In speech to opening Knesset session, PM vows to prevent Iranian nukes, make peace with more Arab countries.
Israel hit key Iranian sites hard in its airstrikes on Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a fiery address on Monday at the opening of the Knesset winter legislative session.
“We severely damaged Iran`s defense systems and its ability to export missiles,” Netanyahu said in a speech to the Knesset plenum. “These were not [basic tools] we were attacking. These are industrial factories of death and we struck them hard.”
Netanyahu obliquely pushed back on reports that the White House had convinced him to scale back the response to Iran`s October 1 ballistic missile attack, emphasizing that “we make decisions ourselves according to our interests and considerations.”
Seemingly responding to recent criticism that the ongoing war lacks clear strategic aims, the prime minister said Israel`s goals against Iran and its proxies are clear: “Our long-term strategy is to dismantle the axis of evil, to cut off its arms in the south and in the north, to exact a heavy price from Iran and its proxies and to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons.”
The IDF carried out a wave of strikes against targets in Iran early Saturday morning, almost four weeks after the Islamic Republic`s massive ballistic missile barrage on the country. The operation, hitting targets some 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) away, was unprecedented in terms of its scale and duration, as well as Israel`s immediate acknowledgment of responsibility.
The strikes came after weeks of Israel being urged to temper its response to the Iranian ballistic missile attack on Israel on October 1, which came days after Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of Iran`s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah. Satellite imagery of Iran has shown damage to a number of military sites, though Iranian leaders have sought to downplay the effects.
Netanyahu said Monday that Israel is the one obstacle keeping Iran from controlling the Middle East and threatening the rest of the world.
“The fanatical axis of evil led by Iran threatens to destroy our country and trap other countries in its net, and to threaten the West first of all. Iran is working for a stockpile of nuclear bombs and will be able to threaten the entire world whenever it wants,” he said.
According to Iran`s thinking, he argued, “if Israel falls, the entire Middle East will fall into its hands, but we will not fall. We will win and the whole world will be a better place.”
Turning to the fighting in Gaza and Lebanon, Netanyahu said that the “day after” the war, “Hamas will no longer rule Gaza and Hezbollah will not sit on our northern border.”
He also pledged that he will continue to make peace with Arab countries, without mentioning Saudi Arabia by name.
The prime minister also promised to bring all the hostages home, and to achieve the war aims he laid out at the beginning of the war: “Total victory is an orderly and consistent work plan that we fulfill step by step,” he insisted.
Gallant
Iran weakened for “when we want to attack later”:
Commenting on the strike on Iran, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant echoed Netanyahu`s proclamations, saying that Iran`s air defenses and missile production capabilities had been significantly weakened.
“The response seems very precise, high-quality and deadly for what we wanted to hit, and I think the IDF has not carried out an operation like this, the Air Force has not carried out an operation like this, since Operation Focus,” Gallant said in comments to top IAF officials and the IDF chief of staff, referring to the opening strikes of the 1967 Six Day War.
“This is a proof of ability” A very accurate hit on the radars and the air defense systems, which actually creates a big disadvantage for the enemy when we want to attack later,” he said.
According to Gallant`s office, he made the remarks shortly after the IDF`s strikes on Iran early Saturday, but they were only released on Monday.
The defense minister said that the strikes also damaged Iran`s missile production capabilities, leaving its stockpiles limited until manufacturing can resume.
Gallant said the damage to the air defenses and missile production caused “a change in the balance of power.”
“[Israel] remains with its power, [Iran] is weakened,” he added. “Both in [our] attacking ability and in its defensive ability and in its production ability.”
In his remarks to the opening session, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid launched into a full-throated attack on the government, arguing that “there has been no prime minister who weakened the State of Israel more than” Netanyahu.
Railing against the coalition from the plenum rostrum, Lapid argued that while Israel has had successes in taking out Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, Netanyahu and his government need to pull back on their “hubris” and arrogant talk.
“If you want credit for the successes, take responsibility for the failures as well,” he said. “If you want credit for the death of Nasrallah, take responsibility for the death of [hostage] Carmel Gat. If you want credit for the death of Sinwar, take responsibility for those murdered in [Kibbutz] Nir Oz. If you want credit for the assassination of Haniyeh, take responsibility for Nova,” the music festival where hundreds were brutally killed on October 7.
“The one who led us to the greatest disaster in our history cannot claim to be the right man to get us out of it. You are not,” Lapid told Netanyahu.
“There is a prime minister who is only focused on himself, in front of a wounded and bleeding nation, inciting and then whining that others are inciting against him, portraying himself as a victim who is being attacked and then bragging that he is a “strong prime minister from the right,'” Lapid continued. “Mr. Netanyahu, there was no prime minister who weakened the State of Israel more than you.”
If Netanyahu were really a strong prime minister he would stand up to the ultra-Orthodox parties in his coalition and tell them while Israel is at war and soldiers are dying every day, there will be no “evasion law,” said Lapid ” referring to a bill widely exempting Haredi yeshiva students from military service that is currently being debated in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
“If you cared about the country, you would say to [Haredi party leaders] Goldknopf and Deri, “Your threats do not work on me; there is no contradiction between studying Torah and defending the homeland. It is over, now,'” Lapid went on. “A truly Zionist government would not even think of passing the disgrace called “the evasion law.'”
“This government has been in office for two years, since the end of December 2022. Is there one positive change that this government is able to name” One good thing you did for the citizens of Israel he asked.
“Have more missiles ever hit Israel” Have more civilians and soldiers ever died in Israel” Have more residents ever been evacuated from their homes for a longer period of time” Did you ever think, in your worst nightmares, that hundreds of Israeli citizens would be abandoned to a terrorist organization, and die in the tunnels
Turning to members of Netanyahu`s cabinet, Lapid argued that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has ruined the economy. And he slammed National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir for “gloating at the scenes of terrorist attacks instead of preventing them,” adding that the far-right politician was the “only person in the Israeli Knesset who was convicted of supporting terrorism.”
“The statistics don`t lie. Since he became the minister, there have been more attacks, more murders, more crime, more terrorism. A hundred in words, zero in deeds,” he declared.
Ben Gvir yelled at Lapid and a heated exchange ensued between the two. Likud MK Tally Gotliv also began screaming at Lapid and was ejected from the plenum chamber.
Ben Gvir heckles Lapid as he addresses the opening of the Knesset winter legislative session.
? Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) October 28, 2024
Lapid hits back: ?Minister Ben Gvir, the statistics don?t lie. Since you became the minister, there are more terror attacks, more murders, more terror.? pic.twitter.com/GZCw8DA0fg
The exchange came just minutes after President Herzog directed an impassioned plea for decorum and respect toward lawmakers, arguing that Israel`s enemies “have worked hard to inflame internal conflict” and that Iran and its proxies “place at the heart of their campaign against Israel the destruction of Israeli trust.”
Publicado em 10/29/2024 11h50
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