Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday warned Iran
against attacking Israel in response to the American killing last week of
senior military commander Qassem Soleimani.
“We’re standing steadfast against those who seek our lives.
We’re standing with determination and with force. Whoever tries to attack us
will receive a crushing blow in return,” he declared at a conference in
Jerusalem.
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“Qassem Soleimani was responsible for the death of countless
innocent people,” Netanyahu said. “He destabilized many countries. For decades,
he sowed fear and misery and anguish. And he was planning much worse.”
“President Trump should be congratulated for acting swiftly,
boldly and resolutely against this terrorist-in-chief, who was the architect
and driver of Iran’s campaign of terror throughout the Middle East and
throughout the world,” he added.
“In the Middle East, no day is like any other. The regional
upheaval continues. The struggle between extremists and moderates continues
unabated,” the prime minister went on.
“On one side is radical Islam led by Iran, which seeks to
grasp large sections of the area by means of murderous terrorism, and to grasp,
strangle and eliminate us, because they understand that the strongest force of
Western culture is here, in the State of Israel. They understand this very
well.”
Many leaders in the Middle East agree with him, the prime
minister said. The region is split between radical Islamists and a “pragmatic
camp” that is threatened by the extremists.
“This camp well understands the campaign for existence, for
life and for the future,” Netanyahu said. “The State of Israel is the anchor of
stability in these stormy waters. The challenges that we are dealing with are
not lessening — on the contrary.”
Netanyahu also reiterated Israel’s full support for the
United States in its ongoing military confrontation with the Islamic Republic.
“It’s very important to say that Israel stands completely
beside the United States,” he added. “America has no better friend than Israel,
and Israel has no better friend than America.”
Before the prime minister spoke, US Ambassador to Israel
David Friedman briefly addressed the Iranian attack on a US base in Iraq
overnight Tuesday-Wednesday.
“We’re all watching closely the event in the regions,” he
said at the conference at the Begin Center in Jerusalem, organized by the
right-wing Kohelet Forum think tank.
“Initial assessments are positive. We pray that these
reports are true,” he said.
“Our military is by far the strongest in the world and our
cause is just,” Friedman added. “We pray to God that we will prevail
overwhelmingly.”
A senior commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps has warned that Tel Aviv could also be targeted, while a former head of
the IRGC threatened to turn Israeli cities “to dust” if the US attacks targets
in Iran.
Still, on Monday, Israeli security officials told the
high-level security cabinet that Iran is unlikely to attack Israel in
retaliation for the US airstrike that killed Soleimani in Iraq.
According to several officials who were present at the
cabinet meeting and spoke to Hebrew media, several scenarios were presented
regarding Iran’s possible response to the attack, with the security officials
saying the chances of an attack on Israel were low.
“Israel was not involved in the killing and there’s no
reason it will be dragged into it,” one senior official said.
Also on Monday, in the first public comments by a senior
Israeli military official on Soleimani’s killing, IDF Southern Command head
Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi distanced the Jewish state from the incident and said it
was part of the ongoing struggle between Iran and the US for influence in Iraq.
Mourners attend a funeral ceremony for Iranian Gen. Qassem
Soleimani and his comrades, who were killed in Iraq in a US drone strike, in
the city of Kerman, Iran, January 7, 2020 (Erfan Kouchari/Tasnim News Agency
via AP)
“Soleimani hurt American interests and represented a
significant danger to Americans in the region. We must look at the
assassination as part of a fight between Iran and the United States over Iraq’s
character. That is the story,” Halevi said.
“The assassination also has ramifications for us as
Israelis, and we must follow it closely, but we aren’t the main story here —
and it’s good that it happened far away,” he said.
Halevi said Israel was ready to launch a “very significant
response” if the Islamic Republic’s retaliation for the hit included operations
by its Palestinian allies such as Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The US embassy in Israel, however, released a travel
advisory to its nationals in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, warning of the
possibility of sudden rocket fire at the country.
One of Israel’s leading national security think tanks warned
Monday there is a growing risk of large-scale war along Israel’s northern
borders in the coming year, in part due to Iran’s increasing “determination and
daring.”
(Times of Israel)