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January 15, 2009
Netanyahu:" Hamas Must Be Toppled"
Netanyahu: Hamas must be toppled
JERUSALEM
Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel must remove Gaza's Hamas rulers from power to ensure victory over "terror."
He expressed full support for his country's punishing, 18-day offensive against the militants—even though it is being conducted by politicians who are running against him in Feb. 10 elections.
"At the end of the day there will be no alternative but to bring down the regime of Hamas, a terrorist organization pledged to our destruction," Netanyahu told foreign reporters in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu, a top contender to become prime minister in next month's vote, said toppling Hamas would not necessarily have to be part of the current offensive, but would eventually have to happen.
He said Hamas, along with the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, are Iranian proxies located on Israel's southern and northern flanks.
"Ultimately Israel cannot tolerate an Iranian base right next to its cities," Netanyahu said.
Israel sees Iran as its top threat, and believes the country is working to develop a nuclear bomb—something Tehran denies.
"If the proxies of Iran enjoy a nuclear umbrella, we have crossed into another realm," said Netanyahu, who leads the right-of-center Likud Party. "That is something we really don't want to contemplate."
Netanyahu enjoyed a wide lead in the polls before Israel began its Gaza offensive on Dec. 27. However, since the war began he's been losing ground to Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of the centrist Kadima Party and Defense Minister Ehud Barak of the left-leaning Labor Party.
The war is enormously popular among Israelis, who see it as a way of stopping Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel. The offensive has killed some 900 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.
Netanyahu rejected calls to delay the elections because of the Gaza fighting.
"I think if we do not hold it on time, it will give the terrorists an enormous victory. It means that they hold Israeli democracy hostage," he said.
Even though Israel would not necessarily have to drive Hamas from power now, he said the Jewish state should not pull out of Gaza unless it receives assurances the militants will not rearm through smuggling at the Gaza-Egypt border.
Hamas wrested control of Gaza in June 2007 from the moderate forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Islamic militants now rule the territory while Abbas' Fatah movement is in charge of the West Bank. The two territories are located on opposite sides of Israel and are together supposed to make up a future Palestinian state.
Netanyahu said conditions are not ripe for serious negotiations on a final peace deal with Abbas—a position that could put him at odds with the incoming Obama administration in the United States.
Wild Thing's comment.........
Benjamin Netanyahu is a good man. Israel like America needs a real a leader.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at January 15, 2009 05:40 AM
Comments
We need a president like Benjamin Netanyahu, not pacifist, let's be nice to them, close Gitmo mealy mouthed B. Hussein Obama. Benjamin Netanyahu is a voice of reason. We need common sense not hope and change. Leaders with common sense will bring hope and change without preaching it.
Bob A.
Posted by: Bob A at January 15, 2009 07:08 AM
Israel should have never given up Gaza. Israel succumbed to world pressure. Now it has been proven(again) that pressure from the UN and world media was wrong. I hope Israel takes over control of Gaza again.
Posted by: TomR at January 15, 2009 11:55 AM
UNRWA is whining about their HQ being attacked, this should have been the first Israeli target. That raghead SOB speaking about the attack is claiming no rockets came from the compound. The UN has been the source of agitation and supply for the murdering ratbastards all along, I'm just disappointed the IDF didn't level their building with that muzzy mouthpiece inside.
"Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel must remove Gaza's Hamas rulers from power to ensure victory over "terror."
He's the only world leader that see the problem for what it is.
Posted by: Jack at January 15, 2009 01:49 PM
Hamas like all other Islamofascist terror groups integrates itself into an all too willing civilian population. So, the only way to destroy Hamas is to not only kill them but also the surrounding "not-so-innocent" civilians. The UN, EU, Obama White House, and an all too willing liberal Kadima party and population in Israel will not let this happen. Netanyahu didn't crush the terrorists before when he was PM and won't have a majority to let him do it this time if elected PM again in February. As a result, everyone will continue to suffer the pain of a thousand hudna's (deceitful cease-fires) and a never achievable two-state solution.
Posted by: Les at January 15, 2009 06:54 PM
