Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for sanctions Thursday on any country that harbors the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas — a reference to Qatar, where the leadership of Hamas has lived for many years to escape targeting by Israel.
Netanyahu was speaking at a news conference alongside U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who arrived in Israel on a visit to show solidarity with the embattled Jewish state, where the death toll from Saturday’s terrorist attack has passed 1,300 people, and nearly 3,300 people have been wounded, while over 100 hostages remain in Gaza. He thanked Blinken for his support in the war against the “barbarians of Hamas,” an enemy that had “shown itself to be an enemy of civilization” through its brutal actions.
He also slammed those who celebrated the Palestinian attack on Israel, referring to pro-Palestinian protesters in the western world, accusing them of joining the “celebration and glorification of evil.”
“Hamas is ISIS, and just as ISIS was crushed, so, too, will Hamas be crushed. And Hamas should be treated exactly the way ISIS was treated. They should be spit out from the community of nations. No leader should meet with them. No country should harbor them. And those that do should be sanctioned.”
Qatar, where the U.S. has a key military base housing U.S. Central Command in the region, also hosts the leadership of Hamas, notably leader Ismail Haniyeh. Hamas leaders have long ordered terrorist attacks on Israel from a safe and comfortable distance.
Blinken stressed that he was present in Israel not just to represent the United States and the American people, but also as a Jew. He recounted the history of his own family, from his grandfather fleeing pogroms in Russia, to his stepfather’s survival in the Holocaust. “So I understand on a personal level the harrowing echoes that Hamas’s massacres carry for Israeli Jews, and indeed for Jews everywhere.”
Blinken’s remarks were also understood by Israelis, per Israel’s Army Radio, as a reference to the infamous statement by U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to then-Prime Minister Golda Meir, during the Yom Kippur War 50 years ago, that “you must remember that first I am an American, second I am Secretary of State, and third I am a Jew.” She is said to have quipped in response: “Henry, you forget that in Israel we read from right to left.”
The Secretary of State also praised the resolve of Israelis who rushed to defend their communities, and who had returned home from abroad to fight. He welcomed the new emergency national unity government, which included the main political opposition.
He said the U.S. was working to help secure the release of the hostages, among whom are several American citizens and citizens of other countries. He warned other countries — without naming Iran specifically — not to escalate the fight, saying that he was urging all to condemn terror without equivocation. Blinken stressed concern for ordinary Palestinians. “We know Hamas does not stand for the future that Palestinians want for themselves and their children.” He urged concern for avoiding civilian casualties.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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