Netanyahu: Preemptive strike against Iran still an option

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel has not ruled out a preemptive strike against Iran, during a memorial service on Tuesday for those who fell in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

“A preemptive strike is a difficult thing to do. I know that if Iran wants to base itself in the North, we are ready to fight them. This is a direct lesson of the Yom Kippur War,” said Netanyahu. “We will do everything in order to protect the State of Israel; we are not ruling out a preliminary strike.”

“This is the power on our side,” added the prime minister. It is “the power that brought peace with Jordan, Egypt, agreements with the UAE and Bahrain. The power that will bring peace with additional states. The power and perseverance will allow us to handle the coronavirus crisis.”

“The surprise that was our lot in that war must not be forgotten and must not be repeated: not in security, but also not in health or in the economy,” said Rivlin.

“I fought in the killing fields of that terrible war, and here I am today. Almost a jubilee later, and I well remember how we won that war. In the trenches, we fought shoulder to shoulder,” stressed Rivlin. “No one checked to see if you had sideburns folded under your helmet or if you were wearing your red pad [a symbol of the Histadrut]. We stormed together, knowing that if we did not rush forward, there might not be anywhere to return to.

“Our national security requires a rebuilding of the contract between the public and its elected representatives, respect for the law and obedience to guidelines, and the reconciliation of the deep rifts among the people,” the president said.

“We will wake up the day after the plague. I do not know when [this day] will arrive, but it will arrive,” Rivlin predicted. “And when it arrives we must make sure we wake up to it as brothers to each other, responsible for one another,” he said.

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“At this time we must be goal-oriented, and the goal is to defeat the virus – to defeat it!”

Defense Minister Benny Gantz stressed during the service that the coronavirus caught Israel unprepared, similar to the Yom Kippur War. “We didn’t respond as was fit, but we will succeed this time as well.”