Netanyahu: Israel stands with the US in its fight for peace and security
The prime minister said that Soleimani killed many US citizens and other innocent civilians in recent decades.
By LAHAV HARKOVIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chats with his party's members in Airport City near Tel Aviv, Israel December 27, 2019.(photo credit: AMIR COHEN/REUTERS)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed support for the US on Sunday after it killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and carried out further strikes in Iraq.US President Donald Trump “deserves appreciation for acting determinedly, powerfully and swiftly,” Netanyahu said at the opening of a cabinet meeting. “Israel stands totally with the US in its just struggle for security, peace and self-defense,” he added.The US killed IRGC Quds Force commander Soleimani in Baghdad on Thursday night. Netanyahu said that Soleimani killed many US citizens and other innocent civilians in recent decades.“Soleimani initiated, planned and enacted many terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East and beyond,” he said. The security cabinet postponed a meeting regarding the impact of Soleimani’s killing that was supposed to take place on Sunday or Monday afternoon.The prime minister also discussed his visit to Athens on Thursday, during which he and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and their countries’ energy ministers signed an agreement to build an undersea natural-gas pipeline from Israel to Europe.Israel also began exporting liquefied natural gas to Jordan last week.In his remarks, Netanyahu appeared to have a slip of the tongue, saying, “The meaning of this project is that Israel is becoming a nuclear superpower – an energy superpower.”Israel has long maintained a policy of nuclear ambiguity. While also never officially denying or admitting to the possession of nuclear weapons, Israel has often repeated that it will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East.Netanyahu said that the progress on exporting gas “changes Israel’s status” in the world, and that it would bring billions of shekels into the state’s coffers that will go to welfare, health, education and infrastructure.“Two-thirds of the income from Leviathan [gas field] go straight to the Treasury,” Netanyahu said. “The State of Israel has an excellent energetic and diplomatic horizon. It is strengthening the economy very much and strengthens the Israeli market.”Netanyahu also offered his condolences to the families of the couple in Tel Aviv who drowned in a flooded elevator over the weekend.“I would like to express my deep shock in the name of the ministers of the government and many citizens of Israel at the tragic deaths of Deen Yaakov Shoshani and Stav Harrari,” he stated.Netanyahu told the Prime Minister’s Office director-general Ronen Peretz to call a meeting of all the heads of the relevant government offices, to try to learn the lessons of the accident so that it doesn’t happen again.
