Israel will never ask of the United States or any other nation to send even one soldier to help in its defense.
By Jonathan Hessen and Erin Viner
That was the message Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had for Jewish community leaders in New York after his address to the United Nations General Assembly prior to his return home.
“We’re working hard with our great friend, the United States of America – but we still have a very clear compass that we were taught long ago: ‘If I am not for myself, who then is for me?’ While we invite and are bringing in more and more partners in the region, we will not outsource our security to anyone – even to our best friends. It is up to us. No one is going to stop us, we need to do what we need to do, and we are doing what we need to do,” underscored the Israeli leader.
Bennett went on to assert that the Israel’s entire population constitutes “nine million boots on the ground” who wage daily battle against terrorists on their own. “We are not the problem – we are the solution,” he insisted.
Other leaders in the international community fail to understand that Israel is in “the toughest neighborhood in the world,” said Bennett. He then noted that residents in the New Jersey city where he spent several years during his youth are not forced to contend with daily rocket fire at close range, with which Israeli civilians are forced to contend.
Israel is surrounded by enemies seeking its annihilation, said Bennett, pointing to Iranian proxies in Syria and its Hezbollah affiliate in Lebanon just over the Jewish State’s northern frontier, while to the south are the Islamist Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror groups in Gaza, and Islamic State militias in the Sinai.
“All of them are quite literally on our border,” observed the Israeli leader. He then vowed that Jerusalem would prevail over its adversaries, including the prevention of Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons.
Going on to reveal that Israel’s intelligence apparatus provides concrete information that enables the world community to thwart impending terror attacks, Bennett said, “So, the very essence of Israel acting where it is, defends people across the world, and I can tell you right now that not a week and a half go by without us – because we’re in friction with these terror organizations, we save lives. I can’t share the specifics – but we call up someone in some country and say ‘listen, right now on this street, this building, go up the 7th floor, in your country, you’re going to find a terror squad – go get them.’”
“And we do this again and again. We are saving lives because we are there,” said the Israeli Premier.