Netanyahu to Cameron: We Hope to Get the Hostages Out

By Yoni Weiss

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with U.K. Foreign Secretary and former Prime Minister David Cameron Thursday in the Knesset in Yerushalayim. Earlier, Cameron had visited Kibbutz Be’eri and seen firsthand the Hamas atrocities.

At the start of their meeting, Netanyahu said, “Thank you, David, for coming here and standing with Israel. We hope to get our hostages out. It’s not without its challenges. But we have to, we hope to get this first tranche out. And then we’re committed to getting everyone out. 

“We’ll continue with our war aims, namely to eradicate Hamas, because Hamas has already promised that they will do this again and again and again. They’re a genocidal terrorist cult. There’s no hope for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, between Israel and the Arab states, if we don’t eradicate this murderous movement that threatens the future of all of us.

“It’s a larger battle of civilization against barbarism, the kind of savagery that you saw on your visit. It’s the worst savagery perpetrated on Jews since the Holocaust. And just as the world united to vanquish the Nazis or vanquish al-Qaeda after 9/11 or vanquish ISIS, we have to unite to vanquish Hamas.

“Israel sustained proportionately twenty 9/11s – twenty 9/11s. It’s as though 50,000 Americans were slaughtered in a single day and 10,000 were held hostage, including a nine-month-old baby. He can’t walk, he can’t talk, he’s a hostage. What kind of people do this? The answer is these are not people; these are monsters. These monsters have to go. They’ll go. We’ll pursue the battle until that goal is achieved, and we give a different future for Gaza and for us.”

Cameron said: “I just want to say thank you very much for finding the time to see me. I wanted to come in person and go to the sites of the country and go to Kibbutz Be’eri to see just the true nature of the horrific attacks that you faced. I think it’s very important to do that and see that. And, you know, we stand with the people of Israel in sympathy for what you have gone through. I think that was important.

“Today, obviously, it’s important we talk about this potential humanitarian pause. I think it’s an opportunity to crucially get hostages out and to get aid into Gaza. There’s never an excuse for this sort of hostage taking. All the hostages should be released. 

“I hope everyone who’s responsible and behind this agreement can make it happen, to bring relief to those families, including, of course, there are British nationals who have been taken hostage. And so that, let’s hope that that can be delivered. Thank you for the time. There’s lots of things to talk about. It’s very good to see you again.”