Speaking at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “In recent days we have heard a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander again threaten that Iran will destroy Tel Aviv from Lebanon. He thus reveals a simple truth: Hezbollah is simply Iran’s arm in Lebanon against Israel.”
Netanyahu continued that “even though Nasrallah immediately denied the senior Iranian commander’s remarks, I would like to make it clear that if Nasrallah dares to attack Israel, the organization and the Lebanese state that enable aggression from its territory against us will pay a very heavy price.”
The Prime Minister congratulated “my friend, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on a crushing election victory. It is also a crushing victory in the struggle against anti-Semitism. I expect to continue working with Boris Johnson in the coming years in order to continue strengthening the excellent relations between Israel and Britain. They are manifest in vast mutual trade data, tourism and very many other areas. They are also substantial in security and counter-terrorism in hitherto unprecedented ways. I expect to continue.”
Turning to the unusual level of violence in the Arab community this year, Netanyahu said: “I completely condemn the murder of the young man in Kfar Kasem and the shooting at the home of the Mayor of Sakhnin. The struggle against crime in the Arab sector is a national mission. This is how I defined it to Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan when he took up office, and since then we have advanced together many plans in the government.”
The PM continued: “The first thing we did was build seven police stations. For years no police stations had been built in Arab communities and we did it. Now we are in the process of building two more police stations. We are also preparing plans to defeat violence and crime in the Arab sector, which will be presented to the government.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu concluded with a comment about the March 2, 2020 elections: “I regret that we are entering a third election campaign, unnecessary elections which have been forced on the country. But as you can see, the government is continuing to work energetically in all of the important areas of activity, with security first and foremost. I cannot go into detail here about the steps we decide on in the Security Cabinet from time to time, but you see their results. The activity of the government and the Security Cabinet is continuing on a proper basis and as per need until election day and I hope afterwards.”