Netanyahu: Israel has become a ‘central power in world’

Netanyahu said the basic character traits of the Israeli people have been leveraged to achieve great things.

By World Israel News Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Israel’s position in the world, the Iranian regime and Israel’s coming election in an exclusive interview published on Thursday in Israel Hayom, the country’s largest daily.

“We have turned Israel into a rising world power,” Netanyahu told the paper. “We discovered that we can leverage the basic characteristics of this people to rise to tremendous achievements.”

“This nation has made extraordinary accomplishments in the economy, security and  diplomacy… We have proven that Israel can be transformed from a small country that is located in the corner of the Middle East into a central power in the world. ”

Israel Hayom asked Netanyahu how he responds to attacks claiming Israel undermines stability in the Middle East.

“Once they also said that all the problems of the Middle East are a product of the Palestinian problem,” he said.

“Today, there is no one who seriously argues that. Even our sworn enemies are embarrassed to say it, because the struggle here is between the middle ages and modernism, between the tyranny of  radical Islam and the forces of freedom. This is the struggle put simply. To stand against Islamic fundamentalism that wants to take over the Middle East first and then the entire world.”

Confronting Iran

For many years, Netanyahu has led the charge in confronting the Islamic Republic, the paper says. It looked for a time that Netanyahu was losing the battle. During the Obama administration, the 2015 nuclear deal was signed despite Netanyahu’s warnings that the agreement would have the reverse of its intended consequence and enable Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.

“That deal will not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. It would all but guarantee that Iran gets those weapons, lots of them,” Netanyahu warned the U.S. Congress on March 3, 2015.

Now he finds that he has a powerful ally against Iran in President Donald Trump.

“I will not mourn if the regime falls, but there can also be a change within the regime,” Netanyahu told Israel Hayom.

On the second round of elections to take place on September 17, Netanyahu said it would be a referendum on who should be prime minister.

He took a shot at the main opposition candidate for the job, Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, a former IDF chief-of-staff, whom he described as “inexperienced” and unable to “play on the world stage.”

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