‘This is the battle between civilization and barbarism.’ German chancellor arrives in Israel, meets with Prime Minister Netanyahu.
By World Israel News Staff
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in Israel Tuesday evening, one of a number of foreign leaders who have announced solidarity trips to Israel following the Hamas invasion on October 7th.
Under heavy rocket fire from Gaza aimed at central Israel, Scholz met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Kirya, the IDF’s headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Following a private meeting, the two leaders held a joint press conference in the Kirya.
During his statement to reporters, Netanyahu compared the October 7th massacres of Jews near the Gaza frontier to the Holocaust, and Hamas to Nazi Germany.
“Eighty years ago, our people experienced the worst savagery in the history of humanity with the Nazi crimes against the Jewish people on the soil of Germany and Europe.”
“I must tell you, my friend, that the savagery we witnessed perpetrated by the Hamas murderers coming out of Gaza were the worst crimes committed against Jews since the Holocaust: the decapitation of people, the shooting of little children with bound hands, the murder of children in front of their parents, the murder of parents in front of their children, the hiding of babies in the attic and the murderers who came to the attic to murder the babies, the rape and murder of women, the abduction of families, the tearing of grandmothers and Holocaust survivors into captivity, the death pits that remind of us of Babi Yar where jeeps surround the depression in the ground where they crowd young people in and they shoot them with machine guns. This is the savagery that we only remember from the Nazi crimes from the Holocaust.”
The Israeli premier called for the world to unite behind Israel as Operation Iron Swords, the Israeli campaign against Hamas in Gaza, continues into its 11th day.
“Hamas are the new Nazis. Hamas is ISIS and in some instances, worse than ISIS. And just as the world united to defeat the Nazis, just as the world united to defeat ISIS, the world has to stand united behind Israel to defeat Hamas.”
“This is a part of an axis of evil: of Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas. Their goal, open goal, is to eradicate the State of Israel.”
“The open goal of Hamas is to kill as many Jews as they could and the only difference is they would have killed every last one of us, murdered every last one of us if they could, they just don’t have the capacity, but they murdered an extraordinary 1,300 citizens which in American terms is many, many, many 9/11s.”
“So obviously we must take action to defeat Hamas to ensure that this doesn’t happen again. But this is not only our battle, it is our common battle. The battle of civilization against barbarism. And if it’s not stopped here, this savagery will reach you very soon and reach the entire world. We have a vested interest, an abiding interest, to make sure that doesn’t happen and it can only be achieved with the solidarity of the civilized world.”
Turning to the issue of civilians in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, Netanyahu accused the terrorist organization of committing a “double war crime, and urged those civilians able to flee northern Gaza to move towards the Egyptian border.
“The question of the safety of civilians is something that is raised by Hamas’ actions. Hamas is committing a double war crime. Not only is it targeting civilians with unprecedented savagery, it’s hiding by civilians, their own civilians.”
“We are calling on the civilians to leave Gaza, go south to safe zones and Hamas is preventing them often at gunpoint from doing so. Hamas wants to keep them there as a human shield and prevent the people from leaving and getting out of harm’s way.”
“It’s important that the entire world understands this. The responsibility for the civilians who are there, both the abducted people and both the people who are kept there at force, the citizens of our country, and the citizens of dozens of countries and the Palestinian civilians themselves, that responsibility sits squarely on the shoulders of the Hamas war criminals.”
“They’re committing a double war crime: attacking civilians, hiding behind civilians as human shields. The entire world should condemn it and should support Israel in its just war.”