Binyamin Netanyahu on how Israel justifies its war in Gaza
There is a huge battle today between the. forces of civilization, the forces of. modernity and the very fanatic forces. who want to take us back to. the early Middle Ages and and and do so. with a violence that is unimaginable. You've seen these pictures of people. cutting open the the chest of a of an. enemy, these Islamists, tearing out the. heart. The person is still alive and. eating the heart. That tells you. something. Now that.
mentality, that fanaticism has to be. confronted. It will move and invade your. countries and it will destroy them. Israel is not just fighting our battle. It's fighting the battle against radical. Islam that threatens the future of the. world. And I think many people thought. communism would threaten the world or uh. uh uh China would threaten the world. I'm saying that this untethered force of. uh an extremist ideology that knows no.
limits if it has nuclear weapons, the. ballistic missiles to deliver them and. the uh masses that will uh destroy. democracies, burn Christians. >> We're committed to defending Christians. around the world and in the Middle East. If they win the day, we all lose. Israel. is defending itself, but in so doing, we're defending Western civilization. >> Prime Minister, that is one way of. viewing the world, and I I have some. sympathy with some of what you've said. Let me give you another way which is.
that many people around the world see. the state of Israel as a country that is. exclusively using military force that is. not that has killed 70,000. 70,000 people in Gaza that is doing. nothing to create a sustainable future. for people there that is a country you. are you are you know you've been accused. of being a war criminal that if you went. to go to several countries in Europe. you're going to get arrested this is not. just mad campus radicalism. This is a.
feeling around the world. You said it to. yourself to us just now in public. opinion around the world, Israel is. doing very poorly. And it's doing very. poorly because people see a country that. is behaving in a way that is not. compatible with being a liberal. democracy. And therefore, I think you. have a problem. I think that loss of. public opinion, what struck me from your. autobiography was how subtly and for how. long you have understood this. You know. that political power comes from public. opinion and you know that you need to. win the battle of public opinion and.
you're losing it. You've absolutely lost. it in Europe, but much more worryingly. for you, you're losing it in America. And I think that what you've just told. me about fanaticism is true in part, but. it is not going to shape public opinion. People are going to roll their eyes and. say he's saying that anybody who says. anything critical about Israel is. anti-semitic. He's giving this large, you know, this this story about uh. fanaticism and he's not accepting the. fact that Israel is behaving in a way. that we think is incompatible with the. kind of liberal democracy that he.
claims. >> Well, the liberal democracies that. fought the battles from World War II to. Afghanistan to Iraq and so on, the ratio. of combatants to non-combatants killed. was 6:1, 7 to1. in in Gaza because Hamas. was forcing people to stay in urban. areas at gunpoint. The ratio is about. one and a half to one. And we lost a lot. of soldiers because we didn't carpet. bomb. We didn't do prime minister. We. didn't do. >> people have different ratios as well. >> I'm telling you, you don't actually, but.
that's not the point. It certainly. wasn't 6:1 or 7 to1. And we certainly. didn't carpet bomb, which we could have. done right away. We've lost a lot of. people in by my refusal and the IDF's. own mores in making sure that doesn't. happen. Now if you have the densest war. urban warfare theater in history with. 500 kilometers of terror tunnels. underneath 50 m below 50 m above. everything booby trapped and you don't. come in and just bomb the place to. smitherines which we didn't. I mean we. had everything booby trapped. We moved.
the population out and then you have to. fight the kamas [snorts] in there. uh. the ratios the ratios in Mosul the. ratios in uh in Fallujah the ratios. elsewhere there's nothing comparison and. that was nothing compared to what our. soldiers our brave soldiers had to face. in Gaza so a I dispute the fact the. argument that you put forward is being. put forward it doesn't make it true what. is true is that Israel is fighting these. worst killers these people who uh took. not not only not only beheaded our men.
raped our women and then then murdered. them burned our babies alive and took. 255 hostages which we took out. Nobody. believed that we got them out. These are. barbarians and they're given a free. look. I have demonstrations on behalf of. kamas. Notice that they're burning the. flag of Israel and the flag of the UK, the flag of Israel and the flag of. America. When you have pro-Israel. demonstrations, they wave Israeli flags. They wave American flags. They wave.
British flags. These people are against. you. Whether you recognize it or not, they will sweep away your societies, your freedoms, your ideas, the values. that we cherish. Exactly. >> Prime Minister, it really isn't just. extreme radicals. There are huge numbers. of people who are concerned about. Israel's behavior, frankly, including. people like me. >> Well, you know, Israel, >> I think that if Britain was invaded, forgive me. You know, if you Britain was. invaded and you had the equivalent uh in.
Britain, your population is what 65. million, something like that. 60. million, right? So, you're about six. times our size. So, if you had uh on one. day uh about 8,000 Brits murdered, mutilated, raped, uh and kidnapped, and. they came right next to London, what. would you do? What you We know what you. did. We know exactly what Britain did. And I don't hold uh uh Churchill or the. British government or the British people. who supported him responsible for saying. you shouldn't acted that. You bombed the.
living daylights out of uh uh Brit out. of German cities and out of French. cities that were in your way. And so we. didn't do that. We went in with ground. forces. We didn't carpet bomb our way in. there because otherwise nothing would be. there in Gaza.
