Netanyahu: Israel at forefront of fight against ‘savagery’ and ‘barbarism,’ Hamas narrative embraced on US campuses

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hails Israel’s fight against “savagery” and “barbarism,” condemning what he calls pro-Hamas sentiment on American college campuses and alleged atrocities committed against the Druze minority in Syria last month.

During his opening remarks at a Jerusalem event hosted by the Newsmax news outlet, Netanyahu says that “some have fallen victim” to Hamas propaganda — “to these lies, and have followed them, and swallowed hook, line and sinker” — echoing criticism he voiced at a press conference for foreign media earlier this week.

Despite Hamas’s record of brutal acts of terrorism, he says, many students on American campuses “are siding with Hamas” by embracing pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel movements.

Addressing prominent American lawyer and academic Alan Dershowitz, who is present in the audience, Netanyahu asks: “Can you say something in their defense right now? No. Yeah, I figured. Neither can I, because I think it’s atrocious.”

Netanyahu stresses that “most Americans [recognize] that Israel stands for the same values as America,” adding: “They recognize that we are fighting the barbarians at the gate.” He also thanks US President Donald Trump for being “a great ally.”

“It’s not only the savagery of Hamas and the Iranian terror axis. In Syria, just a few weeks ago, we stopped the savage massacre of the Druze,” Netanyahu continues, referring to last month’s deadly attacks in and around the southern Syrian city of Sweida, a Druze stronghold, where sectarian clashes with local Bedouin drew in Syrian regime forces and IDF intervention.

“They went into their town of Sweida, and they butchered the men,” Netanyahu says, without clarifying which assailants he refers to. “They raped the women, the nurses, and then shot them. They burnt babies, and they added a few things,” Netanyahu says.

Referencing a widely circulated video purportedly from the attack, he continues: “You saw it live, and you have to see it to understand this. I mean, you see a Druze civilian wounded, lying on the ground. And one of these fanatics, these unbelievable savages, they go in, knife the guy, tear out his heart, and then eat it. The victim has his heart eaten while he’s still alive. This is savagery. This is barbarism. This is what Israel is fighting on behalf of Western civilization, on behalf of civilization.”

“But we now have to muster all the forces that seek to defend our common civilization against this mutilation of the truth that threatens our common future,” Netanyahu concludes.