Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Jerusalem will continue to determine its own security policies, including by setting red lines regarding the international forces that will be deployed to stabilize Gaza as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the Strip.
“Israel will determine which forces are unacceptable to us—that is how we act and we will continue to act,” Netanyahu told fellow ministers at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday.
“This, of course, is also acceptable to the United States, as its most senior representatives have stated in recent days,” Netanyahu stressed, adding: “Israel is an independent country. We will defend ourselves with our own strength, and we will continue to determine our own destiny.”
The premier noted that the Israel Defense Forces had dropped 150 tons of explosives on Hamas terrorists following the Oct. 19 attack that killed two Israeli soldiers, in violation of the week-old ceasefire agreement.
The IDF also continues to thwart emerging threats, including in Gaza and in Southern Lebanon, where the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist group is seeking to rebuild its presence, according to the prime minister.
“We do not ask anyone’s permission for this,” Netanyahu declared.
The premier in his opening remarks slammed what he called “ridiculous claims regarding the relationship between the United States and Israel.”
“When I was in Washington, it was said there that I control the American administration, that I dictate its security policy. Now they are claiming the opposite—that the American administration controls me and dictates Israel’s security policy,” Netanyahu told his Cabinet.
“Neither is true,” he continued, emphasizing that both the Jewish state and the United States are independent nations that set their own defense policy.
“Our relationship is a partnership,” Netanyahu said. “This partnership, which reached an all-time high, was demonstrated in the operational cooperation during the second phase of ‘Operation Rising Lion,’” he added, referring to Washington’s decision to join Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in June.
“It was also evident, and was recently expressed, in the release of all the living hostages from Gaza, and of course in the efforts to bring back the fallen. In other areas as well, we are working together to reshape the Middle East,” the prime minister stressed.
Trump has sought to get Qatar and Turkey to supply soldiers for the International Stabilization Force that he seeks to deploy to the Strip.
Meeting with Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani aboard Air Force One during a refueling stop in Doha en route to Malaysia on Saturday, the president claimed that the Gulf nation had already signaled its willingness to contribute soldiers to the peacekeeping mission.
According to an Oct. 21 Israel Hayom report, Netanyahu has ruled out Turkey’s participation in Trump’s plan, defining it as Israel’s “red line.”
Israel Hayom cited political sources as saying that Netanyahu’s mention of “new threats” in a Knesset speech on Oct. 20 referred to the growing influence of Turkey and Qatar. Trump is said to hold Ankara and Doha in high regard, while Israel views both nations as destabilizing forces.
