World Jewish News

Israel’s PM Netanyahu vows ' no tolerance for rioters who call for Israel’s destruction'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the authorities would act forcefully against Arab Israeli protesters who are “calling for the destruction of the State of Israel.”
Speaking at Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting, he said : “Israel is a nation of law. Whoever violates the law will be punished severely. We will not tolerate disturbances and riots. We will take determined action against those who throw stones, firebombs and fireworks, and block roads, and against demonstrations that call for our destruction.’’
He continued, ‘’We are not prepared to tolerate more demonstrations in the heart of our cities in which Hamas or Islamic State flags are waved and calls are made to redeem Palestine with blood and fire — calling in effect for the destruction of the State of Israel.”
He stressed that riots that have been sparked in Arab Israeli towns in the Galilee over the weekend are being instigated by Hamas, the Islamic Movement and the Palestinian Authority and its leader, Abu Mazen.’’
‘’The website of their official body, Fatah, explains that the Jewish people were, in effect, never here, that the Temple was never here, that David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah and the kings and prophets of Israel – are all fiction. This is nothing less than a clear attempt to distort not only the modern truth, but also the historical truth. Against these distortions and these gross lies, we must tell the truth to our people and to the world,’’ Netanyahu declared.
“I have instructed the interior minister to use all means, including evaluating the possibility of revoking the citizenship of those who call for the destruction of the State of Israel,” he added.
Shalom Aharon Ba’adani, 17, who was critically wounded during the Wednesday afternoon terrorist attack at a Jerusalem Light Rail stop and nearby intersection, died Friday morning, raising the death toll from the rampage to two.
Ba’adani, a yeshiva student, was reportedly riding his bicycle to the Western Wall when he was struck by a van driven by Ibrahim al-Aqari, 38, a Hamas operative from Shuafat, who ran down and killed a Druze border police officer, Jidan Assad.
In his statement, the Prime Minister also warned against a ‘dangerous’ Iranian nuclear deal.
‘’The President of Iran, or the leader of Iran, Khameini, has been in the news of late. Just yesterday he called for our destruction. Remarks to the effect that Iran has moderated are overshadowed by Iran's actual policies, including the call for our destruction and the denial of human rights, which has surged in Iran in the past year, and the reports that we are receiving from the IAEA that Iran is continuing to lie and to lead the world astray regarding its plans and actions to achieve nuclear weapons.’’
The international community “faces a simple choice — to surrender to Iran’s demands in a deal that’s dangerous not only for Israel, but for the entire world, or to demand that Iran dismantle its capabilities to produce a nuclear weapon,” he said.
“Israel will not agree to a deal that leaves Iran as a nuclear threshold state, it is a danger to us all,’’ Netanyahu said as a new round of talks on Iran’s nuclear program is set to take place in Oman in the presence of US Secretary of State John Kerry, top European Union negotiator Catherine Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.
The talks in Oman come ahead of the November 24 deadline for a deal with Iran on its nuclear program between the so-called P5+1, a negotiating group that includes the U.S., Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom and Germany, and Tehran.

EJP