From the Liveblog of
Thursday, October 19, 2023
Meeting Sunak, Netanyahu calls on world to stand with Israel in ‘its darkest hour’
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
“Hamas are the new Nazis, they’re the new ISIS,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says in his public statements alongside his British counterpart Rishi Sunak in Jerusalem, “and we have to fight them together just as the world, the civilized world united to fight the Nazis and united to fight Hamas [sic], it must now stand with Israel as we fight and defeat Hamas.”
Netanyahu calls it “the battle of the entire civilized world. It’s the battle of Israel, it’s the battle of modern Arab countries, it’s the battle of Western civilization, the battle of the free world, the battle for the future. ”
He argues that there is an “axis of evil” of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas, who want to bring the Middle East back “to an age of bondage and war and slavery and annihilation.”
He insists that one of the reasons Hamas attacked Israel was to stop the spread of the forces of modernity and peace, which were on the cusp of expanding.
“Eighty years ago, Mr. Prime Minister, the civilized world stood with you in your darkest hour,” says Netanyahu. “This is our darkest hour. It’s the world’s darkest hour. We need to stand together.”
He says it will be “a long war,” and that Israel needs the UK’s “continuous support” through the ups and downs of the conflict.
