Netanyahu intimates Shamir was right in wariness of Arabs

Prime minister cites predecessor’s comments about Arab desire to send Israelis into sea

By Philip Podolsky 1 July 2012, 2:24 pm Edit

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of the Cabinet share a moment of silence in honor of the late prime minister Yitzhak Shamir at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem in Sunday (photo credit: Uri Lenz/Flash90)

Yitzhak Shamir was correct when he spoke about Arabs wanting to drive Jews into the sea, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intimated Sunday, eulogizing his predecessor who died Saturday.

Shamir, a hard-liner known for opposing any territorial concessions, was Israel’s seventh prime minister in the 1980s and 90s. He was 96.

After holding a minute’s silence in Shamir’s memory in the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu addressed the former prime minister’s famous statement that “the Arabs are the same Arabs and the sea is the same sea,” meaning that the ultimate, unchanging goal of Israel’s neighbors was to drive the Jews into the water.

“An increasing number of people today are arriving at the realization that the man had access to fundamental truths and did not let the trends of the day sway him away from those,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu also described Shamir as “devoid of pretenses and mannerisms, a true, simple, honest man of incredible internal strength.”