After American Rebuke, Netanyahu Says Israel Stands by Ally

YERUSHALAYIM
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads the weekly cabinet meeting at PM Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem on September 11, 2016. Photo by Marc Israel Sellem/POOL
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu leads the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Yerushalayim, Sunday. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has marked the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by saying his country stands by its “greatest ally, the United States of America.”

At the begining of the weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday morning, Netanyahu said that “today we mark 15 years since the terrorist attacks of 9/11. We remember the victims. We embrace their loved ones.”

He said that Israel stands by its greatest ally, the United States of America, and with other partners in the battle against militant Islamic terrorism that spreads its fear, its dread, its murder, around the world.

“Our memories are long, our determination is boundless. Civilized societies must band together to defeat these forces of darkness, and I’m sure we will,” said Netanyahu.

Netanyahu’s comments came two days after a rare American rebuke for statements in which he insisted that Jewish communities in Yehudah and Shomron were not an obstacle to peace and that Palestinians wanted the “ethnic cleansing” of Jews in Yehudah and Shomron.

Netanyahu said it was outrageous that the Palestinians demand this area be free of Jews and it was “even more outrageous that the world doesn’t find this outrageous.”

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said such terminology was “inappropriate and unhelpful.”

At the Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu discussed the methods that many terrorist organizations have developed, to enhance the outreach of incitement, and the ways Israel is trying to overcome these threats.

“The fight against terrorism is also being waged on the social networks,” said the Prime Minister, “and a senior delegation from Facebook is currently in Israel. The goal here is to improve cooperation against incitement, the incitement to terror and murder, on the social network.

Improper use of the internet, noted Netanyahu, has brought a curse to humanity, because terrorists and inciters are using it to attack mankind.

“We are determined to fight these phenomena and, therefore, I welcome the cooperation, or at least the desire for cooperation, that Facebook is showing, and we hope that these will lead to better results.”

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