Netanyahu continues weekly media blitz

As has become a weekly tradition, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hits the Sunday talks shows in the US, granting interviews to Fox News, NBC, CBS and CNN.

Israel accepted five different ceasefire proposals and truce offers, which were all rejected by Hamas, the prime minister says. “And now Hamas breaks the ceasefire it itself had asked for, and continues to fire at Israeli civilians. Israel will do whatever is necessary to guarantee the security interests of Israeli citizens.”

“The money from the international community given for the building of kindergartens for Gaza residents has been used for the construction of tunnels intended to blow up Israeli kindergartens,” he says.

The Israel Defense Forces will continue to destroy Hamas’s terror tunnels, Netanyahu stresses in his interviews. Some of the other core messages he seeks to convey: Hamas is using Palestinian civilians as human shields and is responsible for any harm done to them. Hamas is a terrorist organization that calls for Israel’s destruction and condemns the killing of Osama bin Laden. Operation Protective Edge will continue until its objective is met: restoring calm to Israel’s cities. The Egyptian ceasefire proposal is the only one currently being considered by Israel.

Economic assistance to the people of Gaza needs to be connected to the demilitarization of the Strip.

— Raphael Ahren