Netanyahu: Israel will protect itself even if America objects

JerusalemPost – PM Netanyahu says ‘Gaza is Iran,’ blames Gaza withdrawal for enabling Tehran to set up a forward “terrorist base.”

Saying publicly in the Knesset what he had only said privately to congressional  leaders in Washington last week, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stressed on  Wednesday that Israel would act to defend itself even if the US  objected.

“Israel has never left its fate in the hands of others, not  even in the hands of our best friends,” he said in a speech that focused on the  Iranian threat and drew a direct line from Tehran to the events earlier this  week in Gaza. He also blamed the 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip for  leading to Iran’s establishment of a “forward” terrorist base there.

Netanyahu cited legendary US secretary of state George Marshall as  telling David Ben-Gurion in 1948 not to declare a state, and reminded the  Knesset that US president Lyndon Johnson not only advised Israel against  preemptive military action in 1967, but warned that “if you act alone, you will  be alone.”

Likewise, he said, former prime minister Menachem Begin knew  when he decided to attack the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 that he was going  against US wishes and would come under sharp international  criticism.

“But he fulfilled his obligation and acted,” said Netanyahu, possibly preparing the public for the prospect of Israeli military action even  over US objections.

The prime minister said that a nuclear Iran would  pose an “existential threat” to Israel, and that while he would prefer it if  Iran voluntarily abandoned its nuclear ambitions, he had an “obligation” to  retain Israel’s “independent ability” to defend itself.

After five days  of fighting in the South that replaced Iran as the major issue on the country’s  agenda for a short while, Netanyahu’s speech put the attention back on the  Iranian dilemma.

He scoffed at those who argued that an accord with the  Palestinians would solve the Iranian problem.

“As if an agreement with  Abu Mazen [PA President Mahmoud Abbas] would stop the [Iranian] centrifuges,” he  said. “Anyone who wants to believe that may do so, but he is burying his head in  the sand.”

What Netanyahu did not say was that US President Barack Obama  linked the Palestinian issue to Iran in the early days of his presidency,  something that created tension between Washington and Jerusalem. Now, however,  the administration has divorced the two issues.

“The dominant element  driving the events in Gaza is not the Palestinian issue,” he said. “The dominant  element driving the events in Gaza is Iran. Gaza is Iran.”

The prime  minister said that Gaza’s missiles, money, terrorist training and terrorist  infrastructure all came from Iran.

“Who is giving the orders?” he  asked.

“Iran. Gaza is Iran’s forward position.”

Netanyahu said  that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah in Lebanon all worked under Iran’s  umbrella.

“Now imagine if that umbrella turns nuclear? Imagine that behind the terrorist organizations is a state calling for our destruction that  is armed with a nuclear bomb.”

He declared that he was not willing to  live with that scenario, and that “every responsible leader understands that it  is forbidden to let that happen.”

The prime minister, referring to  opposition leader Tzipi Livni’s comments that he was sowing panic, said those  same words had been hurled at him in 2005 when he predicted that as a result of  the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, missiles would be fired from there at  Beersheba, Ashkelon and Ashdod.

“They said then we were sowing panic,” he  said. “They said the unilateral withdrawal would bring a breakthrough on the road to peace. Nu, what breakthrough? What road? What peace?” Every time Israel  left territory, he continued, Iran moved in.

“We left Lebanon, Iran came  in. We left Gaza, Iran came in. There are those suggesting we do the same thing in Judea and Samaria,” he declared. “Iran would go in there as well. I don’t  believe there is anyone who doesn’t understand that it is forbidden to repeat  the same mistake a third time.”

Israel’s enemies, he stated, needed to  understand that in the final analysis, Israel would not suffer an Iranian base  in Gaza.

“Sooner or later,” he said, “the Iranian terrorist base in Gaza will be uprooted.”