Netanyahu Says ‘Hamas Is ISIS’ but Promises the ‘People of Israel Lives’ After Weekend Massacre
The prime minister, after days of slaughter, swears that Hamas will be defeated ‘precisely as the enlightened world defeated ISIS.’
Prime Minister Netanyahu, speaking to a country just beginning to bury its legions of dead, told the Jewish state — and those listening around the world — that “we have always known what Hamas is. Now the whole world does. Hamas is ISIS,” or the Islamic State.
The premier promised that “what we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations.” The leader of the Jewish state described “children bound and executed with the rest of their families, young girls and boys shot in the back, executed, and other atrocities that I will not describe here.”
Hamas on Saturday launched an assault on Israel’s south that claimed more than 900 lives, the vast majority of them civilians. At least 150 Israelis have been taken captive, and a Hamas spokesman has promised to execute them on live television should any civilians in Gaza come to harm.
More than 260 people were murdered at a music festival in Israel, and 108 bodies have been found at Kibbutz Be’eri, more than 10 percent of the total residents of that cooperative community. Throughout the country’s south there are widespread accounts of rape and entire families being hunted down by Hamas death squads.
The premier called the gathering battle “a war to ensure our existence” and promised to triumph in a “battle imposed upon us by a despicable enemy — by beasts who celebrate the murder of women, children and the elderly.” He called the battle “an operation for the home” and “a war that we will win.”
Mr. Netanyahu swore that Hamas would be defeated “precisely as the enlightened world defeated ISIS.” He also called for a “unity government without preconditions,” which could be a tall order given the internal divisions that have wracked Israel in recent months stemming from the government’s attempts at judicial reform.
Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, who is likely to face scrutiny in the days and months ahead for why Israel was seemingly caught unaware when Hamas attacked, ended his remarks with the words “am yisrael chai” — the people of Israel lives.
