“If We Have To, We Will Fight With Our Fingernails,” Netanyahu Says
Israeli leader says he and Trump “see eye to eye on the Iranian threat”
The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, gave a speech in the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, on November 18. It went largely uncovered in the U.S. press. To my mind, it’s newsworthy, regardless of what one’s personal opinion is of Netanyahu. I consider it illuminating, not only about Israel, but about the U.S. press, which covers developments in Gaza and Lebanon and on American college campuses extensively, but which oddly can’t seem, at least in this case, to find the space to inform readers about what the Israeli prime minister is saying publicly.
The Israeli leader underscored his country’s determination for “absolute victory.” “What is the strategy? The strategy is victory!” he said.
He went public with details of how President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken tried to discourage Israel from going into Rafah, withholding weapons shipments. “I told him ‘Tony, if we have to, we will fight with our fingernails’ — we will fight with our fingernails,” Netanyahu said, comments that are newly relevant again in light of renewed ongoing efforts by some Senate Democrats to withhold more U.S. arms shipments to Israel.
Netanyahu also spoke publicly about Iran. “This war is against one factor first and foremost. This factor is Iran, whose regime has engraved our destruction on its flag,” Netanyahu said, following up on a series of recent public statements about Iran. (Please see, “Zan, Zendeghi, Azadi,” The Editors, November 14, 2024.) Netanyahu said that he had decided to hit Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, describing him in the speech as Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali “Khamenei’s ‘beloved son.’”
And he spoke about U.S.-Israel relations, rejecting “no surprises,” which is sometimes suggested as a guide to the relationship: “If I had said "NO SURPRISES," then we wouldn't have eliminated Nasrallah, and we wouldn't have entered Rafah, or rather we wouldn't have done other things that we won't detail here. There are SURPRISES - we surprise the enemy, and we maintain our freedom of action, and we cooperate as much as we can with our friend the USA.”
Netanyahu said that in his conversations with President-elect Trump, “we see eye to eye on the Iranian threat.” A full, official English-language translation of the Hebrew speech isn’t yet available and, if patterns hold, may not be. Yet thanks to the magic of artificial intelligence a rough and unofficial translation of the complete text is presented here:
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