Prime Minister Netanyahu to the IDF General Staff Forum

Prime Minister Netanyahu to the IDF General Staff Forum: The line that separates generations of Jewish history from what is happening in our time – is the establishment of the State of Israel and the IDF. I thank you for the powerful and outstanding operation that will be recorded in the annals of our people and the history of the world.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met today (Monday) with the IDF General Staff Forum at the Kirya in Tel Aviv, along with Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi.

Netanyahu praised the IDF generals for their role in Operation “Am KeLavi” in Iran and expressed his gratitude for their contribution to ensuring the eternal security of Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

“Personally – I offer immense appreciation and gratitude to you, Defense Minister Israel Katz, to you, Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, and to you, members of the General Staff, for the flawless execution of the missions we set. ‘Am KeLavi Yakum’ – and even beyond that.

The Jewish people lost the ability to resist their attackers during our years in exile. We became like a leaf blowing in the wind—a nation that endured exiles, pogroms, massacres, and ultimately, the greatest act of mass murder in history.

When the founders of Zionism arose 130 years ago, led by Herzl, most of them did not believe that with the establishment of the State of Israel, attacks against the Jewish people would cease. Rather, we would consolidate the political and military power to resist those attacks. That is the line that separates generations of Jewish history from what is happening today—the founding of the state and the founding of the IDF.

In Iran, we now face a threat no less serious, and perhaps even greater, than the peak of the pan-Arab threat that once loomed over us—and still does.

Forty years ago, and certainly 35 years ago, I identified what I believed to be the greatest danger to humanity: the combination of an Islamist regime and a nuclear weapon—or a nuclear weapon in the hands of an Islamist regime.

But Iran did not stop there. They essentially built three pathways to annihilation:
One – a strangulation ring, a plan to destroy Israel through its axis of terror;
Two – a plan to destroy Israel through the missile threat;
Three – a plan to destroy Israel through a nuclear threat.

This is the regime’s raison d’être. It’s not the only reason they want to eliminate us, and we are not even their main target. But in order to achieve their broader goals, they must first eliminate us. One cannot conquer the Middle East without destroying Israel. And if Israel is gone—the entire Middle East collapses instantly.

The State of Israel was like a person with two cancerous tumors: one nuclear, one missile-based. And if you don’t remove them—you die. Maybe you remove them and they come back, like with cancer. But if you don’t remove them—we’re finished.

So there was never really a question. We had to make this decision. And the way it was made—unanimously at the political level, unanimously at the military level—led by your extraordinary leadership, and improved exceptionally day by day, week by week.

The question was raised: what about the United States? I told you—we’ll do everything we can to bring them on board, but that’s not a condition. It is not a condition.

But none of this would have been possible without the powerful and outstanding operation that will be recorded in our nation’s history—and I believe in world history as well. Certainly in military history, where I believe armies around the world will come to learn from it. It also has major economic implications—we’re already starting to feel it.”
• Video: Itay Beit-On / GPO, Sound: Yehezkel Kandil / GPO
• Stills: Maayan Toaf / GPO