Defending Lebanon security zone, Netanyahu says US would do ‘exactly’ the same if threatened

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to defend maintaining Israel’s security zone in southern Lebanon amid tensions with the US over its actions against Hezbollah as Washington pursues a deal with its patron Tehran.

“As long as we need to protect our people, we will remain in the security zone in South Lebanon. And the reason is perfectly understood. No country would be asked to do otherwise,” the premier says, speaking at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem.

He argues that America would act the same way Israel does if it were confronted with terrorist threats on its borders, saying, “What would America do? Would it say, well, there’s nothing we can do? Let’s hold our fire? Is that what America would say? No! You know damn well what America would do. It would cross the border, create a security zone, kill the terrorists, and protect its people until the threat is removed. That’s exactly what we are doing.”

Following striking rebuke from US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance over civilian casualties of Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Netanyahu adds that no army “goes to such lengths like the Israeli army to target terrorists and minimize civilian casualties.”

“We target the terrorists, but there are some civilian casualties in every such war, in every such urban warfare. And normally the ratio of noncombatants to combatants killed is about seven to one, eight to one,” he continues, saying that, according to the research arm of the Defense Ministry, Israel’s ratio in Lebanon is 1 to 5 civilians to combatants, an “unheard of” achievement.

“We should be commended for it, not condemned. We do everything in our power to protect our people. We don’t have a war with Lebanon. We have a war with Hezbollah, who terrorizes Lebanon and seeks our destruction,” he says.