Netanyahu’s Cabinet Meeting Remarks

Peloni:  Netanyahu addresses Lebaon, the breakdown in Iranian negotiations, Trump’s blockade on the Gulf, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and how current events reflect upon what is spoken each year at Yad Vashem during that solemn event.

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“Yesterday I was somewhere in Lebanon in the security zone with our forces, with our wonderful reservists, with the bold commanders. They are doing an incredible job there. With a strong spirit, with great determination, and with great successes that must of course be recognized. The first thing is that they are pushing the enemy away from the border. We are not talking about five points, we are talking about a solid, deeper security zone, which also prevents the danger of invasion and keeps the threat of anti-tank weapons away. They are also taking care of the terrorist villages that were adjacent to us, where every terrorist position, and many of them, are simply flattened. We need to see this, it is a huge change, we also need to see their spirit. There is also a threat from the TAM (rockets), that is also being dealt with, there are important innovations there, but there is work to be done. I was also very impressed by the willingness, the understanding that we need to restore security to the north and take care of the residents of the north who deserve the same level of security that all residents of Israel have, which they will also receive. We will not rest until we restore their security.”

And of course the fighting continues, it has not stopped. It continues all the time. Yesterday and today it was concentrated in Bint Jbeil. This is about Lebanon.”

I spoke yesterday with Vice President J. D. Vance. He called me from his plane back from Islamabad. He reported to me in detail, as this administration does every day, about the development of the negotiations. In this case, the explosion in the negotiations. The explosion came from the American side, which could not tolerate Iran’s blatant violation of the agreement to enter the negotiations. The agreement was that they would cease fire, and the Iranians would immediately open the gates. They did not do that. The Americans could not accept that. He also made it clear to me that the main issue on the agenda for President Trump and the United States is the removal of all enriched material, and ensuring that there is no more enrichment in the coming years, and that could be for decades, no enrichment inside Iran. That is their focus, and of course it is also important to us.”

Because Iran violated the rules, President Trump decided to impose a naval blockade on them. We of course support this aggressive position, and we are coordinating with the United States all the time. The talk as if there is a disconnect between us is the complete opposite. Everyone who was around this conversation, and around the daily conversations we have with the president and his people, his team members, was talking about this. This is coordination that never existed, there is something here that never existed. It never existed in the history of the state, and it never existed in the history of the Jewish people: we have coordination with the most powerful power in the world, and we have the ability to repel the dangers of annihilation.”

I met yesterday with Holocaust survivors. Those who will light the torches today. And I was amazed to hear their stories. This is supreme heroism and survival beyond all odds. We need to hear it today. But I told them that there is one huge difference here: during the Holocaust, we were, as the poet Uri Zvi Greenberg said, “like a hunted animal,” we could not do anything. We were hunted, slaughtered, a few were saved. Today, the tables have turned: we are the ones who hunt our enemies. Those who came to destroy us – they are currently fighting for their survival. The power of the State of Israel, only eighty years after the Holocaust, is visible to the entire world. Even if the world has forgotten the Holocaust, we have not forgotten. We know that we must stand up to evil in time and with strength, and we are doing it, as no other country except the United States does.”

The State of Israel is at the height of its power, and the most important thing on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day is to say the following: If we had not acted, if we had not taken our fate into our own hands in the independent State of Israel, with the Israel Defense Forces and our security forces – the names Isfahan, Natanz, Fordow and Bushehr would be remembered like Auschwitz, Majdanek and Sobibor. That is exactly the difference. They come to destroy us – and we stand up against them. In every generation they stand up, in this generation we stood up against them, and this is a huge change that all citizens of Israel should welcome. It guarantees the most essential thing.  Every year I stand at Yad Vashem and I say there will be no more Holocausts, and today these words are backed by the mighty actions of the Israel Defense Forces, the steadfast resilliance of the citizens of Israel, and the very strong determination of the Israeli government.  Thank you.”