The morning’s terrorist attack in the Lower Galilee carried out by an Arab Israeli is a result of the ongoing incitement of the Palestinian Authority and the doublespeak of its leader Mahmoud Abbas, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on Monday.
“We are now fighting the war of the free world. Iran, Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah attack us because we are nearby,” Sa’ar said at a press conference with his European Union counterpart Kaja Kallas in Jerusalem. “But make no mistake, the war is against Western civilization. Against its values and its ways of life.”
He spoke hours after a 85-year-old Israeli man, earlier said to be 75 years old, was killed and a soldier in his 20s was seriously wounded in the attack near the northern Israeli city of Yokneam. The terrorist, who was later identified as an Arab citizen of Israel, was shot dead at the scene.
“We saw this morning the barbaric attack ... which cost the life of a 75-year-old man. This is the result of the ongoing incitement of the P.A.,” Sa’ar said, noting that Abbas says one thing in English and another in Arabic.
Sa’ar said it is “only natural” for Israel to expect the European Union’s support in the ongoing conflict against Islamic terrorism, and he again urged the E.U. to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization, a move that is expected this year.
He argued that such radical ideologies can be defeated.
“If terrorism and extremism are eradicated in the Middle East, it will make Europe safer. And if not the opposite will be the case.”
Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia, has worked to put relations back on track since replacing Josep Borrell, one of Israel’s biggest critics in Europe, in December.
“Our neighbors’ problems today are our problems tomorrow,” she said, adding that Israel has the right to defend itself and its security is important to Europe.
At the same time, Kallas stuck with E.U. policy, calling for the resumption of negotiations on the war in Gaza, arguing that a continuation of combat against Hamas is a lose-lose for both sides.
“Violence feeds more violence,” the European Union foreign policy chief said. “What we are witnessing now is a dangerous escalation. It is causing unbearable uncertainty for the hostages and their families and is likewise causing horror and death for the Palestinian people.”
“My message in Israel today: in a new war both sides lose,” she wrote on X. “Hamas must release all hostages and Israel must fully reinstate humanitarian aid into Gaza.”
After their joint remarks, the two diplomats toured the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.
“Israel is the most attacked country in the world,” Sa’ar said. “The attempt to deny our right to defend ourself is horrific.”
