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Netanyahu to Christian IDF soldiers: ‘You belong to the most moral army on earth’

“We are proud of you; the entire nation is proud of you,” the Israeli prime minister told them at a civil New Year event at the Tel Aviv Palmach Museum. “You belong to the most moral army on earth.”

File photo: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at an event with Christian soldiers for the New Year at the Palmach Museum in Tel Aviv in Tel Aviv, Dec. 23, 2018. Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90.
File photo: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at an event with Christian soldiers for the New Year at the Palmach Museum in Tel Aviv in Tel Aviv, Dec. 23, 2018. Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Christian members of the Israel Defense Forces on Sunday.

“We are proud of you; the entire nation is proud of you,” Netanyahu told them at a civil New Year event at the Tel Aviv Palmach Museum. “You belong to the most moral army on earth.”

Netanyahu then took a shot at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who said on Saturday that “the Jews in Israel kick men, but also women and children, when they’re on the ground.”

“He is obsessed with Israel,” said Netanyahu. “He knows what a moral army is, and he knows what a genuine democracy is, as opposed to an army that massacres women and children in Kurdish villages and a state which, to my regret, is becoming more dictatorial day by day.”

“But there has been an improvement,” he added. “Erdoğan used to attack me every two hours and now it is every six hours.”

The bureau’s data suggested that a Jewish person was nearly 225% more likely to be a target of a hate crime than a black person was in the United States last year.
“There is democracy within Likud,” Israeli Transportation and Road Safety Minister Miri Regev told JNS.
“Our rabbis reignited the candles, helped us breathe and found the words to respond to the moment in real time,” the Reform synagogue stated. “Our congregation refused to let hate extinguish our Shabbat light.”
No injuries were reported. Separately, Israeli soldiers shot dead two terrorists who posed a threat.