PM Netanyahu's Remarks at the Start of the Weekly Cabinet Meeting

September 3, 2019

Weapon Program: 

  • Nuclear
  • Military

Related Country: 

  • Lebanon

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this morning, at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, made the following remarks:
 
“I welcome the remarks by the foreign ministers of Bahrain and the UAE against Hezbollah’s aggression. They condemned the helplessness of Lebanon, which allows the Hezbollah terrorist organization to operate from its territory against Israel. This sounds like the Messianic times, but it shows the fundamental change taking place in the Middle East. The Arab world also understands that the Iranian aggression endangers not only Israel, but the entire region as well. I call on additional countries to come out against the aggression of Iran and its proxies.
 
I would like to take this opportunity to again thank President Trump and secretary of State Pompeo, who took the bank that provides Hezbollah with most of its funds and put it on the sanctions list. This is very important.
 
We endured several tense days on many fronts. We could have started the week completely differently, but we acted with a combination of decisiveness and sagacity, and we achieved all of our goals.
 
I defined three main goals for the IDF and the security arms in the following order: First of all, to stop and prevent the Iranian nuclear project. Second, to prevent Iran from supplying our enemies and its proxies, such as Hezbollah and others, with precision weapons that endanger us. And third, to prevent Iran and its proxies from entrenching on our borders. In effect, we are acting vis-à-vis all of these goals, in part openly and a considerable part covertly. We are determined to maintain the security of Israel.
 
There is a current effort to hold another trilateral summit with Russia, the US and Israel here in Jerusalem, to continue discussing Iran's removal from Syria. We will continue to take all diplomatic, security, intelligence and professional steps to achieve the goals we have set.
 
This government has many achievements. Today I was informed about another one. We received the data for the summer and I want to tell you something – tell me, have you gone crazy? Over two million Israelis flew abroad this summer, almost nobody stayed in Israel. Moreover, almost four million tourists have entered Israel this year.
 
Employment is at an all-time high and unemployment is at an unprecedented nadir. Then seriously, we have not gone crazy, we have done great things for the Israeli economy, for the benefit of the citizens and future of Israel. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all, each and every one of you, for the great achievements.”