Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Speech Recap

The Israel Daily News was invited to cover The Jewish News Syndicate’s (JNS) first International Policy Summit in Jerusalem on Sunday, engaging with and listening to the nation’s top leaders on Israeli Diplomacy, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Speaking for 47 minutes, Netanyahu highlighted how Israel has been the strongest influence for peace in regional security since it’s the only country that stands up to Iran in the area. Noting the Palestinian rejection of peace, Netanyahu came up with a different plan for how he could expand Israel’s circle of peace within the Arab World… one that did not rely on a Palestinian peace agreement. He went to four Arab countries and made four peace treaties in two months. This made a change. 

“We expanded the circle of peace, but the main thing that you can see here is that the number of Arab states that attacked us, five, arguably seven states in 1948, three in 1967, two in the Yom Kippur War, then one in the Lebanon War in 1982, kept declining. And basically, the Arab world began to normalize its relations with Israel. And that’s the good news,” he said.

He also talked about the process of how he pulled off the successful elimination of former Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah. He had just landed in New York getting ready to address the UN General Assembly, and convened his cabinet, and decided to go ahead with the attack. After addressing the UN General Assembly the next morning, his military secretary handed him a piece of paper that said one word. “Done.” The fall of Nasrallah also led to the downfall of the Assad regime in Syria, in which Bashar al-Assad relied heavily on Hassan Nasrallah instead of his army. 

He also shared talking points about the Iran Nuclear Deal and how Israel and the US cannot let them obtain a nuclear weapon. Netanyahu also discussed pushing back on the American administration since October 7th, saying, “We will fight with our fingernails if we have to,” when discussing American threats to embargo weapons. Netanyahu came back on stage after departing to give the number of hostages left in Gaza dead and alive (196 released, 147 alive). 

To see his speech live on Instagram, click here and turn your phone sideways!