JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the same terrorism is driving the attacks in Israel and Paris.
“In Israel, as in France, terrorism is terrorism, and standing behind it is radical Islam and its desire to destroy its victims,” Netanyahu said Sunday at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting.
The prime minister was referencing the West Bank attack on Friday that killed a father and son, and injured five other family members, as they drove to the Shabbat pre-wedding celebration of the man’s daughter, and the attacks in Paris several hours later that left 129 people dead and injured hundreds.
“The time has come for the world to wake up and unite in order to defeat terrorism. The time has come for countries to condemn terrorism against us to the same degree that they condemn terrorism everywhere else in the world,” Netanyahu said, adding that it would be “proper” for Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to condemn the attack in Israel in the same way he condemned the attack in France.
Netanyahu also said: “We are not to blame for the terrorism directed against us, just as the French are not to blame for the terrorism directed against them. It is the terrorists who are to blame for terrorism, not the territories, not the settlements and not any other thing. It is the desire to destroy us that perpetuates this conflict and drives the murderous aggression against us.”
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