Win battle, lose the war: Photo-wielding Netanyahu puts Iran over ISIS, slams Hamas
Bigger than the Islamic State threat – Iran and its nuclear program yet again haunted Benjamin Netanyahu’s address at the UN General Assembly. The Israeli PM also has photo-proof with him of Hamas using Palestinian civilians as human shields.
READ MORE:US softens position on Iranian nuclear program
“Make no mistake – ISIS (Islamic State) must be defeated. But
to defeat ISIS and leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power is to
win the battle and lose the war," Netanyahu said at the UN
headquarters in New York.
"Iran's nuclear military capabilities must be fully
dismantled," he added.
As for Tehran's recent “charm offensive” for the West,
its true purpose is to see the international sanctions lifted
"and remove the obstacles to Iran's path to the [nuclear]
bomb," the prime minister stressed.
Netanyahu called Iran's concern about the spread of terrorism –
earlier voiced by President Hassan Rouhani, from the same lectern
– “one of history's greatest displays of doubletalk.”
He also slammed the countries, which now fully back US-led
airstrikes against ISIS, but used to criticize Israel for their
war against Hamas in Palestine.
The PM stressed that Islamic radicals from ISIS and Hamas share
the same task “of imposing militant Islam on the world.”
“Hamas’s immediate goal is to destroy Israel, but it has a
broader objective. When it comes to its ultimate goals, Hamas is
ISIS, and ISIS is Hamas,” he said.
According to Netanyahu, the 50-day operation in Gaza this summer,
which saw 2,100 Palestinians – mainly civilians – killed and some
18,000 homes destroyed, was Israel’s war against “global
militant Islam.”
The head of the Israeli government put the blame for civilian
casualties on Hamas, which, he said, committed “the real war
crimes” by using ordinary civilians as human shields.
He refuted claims by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who
accused Israel of conducting a “war of genocide” in Gaza
in his UN address at the weekend.
Netanyahu believes that Israel can’t be accused of genocide as it
gave advance warnings to Palestinians before shelling
neighborhoods in the densely populated Gaza area.
Israel “was doing everything to minimize civilian casualties.
Hamas was doing everything to maximize civilian casualties”
by placing its rocket launchers in homes, schools and children’s
playgrounds, he said.
The PM also blasted the UN Human Right Council, which sends
“a clear message to terrorists to use civilians as human
shields” by condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza.
The Human Right Council “turns the war upside down” and
is deserved to be called the “Terrorist Rights Council,”
he stressed.
The Prime Minister also said that such common challenges like
nuclear Iran and militant Islam provide a historic opportunity
for Israel’s relations with the leading nations in the Arab
world.
According to Netanyahu, Palestine can be reached through good
relations with Arab world, but not the other way around as many
thought before.
