(Sky News-Australia) Sharri Markson - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Sky News Australia on Thursday that even if Hamas agreed to an eleventh-hour deal, Israel would still take over Gaza in order to eliminate the remaining terrorists and achieve security. "There was never a question, we're not going to leave Hamas there....It's like leaving the SS in [Nazi] Germany." Netanyahu said, contrary to media reports, his goal was not to "occupy Gaza. It's to free Gaza, free them from Hamas tyranny, free Israel and others from Hamas terrorism, give Gaza and Israel a different future, and I think we're close to doing it. It'll have to, of course, mean getting the last strongholds of Hamas, they shouldn't be there. Everybody understands that." "There's been a great underlying friendship [with Australia] for over a century....I think it's gone astray because I think leaders did not show the strength and conviction that they should have when we're actually fighting the war of Western Civilization against these barbarians. I think ultimately most Australians will get it...once we finish this war and give a future of peace and prosperity." "When the worst terrorist organization on earth, these savages who murdered women, raped them, beheaded men, burned babies alive in front of their parents, and took hundreds of hostages, when these people congratulate the Prime Minister of Australia, you know something is wrong....To offer them a state, when they had a state, a de facto state in Gaza, and they use it for murder, pillage and monstrous crimes, is to reward terrorism, and I think that's a sign of weakness." "The Western leaders, including unfortunately in Australia, are...trying to feed the crocodile of militant Islam that has claimed the lives not only of Jews, but Christians and Arabs, many Muslims and so on, and they think they'll pacify, they'll appease the crocodile. The more you pour fuel into this antisemitic, anti-Israel and anti-Western fire, the greater the fire will grow, it will consume you in the end. You have no protection unless you stand up to it." "When [Australian] Prime Minister Albanese and the leaders of France, Britain and others say, 'Oh we'll give them a Palestinian state,' they're actually rewarding terror....We're not going to commit suicide and put another Palestinian state right next to our doorstep in Tel Aviv or in Jerusalem because the distances are tiny."
2025-08-24 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive