Hamas using psychological warfare to turn Israelis against their own government, says Netanyahu, after massive weekend rally demands hostage deal.
By World Israel News Staff
Hamas is using the 101 Israeli hostages still held in captivity in Gaza to manipulate the captives relatives and segments of the Israeli public to divide the country and weaken it, while extending the war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, while Iran confronts Israel on multiple fronts with what the Israeli premier called an “axis of evil.”
Speaking at the opening of the weekly government meeting Sunday, Netanyahu responded to the massive rally held in Tel Aviv, which reportedly drew hundreds of thousands of demonstrators demanding Israel reach a hostage deal with Hamas.
Citing a recent report on Hamas’ attempts to foment dissent inside Israel, Netanyahu suggested that a minority of the country had fallen into a “Hamas trap.”
“Last weekend, the German newspaper Bild published an official Hamas document that revealed its action plan: To sow discord among us, to use psychological warfare on the hostages’ families, to apply internal and external political pressure on the Government of Israel, to tear us apart from within, and to continue the war until further notice, until Israel is defeated.”
“The great majority of Israel’s citizens are not falling into this Hamas trap. They know that we are fully committed to achieving the objectives of the war: To eliminate Hamas, to return all of our hostages, to ensure that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel and to return our residents in the north and south securely to their homes.”
Responding to the deadly terrorist shooting attack on the Israeli-Jordanian border Sunday, Netanyahu warned that Iran, Hamas’ primary patron, has “surrounded” Israel with a “murderous ideology” led by Tehran’s “axis of evil.”
“In recent days, abhorrent terrorists murdered six of our hostages and three Israel Police officers in cold blood. The murderers do not differentiate between us. They want to murder us all, right and left, secular and religious, Jews and non-Jews, until the last one.”
“We will stand together. We will wield the sword of David together and with God’s help, we will win.”
“One more word. There are those who ask – ‘Shall the sword devour forever?’ [II Samuel 2:26]. In the Middle East, without the sword, there is no ‘forever’.”