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Wednesday, December 17, 2014
PM Netanyahu Addresses the Foreign Press Corps 17/12/2014

PM Netanyahu Addresses the Foreign Press Corps 17/12/2014
Good evening.

Nitzan Chen, the Director of the Government Press Office.

I want to thank you and all the staff at the Government Press Office for all
that you do, not only for tonight, but throughout the year.

I also want to recognize most especially Moshe Milner. Moshe retired after
decades of service as one of the GPO's most prominent photographers. He has
documented Israel through his photographs over many years, and I think he
actually produced an invaluable pictorial record the country, the country as
it really is – not as it's often portrayed but as it really is. And I want
to thank you, Moshe, for your many, many years of service. For this you have
our profound gratitude. Thank you.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today we witnessed a series of examples of European naivety, and may I add,
hypocrisy: the decision of the European court in Luxembourg on Hamas, the
resolution of the EU Parliament in Brussels on Palestinian statehood, and
the call from Switzerland to investigate Israel for supposed violations of
the Geneva Convention. Now all these point in the same direction. They point
to a spirit of appeasement in Europe of the very forces that threaten Europe
itself. Too many in Europe are calling on Israel to make concessions that
would endanger not only the security of Israel, but also paradoxically, the
security of Europe itself because Israel is the forward position of European
civilization. Israel is the bulwark of European values. Israel is a
pluralist, vibrant multi-party democracy.

In Israel there is equality before the law. The rights of all are vigorously
protected – of minorities, of women, of gays, of everyone. Only in Israel.
In Israel there is a true separation of powers. Our judiciary is fiercely
independent and we're proud of this. And you as journalists know something
that applies to your profession: In a very, very large expanse, Israel is
the only country in the Middle East and beyond with a truly free press. No
one is incarcerated. No one is pressed. No one is harassed. You could write
what you want. You do. You can say what you want. You do. And you can just
about photograph anything you want and you do that too. Only in Israel and
it stands in sharp contrast to what we see in the region around us, in the
horrors that afflict human beings there, in the horrors that afflict
journalists who cover these savageries.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Israel is an embattled democracy in a region plagued by totalitarianism,
tyranny and Islamist terrorism; a region where human rights are trampled
upon; where basic human freedoms ignored; where arbitrary violence is
par-for-the-course. Israel is forced to defend itself against terrorists who
time and again try to target our civilians. This summer they fired thousands
of rockets on our cities and while they were doing this, these terrorists
committed a double war crime. They deliberately targeted our civilians.
That's a war crime. And they used their civilians as human shields. That's a
second war crime.

Yet the focus in Geneva today was that Israel must be investigated for war
crimes. What hypocrisy. What a travesty. I ask, where is elementary European
integrity? Now I know that some in Europe say that they are frustrated with
the situation in the Middle East. Well let me tell you a secret. We in
Israel are frustrated with the situation in the Middle East. We are
frustrated that our Palestinian neighbors refuse to recognize the right of
the Jewish people to a state of their own at the time that they're asking
for us to recognize their right to have one. We're frustrated that our
Palestinian neighbors continue to incite against Jews and the Jewish state,
creating a climate of hatred and violence. We're frustrated that they refuse
to negotiate seriously about our legitimate security concerns. And I think
all of you know that in this part of the world, there can be no genuine
peace without security for peace will not last if it cannot be defended.

The simple truth is that half of Palestinian society has been taken over by
Islamist extremists who openly call for Israel's destruction, while the
other half refuses to confront the first half. So when Europeans say that
they are frustrated, we say, "Join the club". And I don't believe that
frustration can be an excuse for wrong policy. Removing the terrorist
designation of Hamas is a grave mistake. Hamas is a ruthless terrorist
organization with a proven track record of brutal terror attacks against
innocent civilians – by the way, not only Israelis: hundreds, hundreds and
hundreds of Palestinians who have been murdered by them. Just this year,
Hamas kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenagers. It launched thousands
of rocket attacks indiscriminately at our children, at our civilians. And it
celebrated just recently the murder of innocent worshippers massacred at a
Jerusalem synagogue, and called upon its followers to commit more such
terrorist atrocities.

Some erroneously believe that Hamas terror is a function of a failed peace
process. Well, I will remind all of you that in the heyday of Oslo, when
leaders across the globe were excited about the new momentum in the peace
process, hundreds of Israelis were the victims of one of Hamas's most brutal
terror campaigns. Now, it was said then that Hamas uses terror to destroy
the peace, and it is said now that Hamas uses terror because there is no
peace.

Well, the truth is that Hamas uses terrorism against Israel because it's a
terrorist organization committed to Israel's destruction. It's as simple as
that. That's the nature of this organization and that's its fundamental
goal. Now if anyone had any illusions about that, you could hear one of the
leaders of Hamas this weekend, Mahmoud al-Zahar. He reminded us that Hamas's
goal isn't to rule over Gaza or to rule over Judea/Samaria in the West Bank.
He said it clearly: Hamas's goal is the total and complete annihilation of
Israel and the murder of Israel's citizens.

Well, do the self-proclaimed Palestinian moderates confront Hamas and the
other Islamist extremists? Unfortunately, they often seem to be trying to
compete with them over who can use the most inflammatory language and who
can summon wells of anti-Jewish sentiment and anti-Israel sentiment. It was
President Abbas himself who spoke seriously, slanderously of a Jewish threat
to the Muslim holy sites. There is no such threat. We keep the status quo
rigorously. That's not going to change. We guard the holy sites of all the
religions. That's not going to change. And by the way, again, in the broad
Middle East, we're the only ones who do so – for Jews, for Christians, for
Muslims. In fact, the only place where Christian communities are not
persecuted, where Christian communities have not shrunk – they've actually
grown four-fold since the founding of the State of Israel – is Israel. It's
the only place.

So to speak about our "attack" on the holy sites is not merely a lie, it's
just wrong. It's wrong because it creates the wrong impression among
Palestinian youngsters, among Palestinians at large and it produces these
waves of attacks from people who seriously believe that we would destroy the
al-Aqsa Mosque. There was just a poll taken in Palestinian society. About
90% believe, 85% believe that Israel seeks to achieve such a goal so this
rhetoric has consequences. It forces a change in people's minds and it
forces radical and violent behavior. It has to stop. It was Abbas who
actually called the Palestinians to use "all means" to fight this fabricated
threat; and it was Abbas who accused the Jews of "contaminating" – that was
his word – "contaminating" the Temple Mount.

Now, the question I raise for you tonight is where is Europe in all of this?
Does it hold the Palestinian leadership accountable for its coddling of
extremism? Does it demand that the Palestinian Authority break its signed
pact with Hamas? Does Europe call for an end to outrageous official
Palestinian incitement against Jews and the Jewish state?

The sad truth is that Europe is largely silent on these questions and when
it raises its voice, it's typically in the other direction. In fact, the
European Parliament and some parliaments of EU member states have been
calling for the recognition of a Palestinian state. And I ask you, why
should the Palestinian leadership demonstrate responsible behavior? Why
should the Palestinian leadership jettison its maximalist and extreme
positions? Why should it abandon its call to flood Israel with millions of
Palestinians? Why should the PA do any of this if its extremist and
irresponsible behavior is rewarded time and again by European parliaments?
Let there be no mistake: parliamentary recognitions do nothing to advance
peace. Quite the contrary. These declarations merely reinforce Palestinian
intransigence, pushing peace further away.

And the point that I came here tonight to make, this is the point I close
with: There is a simple truth that cannot be ignored. Peace will only come
when the Palestinians are willing to confront their own extremists. Instead
of embracing the militants, the PA should fight them. And instead of
rewarding Palestinian intransigence, the European democracies should support
the one and only democracy in the Middle East and that, ladies and
gentlemen, is the State of Israel.

Thank you.

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