rather you must build a firm base.”
He was asked by a blogger whether there would be a change in US policy towards Israel with the incoming Obama Administration. He noted Obama’s Sderot comments about how he would react to rockets being fired at his two daughters at home. He hoped that the Obama Administration would continue the US policy of siding with Israel. We shall soon see the realities of Obama’s foreign policy in the Middle East region vis a vis Israel and Iran.
When asked by blogger John Hawkins about the consequences of unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, Netanyahu emphasized three points. First, was that unilateral withdrawal from Gaza was a big mistake that threatened Israel’s security. He noted in reply to another blogger that he resigned as Sharon’s Finance Minister in protest against the August 2005 expulsion of Israelis from the Gush Katif settlements in Gaza. His second major point was that abandonment of Israeli control of the Philadelphi Corridor was a blunder that enabled the creation of a vast warren of smuggling tunnels which supplied Hamas with weapons, munitions and long range rockets courtesy of Iran and Syria. His third point was that the Egyptian brokered ‘Hudna’ (cease fire) expanded the range of rockets fired by Hamas threatening central Israel including Tel Aviv and the nuclear facility at Dimona.
At the conclusion of this One Jerusalem interview, Netanyahu returned to the theme of Iran as the “Militant Islam mother country”. He noted that the greatest danger facing the world’s Democracies is “Militant Islamic regimes with Nukes such as Pakistan and especially Iran.” Iran’s annihilationist designs for a nuclear umbrella are a “nightmare scenario” that Israel and the West must, in his view, come to terms with through concerted actions.
Netanyahu hopefully may be elected on February 10th as Israel’s next PM.
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