PM Hints Israel Stopped Terrorist Hijackings in Europe

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu revealed on Tuesday that Israel has furnished Europe with information that helped prevent airborne terror attacks on its cities, possibly on the scale of September 11.

In a speech to NATO member state ambassadors to Israel in Yerushalayim, Netanyahu described in stunning terms the ways in which Israel contributes to the security of those countries:

“We have, through our intelligence services, provided information that has stopped several dozen major terrorist attacks, many of them in European countries,” he told foreign diplomats in Yerushalayim.

“Some of these could have been mass attacks, of the worst kind that you have experienced on the soil of Europe and even worse, because they involve civil aviation. Israel has prevented that, and thereby helped save many European lives,” Netanyahu said, apparently referring to plane hijackings.

He did not provide specifics, nor would the Prime Minister’s Office give details.

“The second assistance that Israel has given to Europe and NATO has been the prevention of the establishment of what I call ISIS West in the Sinai. There is, as ISIS is contracting and is being destroyed in Iraq and Syria, it is trying to establish an alternative territorial base in the Sinai. Israel is contributing to preventing that in myriad ways, and in general I would say that Israel is the most powerful indigenous force in the Middle East that fights radical Islam.”

Netanyahu explained at length the threat from Iran to the region and the world. “Because it is, as Kissinger said, a cause, not a country. And the cause is worldwide domination under their brand of Islamic militancy. We are the small Satan, you’re — no offense — the middle-sized Satan, America is the great Satan, but they have designs on all of us. Iran is dangerous because this radical ideology seeks to acquire nuclear weapons. The first task is to prevent them from acquiring nuclear weapons.

“The second reason they are so dangerous is because they’re trying to establish an empire, a territorial empire from Tehran to Tartus in the Mediterranean, enveloping the Middle East also from the south through Yemen, eventually conquering the Middle East. This is what Iran is about.

“We are absolutely committed to preventing Iran from forming such a base, a military base in Syria, and we back our words with action. And this is dangerous for you, too, because the conquest of the Middle East by Iran would eventually affect all of your interests.

“As part of Iran’s plans of conquest and colonization of Syria, they want to bring in as many as 100,000 Shiites, Shiite fighters, imported into Iran — non-Iranians under Iranian command. If you think you had a reaction to ISIS, that is, to radical Islam, radical Sunni Islam, and this is what really is happening in Syria, this is correct. So half a million were butchered, millions were uprooted from their homes and millions went to Europe. They didn’t go anywhere else, they just went to Europe. And that may be about to end, one hopes, this tragedy I hope ends.

“But if Iran realizes its goal of bringing in 100,000 Shiite fighters into Iran, this will reignite the same conflict and you’ll have the son of ISIS and the grandson of al-Qaida that will be fighting this new Shiite force. Where will the spillover happen? In Europe. Where will the human flow go? To Europe. Who’s preventing that right now? Israel.

“Right now, Israel alone. But I maintain that this is a common interest that we have with NATO. So my message to you today is, radical Islam, either Shiite or Sunni, threatens all of us. Israel is fighting both. Israel seeks your cooperation.

“You have a statement and a slogan in NATO which I think is particularly apt: ‘An attack on one is an attack on all.’ An attack by radical Islam from whichever direction on any of our democracies is an attack on all our democracies. This is not merely a statement of abstract principle, this is simple truth. So I submit to you that what we should do is increase our cooperation for our common interests, our common security and for the quest for peace.”