«The pressure of the world should be on destroying Hamas as quickly as possible and not on preventing Israel from doing so.»
Netanyahu’s response came after details of a Hamas counter-offer emerged in ongoing negotiations over a deal to release the Israeli hostages — roughly 136, at least 32 of whom are believed to be dead — in exchange for a pause in the fighting in Gaza.
Hamas wants Israel to withdraw its military completely from Gaza and to stop the fighting — conditions that Israel will not accept. It is also demanding the release of thousands of convicted Palestinian terrorists serving long sentences, among other conditions.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a diplomatic mission to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank had already met with Netanyahu earlier Wednesday by the time Netanyahu delivered his address.
Netanyahu’s statement was therefore as much for American consumption as for Israeli consumption. It follows, in full:
Tonight I want to speak to you about total victory.
Our security and the prospects of peace in the Middle East depend on one thing: total victory over Hamas.
At the start of the war, I outlined three goals: destroy Hamas, free the hostages, and ensure that Gaza doesn’t pose a threat to Israel in the future.
Achieving these goals will ensure Israel’s security and pave the way for additional historic peace agreements with our Arab neighbors.
But peace and security require total victory over Hamas.
We cannot accept anything else.
Can you imagine what will happen if we don’t have total victory?
Hamas leaders have already pledged they’ll repeat the October 7th massacre over and over and over again.
No nation can accept that; we certainly won’t.
Without total victory Iran and its terror proxies—Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and others—will be emboldened to subvert moderate states in the Middle East; they’ll threaten the entire free world.
Only total victory will prevent that.
And total victory is within our reach.
Israel’s military achievements are truly unprecedented. As John Spencer, head of urban warfare at West Point, noted: It took the United States and its allies nine months to defeat ISIS in Mosul.
