Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the United Nations General Assembly on 29 September 2014. The Times of Israel published the full text of his speech online. May the world listen, for a change, and see the truth of what Israel's Prime Minister is saying.
The past few months have shown very clearly that the 'Islamic State' does not care about Christians, Jews, Yazidis or Kurds. It does not even care about other Muslims who happen to think for themselves and disagree with the terrorist group's extremist views. American and British journalists were beheaded, simply for being who they were, because of the country they were born in. Countless non-Muslims living in Iraq and Syria have been slaughtered, their wives and daughters taken away by the militants, anyone who speaks up killed where they stand. Refugees number in the tens and even hundreds of thousands. And this could be only the beginning.
In the previous months, many people the world over took to the streets in pro-Gaza protests, in support of terrorist groups such as Hamas and IS(IS) and against Israel and the Jewish people. Images of crying women and bleeding children won the hearts and it seems the minds of people worldwide. The world rooted for terrorists who force civilians into becoming human shields, because their Public Relations machine produced images that touched the world.
Tell me - what would YOU do if terrorists attacked your country with rockets on a daily basis? Personally, I'd urge my government to do everything possible to defend its citizens, to stop those trying to kill and terrorise us, to end the attacks against us. I would urge my government to defend our country, to use any means necessary to ensure the safety of all the people.
Worse still, what would you do if those terrorists already lived in your country, were already among you? What would you do if they could strike at any moment? In the past few months, the streets of Europe and the western world were once again witness to those calling for the eradication of the Jewish people, western democracy, Christianity, you name it. Whether those people are ever officially seen as part of any terrorist organisation or not - what matters is that they agree with the likes of Hamas and IS(IS), with people who use inhuman means such as beheading, rape and slavery as tools of warfare. In the west, we like to think that we've moved beyond treating other people as less, using people as slaves, annihilating people simply because of who they are. We like to think that we are living in a democratic world where others see things as we do. Sadly, that is not the case and we need to realise that, before it is too late.
The full text of Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at the UN General Assembly is available at the website of The Times of Israel.
"Our hopes and the world’s hope for peace are in danger. Because everywhere we look, militant Islam is on the march.
It’s not militants.
It’s not Islam.
It’s militant Islam.
Typically, its first victims are other Muslims, but it spares no one. Christians, Jews, Yazidis, Kurds — no creed, no faith, no ethnic group is beyond its sights. And it’s rapidly spreading in every part of the world."
The past few months have shown very clearly that the 'Islamic State' does not care about Christians, Jews, Yazidis or Kurds. It does not even care about other Muslims who happen to think for themselves and disagree with the terrorist group's extremist views. American and British journalists were beheaded, simply for being who they were, because of the country they were born in. Countless non-Muslims living in Iraq and Syria have been slaughtered, their wives and daughters taken away by the militants, anyone who speaks up killed where they stand. Refugees number in the tens and even hundreds of thousands. And this could be only the beginning.
In the previous months, many people the world over took to the streets in pro-Gaza protests, in support of terrorist groups such as Hamas and IS(IS) and against Israel and the Jewish people. Images of crying women and bleeding children won the hearts and it seems the minds of people worldwide. The world rooted for terrorists who force civilians into becoming human shields, because their Public Relations machine produced images that touched the world.
Tell me - what would YOU do if terrorists attacked your country with rockets on a daily basis? Personally, I'd urge my government to do everything possible to defend its citizens, to stop those trying to kill and terrorise us, to end the attacks against us. I would urge my government to defend our country, to use any means necessary to ensure the safety of all the people.
Worse still, what would you do if those terrorists already lived in your country, were already among you? What would you do if they could strike at any moment? In the past few months, the streets of Europe and the western world were once again witness to those calling for the eradication of the Jewish people, western democracy, Christianity, you name it. Whether those people are ever officially seen as part of any terrorist organisation or not - what matters is that they agree with the likes of Hamas and IS(IS), with people who use inhuman means such as beheading, rape and slavery as tools of warfare. In the west, we like to think that we've moved beyond treating other people as less, using people as slaves, annihilating people simply because of who they are. We like to think that we are living in a democratic world where others see things as we do. Sadly, that is not the case and we need to realise that, before it is too late.
"When it comes to their ultimate goals, Hamas is ISIS and ISIS is Hamas.
And what they share in common, all militant Islamists share in common:
- Boko Haram in Nigeria;
- Ash-Shabab in Somalia;
- Hezbollah in Lebanon;
- An-Nusrah in Syria;
- The Mahdi Army in Iraq;
Some are radical Sunnis, some are radical Shi’ites. Some want to restore a pre-Medieval caliphate from the 7th century. Others want to trigger the apocalyptic return of an imam from the 9th century. They operate in different lands, they target different victims and they even kill each other in their quest for supremacy.
- And the al-Qaeda branches in Yemen, Libya, the Philippines, India and elsewhere.
But they all share a fanatic ideology. They all seek to create ever-expanding enclaves of militant Islam where there is no freedom and no tolerance — where women are treated as chattel, Christians are decimated, and minorities are subjugated, sometimes given the stark choice: Convert or die.
For them, anyone can be an infidel, including fellow Muslims."
How true. And how sad that even after witnessing the atrocities of the past few months and years, so many will hear or read these words and think that Mr. Netanyahu is exaggerating. How many more attacks must there be before the world starts listening to Israel? How many more innocents must be killed by people acting in the name of Islam before all of humanity says: 'Enough, already!' and we all stop trying to subjugate and kill others?
These days, many prominent Muslims are proclaiming that the "Islamic State" has nothing to do with Islam, something that seems a bit strange, considering the terrorist group's name... I understand the desire to distance oneself from mass-murder, the abduction of girls and women, the beheading of journalists. I hope this extends further, causes Muslims to look at their own religion and decide it is time for a revolution, for a new Islam that chooses moderation over terror, that blends faith and religion with the modern world in a way that allows Muslims to walk both the path of the world and the path of religion without the need for terrorism, murder, rockets or robbing others of their basic human rights.
"As Israeli children huddled in bomb shelters and Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system knocked Hamas rockets out of the sky, the profound moral difference between Israel and Hamas couldn’t have been clearer:
Israel was using its missiles to protect its children.
Hamas was using its children to protect its missiles.
By investigating Israel rather than Hamas for war crimes, the UN Human Rights Council has betrayed its noble mission to protect the innocent. In fact, what it’s doing is to turn the laws of war upside-down. Israel, which took unprecedented steps to minimize civilian casualties, Israel is condemned. Hamas, which both targeted and hid behind civilians – that a double war crime – Hamas is given a pass.
The Human Rights Council is thus sending a clear message to terrorists everywhere:
Use civilians as human shields. Use them again and again and again. You know why? Because sadly, it works.
By granting international legitimacy to the use of human shields, the UN’s Human Rights Council has thus become a Terrorist Rights Council, and it will have repercussions. It probably already has, about the use of civilians as human shields.
It’s not just our interest. It’s not just our values that are under attack. It’s your interests and your values."
Perhaps with the so-called 'Islamic State' killing left, right and centre, the world will finally wake up and see that no matter which terrorists kill people, which group claims responsibility for horrors or atrocities, innocents are still hurt, homeless, suffering, scarred for life, dead. Whether it is ISIS or Hamas or al-Qaeda or the Taliban killing people, they are dead nonetheless. Terror is terror, no matter what name-tag it chooses to use, no matter which specific agenda it claims to want to further.
The full text of Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at the UN General Assembly is available at the website of The Times of Israel.