Benjamin Netanyahu Warns Iran, in Outgoing Speech to Knesset: ‘We’ll Be Back — Soon’
Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ripped his likely replacement, Naftali Bennett, in a speech to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Sunday afternoon, prior to the vote to confirm the new Israeli government.
“Bennett always does the opposite of what he says and what he promises,” Netanyahu said, mocking his rival’s prior statements about opposing the Iran nuclear deal.
Netanyahu had begun by noting that he and his party, the Likud, had won more votes than any other party in the Knesset.
He recounted his long history of public service, including his role in hostage rescues as a member of Israel’s special forces; his diplomatic service in the U.S.; and his work in the government as Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.
“We changed Israel into a world power,” he said, noting Israel’s emergence as a technological and economic force.
“We were the first in the world to emerge from the coronavirus,” he added, and stressed Israel’s free-market reforms, noting that they had enabled Israel to weather the pandemic with far greater success than many other countries.
Netanyahu added that his government had proudly opposed the Iran nuclear deal, and had also managed to forge a “historic agreement,” the Abraham Accords, with several Arab and Muslim states, bringing new peace to the region. Moreover, he said, Israel had improved its relations with countries around the world, from Africa to Latin America, while still reserving the right to attack threats — whether Palestinian terrorists, or Iranian-backed forces in neighboring Syria.
He noted that during his tenure, Israel had also developed natural gas resources offshore in the Mediterranean, joining those community of fossil-fuel producing nations, from which Israel had until recently been a glaring regional exception.
Unlike his would-be successor, Netanyahu was not greeted with heckles or interjections, at least until halfway through.
He said that his government had placed Israel in the best situation, from a natural security perspective, that it had ever enjoyed. He recalled the chaos of the Second Intifada, just before he took office, with buses and restaurants bombed.
“It didn’t just happen,” Netanyahu said, implying his leadership and his policies were the reason for Israel’s success.
He said that his policies were those of the “true right,” and said that, if necessary, he would fight against “this dangerous government” from the opposition benches.
Netanyahu said that he had told U.S. President Joe Biden that he had not agreed to keep disagreements over the Iran deal behind “closed doors” — a position supported by Israel’s left-wing parties, who have opposed outright confrontations with Democratic Party administrations in the U.S.
Netanyahu recalled that Jews had tried that quiet approach when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president, as the Nazis were carrying out the Holocaust, and should not be silent again.
https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2021/06/13/benjamin-netanyahu-pans-new-government-in-outgoing-speech-to-knesset-soon/