Netanyahu at UN warns “militant Islam is on the march,” from Hamas to ISIS, but greatest threat is a nuclear armed Iran. Watch video or read full transcript of the speech here.

joelcrosenberg

12 years ago

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Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly on Monday on the threat of “militant Islam” to his country and the world.

UPDATED: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the opening Fall session of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday by noting that “militant Islam is on the march” and warning the leaders of the world that “to defeat ISIS and leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power would be to win the battle and lose the war.”

The Israeli premier cast the recent war with Hamas as part of the broader Radical Islamic jihad that is sweeping across the region from Gaza to Syria to Iran. But he stated that the greatest threat to his country and the world was a nuclear armed Iranian regime, or one that could rapidly produce nuclear warheads.

Netanyahu said he sees a new alignment of interests between Israel and moderate Arab nations in the region, and suggested such a realignment — involving common threats from ISIS, Hamas and an Iranian nuclear power — could help lead to a sustainable peace deal with the Palestinians.

“I want peace because I want to create a better future for my people,” Netanyahu told his fellow presidents and prime ministers.

He reached out to “Cairo, Amman, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and elsewhere,” noted the Times of Israel, and asserted that a rapprochement with Israel by such Arab players could in turn yield a peace agreement with the Palestinians, which, he also said, “will obviously necessitate a territorial compromise.”

“Israel wants to transform our common interests with moderate Arab states to a partnership that can facilitate peace with Palestinians.”

You can read the full text of the speech by clicking here.

I will post analysis of it tomorrow.

You can watch the speech by clicking here.

Here are some of the key lines from the address that caught my attention:

“To defeat ISIS & leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power would be to win the battle & lose the war.”
“ISIS & Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree. They share the same fanatical creed.”
“The Nazis believed in a master race. The militant Islamists believe in a master faith.”
“Militant Islam is on the march. It’s not militants. It’s not Islam. It’s militant Islam.”
“What would your countries do if thousands of rockets were fired at your cities?”
“You wouldn’t let terrorists fire rockets at your cities with impunity.”
“Hamas deliberately put its rockets in hundreds of residential areas.”
“Israel was using its missiles to protect its children. Hamas was using its children to protect its missiles.”
“No other country and no other army in history has gone to greater lengths to avoid casualties among the civilian population of their enemy.”
“Hamas cynically used Palestinian civilians as human shields. Israel did everything to minimize Palestinian casualties.”
“Allowing Iran to reach nuclear capabilities will pose the greatest threat to us all.”
“A broader rapprochement between Israel and the Arab world may help facilitate Israeli-Palestinian peace.”
“Israel is prepared to work with Arab partners to confront dangers and seize opportunities.”
“There is a new Middle East. It presents new dangers but also new opportunities.”
“In any peace agreement I will always insist that Israel be able to defend itself by itself.”
“The UNHCR has betrayed its noble mission to protect the innocent. The Human Rights Council has become the Terrorist Rights Council.”
Quoting Scripture: “For the sake of Zion I will not be silent. For the sake of Jerusalem, I will not be still.”

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