Israeli Leaders Laud IS Liquidation

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu‏‏ and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz lauded President Donald Trump and the U.S. intelligence community for the killing of Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Sunday.

“I wish to congratulate President Trump on the impressive accomplishment that led to the elimination of the head of Daesh, al-Baghdadi,” PM Netanyahu said in a video statement shortly after the news broke. Daesh is the commonly used acronym for Islamic State in Hebrew.

“This reflects the shared determination of Israel, the U.S. and all the free countries to fight terrorist organizations and terrorist states,” he added. “This accomplishment is an important milestone, but the battle is still ahead of us.”

Gantz took time out from leading talks aimed at forming a government to issue his own statement praising the operation.

“The fight against terror requires a mix of responsibility, patience and determination to act,” Gantz said. “The elimination of the Daesh leader in Syria is a combination of all three.

“This is an important operational and intelligence accomplishment of the United States military forces, led by President Trump,” he added.

“Al-Baghdadi is directly responsible for the cruel deaths of hundreds of thousands of people whose only crime was that they didn’t share his same extremist ideology,” he said.