Benjamin Netanyahu wants reach “to victory” in the “global battle” that Israel wages against the hostile world. In present tense and not in past, ignoring at times the peace in force in Gazathe Hebrew prime minister has called for the unity of his country in the face of “enemies.”
His words arrived this Thursday in the official memorial for the victims of Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023coinciding with the date stipulated by the Hebrew calendar. There he has assured that. His speech has been full of keys—much more than simple highlighted phrases—whose main ideas we outline:
“Now everyone knows”
Knowing that after two years of war and destruction, Netanyahu has not hesitated to raise his voice to shout from Mount Herzl in Jerusalem that “now everyone knows that If they raise their hand against us they will pay a high price for their aggression.” “We are determined to complete our mission until victory is achieved.”
Israel as sentinel of humanity
That victory, which he did not want to define, is the intended conclusion to what he called “a battle against barbarism”, in which “Israel is located in front line“. “We are between humanity and the worst of cruelties,” he added, before defining his country as “a solid rock in the middle of the wild Middle East.”
A “global fight” which revolves around a key idea for Netanyahu: “Is the Middle East going to return to the dark era of fanaticism or will it move forward towards a future of prosperity, stability and peace?”
“Israel is the barrier that stops the destructive forces of radical islamand its soldiers make up the protective wall that separates both things,” he added, always with his sights set on Iran.
Iran, in the crosshairs
Addressing the “fanatical Iranian regime and its terrorist branches” has accused him of trying to “choke the country to death.” “But our enemies did not take into account our strength. We rise as if we were one man. We mobilized with strength and fought on all fronts,” he immediately added.
Without directly mentioning Iran, his words seemed to clearly point to Tehran by stating that “great challenges still await us from our enemies seeking to rearm“.
Peace, a brief mention, a wish for the future
To these “great challenges” that his country claims to face, Netanyahu has added “dramatic and great opportunities to expand the circle of peace“, reiterating his assertion that Israel is willing to normalize relations and reinforce peace agreements with the Arab and Muslim countries after the war in Gaza.
The “authentic genocide” vs the “fictitious genocide”
Until now, his main front was Gaza and fighting Hamas, a terrorist group he has accused of committing “a real genocide” on October 7contrasting it with what he called “fictional genocide” of which the “anti-Semitic conspiracies led by our detractors” accuse Israel in Gaza.
“It was a monstrous murder in the full sense of the word: a merciless massacre of babies, children, adults, the elderly. And I tell you, if these murderers If they could have done it, they would have massacred us all. and each one of us,” he said, followed by words of affection towards the relatives of the Hamas victims.
Not a body without repatriation
“We know, members of grieving families, that there is no substitute for all those we have lost,” he continued, promising to recover the bodies of all Hamas hostages killed in Gaza, despite the difficulties recognized by the armed group. “We are going to repatriate them all, every last one of them“.
Hours before, Hamas announced to have handed over all the bodies they could locate, only 9 of the 28 kidnapped people died that remained under their rule, alleging the “difficulties” due to the devastation of the Strip. To try to comply with the repatriation of the rest of the victims, a international team will be added to the rescue and identification tasks in Gaza, where there are already members from Egypt.
Unity… also around him
But Netanyahu has not only called for unity against the “enemy.” In an attempt to shield against him, Netanyahu has also called for internal union because “it is what we need.” “Unity in war and unity in peace. We will achieve all our objectives if we have internal cohesionmutual guarantees and if we reinforce what is common to us instead of what divides us”.
