"It's a big lie that I wanted to build Hamas, ridiculous. You don't go to war three times with Hamas or do major military operations if you want to build Hamas." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was interviewed on Tuesday by Germany's Axel Springer media outlet and rejected claims that he had strengthened Hamas with Qatari money.
Netanyahu presented Elon Musk with the horrors of the October 7 massacre from Kibbutz Kfar Azza// Omer Meron /GPO, Sound: Ben Peretz /GPO
According to Netanyahu, in an interview with Germany's largest publisher and one of Europe's largest, he allowed Qatari money to flow into Gaza only to avoid a humanitarian disaster, not to strengthen the branch of government there.
"We wanted to avoid a civilian humanitarian collapse – disease, rampant famine and other things that would have created an impossible humanitarian situation," he said. "That is why Israeli governments, consistently, have allowed this money in, not to strengthen Hamas. We didn't want to strengthen Hamas at all. We wanted to weaken him and hurt his abilities as much as we could."
Netanyahu also said in the interview that Israel would maintain the ceasefire as long as Hamas honored the agreement, but he noted that, however, Hamas would still have to be destroyed after the ceasefire ended. "Make no mistake: we will continue our military efforts to eradicate Hamas, because Hamas says very clearly that it will repeat its actions again and again and again."
Olmert. Criticism of Netanyahu, photo: Shauli Mor
The goal for the day after, as Israel sees it and as expressed in Netanyahu's words, is the defeat of Hamas followed by the disarmament of Gaza in addition to neutralizing the extremist elements operating there. "Our goal is to make sure that Gaza does not return to the terrible threat that existed to Israel before the war," Netanyahu said.
The article, which was published in the past 15 hours, also appeared on the Politico website (Axel Springer owns the site), which also included statements made in the past by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "Over the past <> years, Israel has done everything to downgrade the Palestinian Authority and strengthen Hamas. Gaza was on the verge of collapse because they had no resources, no money, and the PA refused to give Hamas money. Bibi saved them. Bibi made a deal with Qatar and they started transferring millions and millions of dollars to Gaza."
The interview in question did not go unnoticed by Netanyahu's opponents in the Israeli political system. MK Avigdor Lieberman, chairman of Yisrael Beiteinu, tweeted on X: "You know you're lying, all you wanted was to buy quiet."
Netanyahu, when you say that you tried to prevent a humanitarian disaster in Gaza, you know that you are lying. All you wanted was to buy quiet. You were afraid of war and chose shame. In the end, you received both shame and war, and caused the greatest humanitarian disaster in the history of the State of Israel.
— Avigdor Lieberman (@AvigdorLiberman) November 29, 2023Were we wrong? We'll fix it! If you find a mistake in the article, please share with us