Netanyahu Rejects Growing Calls For Cease-Fire at Gaza, Vowing ‘Now is a Time for War’

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, dismissed the growing calls from some corners of the West for a cease-fire with Hamas terrorists Monday, saying that to do so would amount to a surrender to terrorists who have vowed to rid the Levant of all Jews and wipe Israel off the map.In a briefing for members of the foreign press in Tel Aviv, Mr. Netanyahu likened Israel’s response to the October 7 attacks to America’s response to Japan during World War II and to al-Qaeda after the attacks on September 11, 2001. “Calls for a cease-fire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism,” he said. “That will not happen.”The prime minister quoted the Bible as saying that there is a time for peace and a time for war. “This is a time for war,” he said. “A war for our common future. Today we draw a line between the forces of civilization and the forces of barbarism. It is a time for everyone to decide where they stand. Israel will stand against the forces of barbarism until victory.”He called on the international community to stand with Israel in its fight, and warned that regardless of who steps forward, Israel is in the fight until the end and will prevail. “I hope and pray that civilized nations everywhere will back this fight,” he said. “Because Israel’s fight is your fight. Because if Hamas and Iran’s axis-of-evil win, you will be their next target. That’s why Israel’s victory will be your victory.”The Israeli leader asked for patience in the international community and said Israel is “going out of way” to avoid civilian casualties at the Gaza strip as it attempts to capture or kill the terrorists responsible for the October 7 attacks. He accused Hamas of using the civilians as shields and said a moral distinction must be made between the terrorists’ “deliberate targeting” of civilians in southern Israel and the “unintentional” casualties of Israel air strikes and ground operations. “Hamas is doing everything to keep Palestinian civilians in harm’s way,” Mr. Netanyahu said.Asked about the growing impatience at home as well and the increasingly vociferous calls for him to resign, Mr. Netanyahu said he had no intention to do so. “The only thing that I intend to have resign is Hamas,” he said. “We are going to resign them to the dustbin of history. That’s my goal, that’s my responsibility, that’s what I’m leading the country to do. This is my responsibility now.”

Netanyahu Rejects Growing Calls For Cease-Fire at Gaza, Vowing ‘Now is a Time for War’

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