Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that halting the war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip early would have meant Israel’s “days were numbered,” telling Channel 14 he resisted international pressure to stop the fighting because doing so would have endangered the Jewish nation.
“If I gave in to the dictate to stop the war, I knew the days of the State of Israel would be numbered,” Netanyahu stated in an interview with the right-wing channel’s flagship show, “The Patriots,” on Saturday night.
Now-slain Hamas terror leader Yahya Sinwar “would emerge with other countries and become a modern-day Saladin,” he said, referencing the 12th-century Muslim commander who defeated the Crusaders and captured Jerusalem, becoming a symbol of unity in the Arab world.
Many countries, including the United States during the presidency of Joe Biden, imposed arms embargoes or restrictions on weapons shipments to the Jewish state as it fought Hamas for 24 months.
Netanyahu said the Biden administration turned on the Jewish state due to international pressure, saying he made clear to then Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the IDF would “fight with its bare hands” if need be.
Asked by “The Patriots” host Yinon Magal when the fighting sparked by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre would end, the premier said he would not agree to stop the war until all phases outlined in U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace deal for Gaza are fully implemented.
“First, the return of all the abducted citizens; later the demilitarization of the Strip and Hamas’s disarmament,” Netanyahu said in the interview.
Regarding Iran, with which Israel fought a 12-day war back in June that saw the destruction of most of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, he warned that this conflict would likely “never end,” saying: “Like tumors in the body, they can come back.”
According to the prime minister, Jerusalem worked closely with U.S. President Donald Trump’s team on the deal with Hamas, which also seeks to promote the Jewish state’s integration into the Middle East.
Trump “did not force this deal on me, because I worked with him on a formula,” he stressed. “Even on the day I was in New York, I introduced some very favorable changes to the State of Israel into the agreement.”
Despite two years of war, the national morale remains high, Netanyahu said. “Everyone feels it. You walk down the street and see the elation, the pride and the great faith,” he said. “The soldiers really strengthened me.”
Responding to Magal’s questions if he would run in a future election, the Jewish state’s longest-serving leader answered in the affirmative, adding that, “with the help of the public,” he would win a seventh national vote.
An Oct. 15 survey carried out by Direct Polls for Channel 14 found that Israelis deem Netanyahu most suitable to serve as the country’s prime minister, with 58% support. Former prime minister Naftali Bennett came in second with the support of only 22% of the respondents.
