PM offers counter-terrorism expertise to Colombia

Netanyahu tells Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos Israel has foiled five suicide attacks, 30 kidnapping attempts in past year.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Netanyahu and Columbian PM (photo credit: (Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
Netanyahu and Columbian PM
(photo credit: (Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
“Israel has foiled five suicide attacks and over 30 kidnapping attempts” in the past year, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told visiting Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Tuesday.
During a press conference in Jerusalem, the prime minister said he was happy to offer Israel’s expertise in counter-terrorism to Colombia, given the two nations’ “common battle” against terrorism.
“You are, like us, a democracy that fights terrorism. We want to assist you, in every way that we can, given our experience,” Netanyahu told Santos.
In a reference to recent debates in the United Nations, Netanyahu applauded Columbia for “refusing to join the automatic anti-Israel majority.”
Santos is in Israel for an official visit that began on Sunday.
Santos said: “We have had a long struggle, more than 50 years also, and we have also learned how to defend ourselves and how to defend ourselves and how to fight terrorism.”
Relating to the Israeli-Palestinian peace-process, he drew parallels with Columbia, who has been fighting an insurgency led by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as FARC, since 1964.
“As you know, we are right now in a peace process, we have been advancing, and if there is goodwill from the counterpart, I hope that we can strike a deal,” Santos said.
He said that he hoped for the same in Israel, reaffirming that Colombia has “always been for the idea of two states and for the idea of negotiating a deal for peace between the Palestinians and Israel.”