Prime Minister Netanyahu addresses the nation of Israel on the status of Israel’s multi front war and discloses the conditions for the ceasefire with Hizballah (courtesy of the Israel Government Press Office). A transcript follows.
Transcript:
Citizens of Israel,
I promised you victory, and we will achieve victory.
We will complete the task of obliterating Hamas, we will bring home all of our hostages, we will ensure that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel and we will return the residents of the north back home safely.
The war will not end until we realize all its goals, including the return of the residents of the north safely home. And I tell you, it will happen, just like it happened in the south.
My friends, residents of the north,
I am proud of you, I am proud of your perseverance, and I am totally committed to your security, to the rehabilitation of your communities, to your future.
To date, thanks to the bravery of our fighters in the IDF, the Israel Security Agency, the Mossad and Israel Police, we have made great inroads into the seven fronts of the “War of Redemption.”
These achievements are a source of awe and admiration across the globe, and they are projecting Israel’s might throughout the Middle East:
First, the head of the octopus – Iran. We destroyed major parts of Iran’s air defense system and missile-manufacturing capabilities, and we demolished a significant component of their nuclear program.
I am determined to do anything needed to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. That threat has always been my top priority and is even more so today, when you hear Iran’s leaders state over and over again their intention to obtain nuclear weapons. For me, removing that threat is the most important mission to ensure the existence and future of the State of Israel.
In Gaza, we dismantled the Hamas battalions and killed close to 20,000 terrorists. We killed Sinwar, we killed Deif, we killed senior Hamas officials and we brought 154 hostages back. We are committed to bringing them all home, the 101 hostages still in Gaza, those who are still alive as well as the dead, and end the terrible anguish of their families. We are of course committed to completing the annihilation of Hamas.
In Judea and Samaria, we are taking out terrorists, we are destroying terrorist infrastructure and we are operating in all of the terror strongholds. There is no place out of our reach.
In Yemen, we attacked the Houthis’ port of Hodeida forcibly, which the international coalition had not done.
In Iraq, we successfully thwarted, and are still thwarting, many drone attacks, and we have many challenges ahead.
In Syria, we are systematically blocking attempts by Iran, Hezbollah and the Syrian army to transfer weapons to Lebanon. Assad must understand that he is playing with fire.
And now, for the seventh front – Lebanon. Hezbollah decided to attack us from Lebanon on October 8th. A year later, it is not the same Hezbollah. We have pushed them decades back. We eliminated Nasrallah, the axis of the axis. We have taken out the organization’s top leadership, we have destroyed most of their rockets and missiles, we have killed thousands of terrorists and we demolished their underground terror infrastructure abutting our border, infrastructure they had been building for years.
We have attacked strategic targets throughout Lebanon and we have brought down dozens of terror hi-rises in Beirut’s Dahieh. The ground in Beirut is shaking.
Citizens of Israel,
Only three months ago, this all would have sounded like science fiction. But it isn’t. We did these things.
At every moment of managing this campaign, I observe all fronts simultaneously. That is what I did at the beginning of the war when I decided to focus on Gaza and not open a broader front in Lebanon. That is what I did several months ago when the conditions ripened to go north, and then we decided to focus on Hezbollah.
That is what I did after the missile attack from Iran, when we meticulously decided on the time and nature of our response.
And that is what I am doing today. I observe all the fronts simultaneously and see the broad picture. I am determined to give our courageous soldiers every resource to keep them safe and bring us victory.
Therefore, this evening I will bring a ceasefire outline for the cabinet’s approval.
The length of the ceasefire depends on what happens in Lebanon.
With the United States’ full understanding, we maintain full freedom of military action. If Hezbollah violates the agreement and tries to arm itself, we will attack. If it tries to rebuild terrorist infrastructure near the border, we will attack. If it launches a rocket, if it digs a tunnel, if it brings in a truck carrying rockets, we will attack.
I hear the claim that if we enter into a ceasefire, we will not be able to attack and will not be able to renew the war. I remind you, that is exactly what they said when we had a ceasefire in Gaza to release the hostages. They said we wouldn’t go back to fighting, but we did.
They tell me Hezbollah will be quiet for a year or two, grow stronger and then attack us. But Hezbollah will be in violation of the agreement not only if it fires on us. It will be in violation of the agreement if it obtains weapons to fire at us in the future. And we will respond forcefully to any violation.
I know there are people who don’t believe we will do that. But many also didn’t believe we would enter Gaza on the ground, and we did. They didn’t believe we would go into Shifa and Khan Younis, and we did. They didn’t believe we would go into Rafah and the Philadelphi corridor, in the face of all the international pressure. Not only did we go in, we attacked, and then some. Many didn’t believe that we would attack in Lebanon, and we did that too. We attacked with force and sophistication that surprised the whole world.
So after all that, maybe we should start believing? Believe in our determination, believe in our path, in our commitment to victory.
Why should we have a ceasefire now? For three main reasons:
The first reason is to focus on the Iranian threat, and I will not expand on that.
The second reason is to give our forces a breather and replenish stocks. And I say it openly, it is no secret that there have been big delays in weapons and munitions deliveries. These delays will be resolved soon. We will receive supplies of advanced weaponry that will keep our soldiers safe and give us more strike force to complete our mission.
And the third reason for having a ceasefire is to separate the fronts and isolate Hamas. From day two of the war, Hamas was counting on Hezbollah to fight by its side. With Hezbollah out of the picture, Hamas is left on its own. We will increase our pressure on Hamas and that will help us in our sacred mission of releasing our hostages.
Citizens of Israel,
In the past year, we turned the tables. We were attacked from seven fronts and we fought back with might. We are changing the face of the Middle East. We are doing all this thanks to our brave soldiers, thanks to your tenacity and thanks to the resolute and smart management of the war.
I have said many times, a good deal is a deal that is enforced, and we will enforce it.
With G-d’s help, we will establish security, we will rehabilitate the north and continue, united, until victory.
Walter Sieruk says
The State of Israel should come down hard on that murderous jihad entity ,Hezbollah when , and not “if” it violates the ‘ truce” by , once again launching deadly missile attacks into Israel.
For the use of the armed might is the way to defeat the murderous jihadists of Hezbollah. This is because the Muslim terrorists of Hezbollah will not reason to reason or logic. The only language that they are able to understand is the language of the strong of might of the power of the Israel Defense Force.
As Thomas Jefferson had , so rightly and wisely ,written “With every barbarous people…force is law.”
In addition, there is much good solid valid sense in the wisdom of the statement apply to the Israel Defense Force pounding down with much military might of Hezbollah. The statement is “Half-measures in war is both folly and madness.”
Walter Sieruk says
When Hezbollah breaks the “ceasefire” it should be dealt with defeated and even destroyed by hitting it hard, hit it long and keep on hitting it with strong powerful forceful military strikes until it’s unable to raise up again with its ugly, vicious and deadly jihad Islamic head.
Therefore, the government authorities and officials of the State of Israel have a duty and responsibility to use sarong military force against Hezbollah to ensure the safety security and lives of the people who are citizens of that nation. It’s basic matter of self-defense.
As the fifth President of the United States, James Monroe, rightly and wisely, in a speech had declared, “The right to self-defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to individuals.”
Walter Sieruk says
That hoax of a ceasefire ,or what some people call a truce that Joe Biden is behind is deceptive ploy by Hezbollah because that entity jihad entity is losing this war in started with Israel
The jihadist chief of Hezbollah will only keep their promises only as long as it fits into their Islamic goals, and no longer
In the meantime] while they are abiding by the “truce’ , before they break it , Hezbollah be restoring it’s weapons ,provide by Iran , to attack Israel again, attempting to murder her people.
Such false hopes for peace which are based on the foundation of lies are nothing new when it comes to Israel. For example, the Bible in Psalm 55:20, 21. Which reads “Such men do violence to those at peace with them and break their promised word; their speech is smoother the butter but their thoughts are of war.” [N.E.B.]
Walter Sieruk says
About that so called “truce” sponsored by Joe Biden , it’s a disingenuous farce. The reason why this is so because that despicable old Biden really doesn’t want Israel to defeat Hezbollah is because Biden is a stooge ,tool and useful idiot of those Muslim tyrants of Iran. For in power in that hostile and vicious Islamic regime backs and Hezbollah and supplies deadly weapons to that murderous jihad entity.
This exposes just how horrendously terribly treacherous Biden actually is.
Creepy old Joe Biden doesn’t anything at all about those three Americans who had been killed by rockets supplied to Iran’s proxy jihad terror/murder entities.
Likewise Biden doesn’t care, one little bit , that which it some down to that subject Iran is just a responsible for those dead Americans and those jihad stooge groups of that “mullah regime.”
All that despicable traitor Biden cares about is appeasing those Muslim despots of Iran by providing to them everything they demand.
Joe Biden is either an incompetent feeble -minded fool or a traitorous treasonous villain.
Which even the case with him, Biden by giving away everything to those tyrants of that Islamic regime of Iran who such spiteful enemies of the United States that they publicly refer to her as “the Great Satan” and likewise brainwash and then incite the Iranian people to chant, over and over again “Death to America” reveals much about the sinister and insidious character of subversive creepy old Joe.
Therefore, to the very end of his term in office Biden continues appeasing supporting and further upholding that anti-American, anti-Israel vicious and hostile tyrannical Islamic regime.
Therefore, he has to be a very evil, un-American very despicable and dangerous man.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I was listening to Caroline Glick earlier. Her theory is that one reason Israel agreed to this ceasefire was to avoid getting any UN resolutions in the way, and also, the 60 days is almost exactly the time that would wait out the remainder of the Biden administration. Once done, Israel would be more likely to get sympathetic hearings from Trump, Rubio and Walz than it’s currently getting from Biden, Blinken and Sullivan
On a separate note, I saw Debbie Schlussel say on X that it’s Trump rather than Biden who’s behind this ceasefire, as a payback to the Arabs who voted for him in Dearborn and elsewhere. Due to the timing, it gets to pass off as something done due to Biden’s pressure, but really that Trump decided to get into a position where he can tell those Michigan muslim voters that he delivered for them what they wanted
DEIL says
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6LvwACXJI0&t=117s
Read the comments. And give answer when you can.
Transmaster says
According to the Israel press the reason for the ceasefire is Biden has all but stopped the resupply of bombs and artillery shells. So the IDF is concentrating on finishing off HAMAS. The so called ceasefire really isn’t one. Hezbollah no longer has anything like command and control so individual groups are firing rockets and flying drones into Israel. The IDF quickly neutralizes the launch points.
PPR says
Great appreciation, for my old high school classmate, Ben Netnayahu. Who may be Israel`s greatest PM.
memi says
Bravo!
PM Netanyahu has accomplished quite a number of admirable achievements in this war but he is right on having to destroy and neutralize Iran’s Nuclear arsenal.
Iran must never be allowed to enrich its uranium and Biden was ready, following Obama’s disastrous moves, to do just that!
In Syria, it’s not just Hezbollah but also ISIS, AlQaeda, Muslim Brotherhood–all supported by Turkey and many of their terrorist “leaders” having Turkish passports.
What is not clear is why Assad would side with ISIS and the other terrorists as it was the “rebels” who were actually Turkish-supported proxies to bring down his government–which had included Christians, Jews and women!
The geopolitical game is changing, thanks to Netanyahu’s strategy, and the Cyprus “corridor” has been extremely useful and wonder why the East Med was cancelled when it would have formed an ideal partnership from Cyprus/Greece/Israel plus U.S. which has been installing strategic bases in Cyprus to ensure safety and security for Israeli citizens if needed
His speech should bring some comfort to those who hope that soon the theocratic Islamofascist undemocratic regimes of Iran, Turkey and Qatar would start to think twice before sending terrorist proxies to Israel!