Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered warm birthday wishes to President Donald Trump — and to the United States Army on its 250th birthday — in a video message Saturday evening in which he emphasized that Israel and the US are protecting each other.
Watch now.
Here is a complete transcript of the Prime Minister’s message.
“I want to start by wishing a double Happy Birthday.
First, Happy Birthday to you, President Donald J. Trump. You’ve been an extraordinary leader: decisive, courageous. Clear vision, clear action. You have done great things for Israel. You’ve been an extraordinary friend to the Jewish state and to me personally.
We’ve known each other for many years. And we appreciate what you’re doing now, helping protect Israeli lives against the criminal regime in Iran.
I want to wish also a 250th Happy Birthday to the American Army. The men and women of the armed services of the United States have protected freedom for two and a half centuries. We would not have a free world without you. Thank you on behalf of free peoples everywhere.
Today, Israel is defending freedom in the Middle East and beyond. We’re doing so against a tyrannical and radical Iranian regime that wants to build atomic bombs to destroy us and wants to build ballistic missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, to be able to threaten anyone and everywhere in the world.
By defending ourselves, we’re also defending others. We’re defending our Arab neighbors, our Arab friends in peace, we’re defending Europe, we’re helping defend also the United States, which helps us all the time in our defense. This is an important mission.
Right now, the Iranian regime is bombing our civilian neighborhoods while we are targeting the terrorists. Now, this is not new. They’ve tried to assassinate President Trump twice. They bombed American Embassies. They killed 241 Marines in Beirut. They killed and injured thousands of Americans with their IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan. They burn the American flag, they chant endlessly “death to America.”
Our enemy is your enemy. And by doing what we’re doing, we’re dealing with something that will threaten all of us sooner or later. Our victory will be your victory.
How do we intend to achieve that victory? Well, we’ve already done great things. We’ve taken out their senior military leadership. We’ve taken out their senior technologists who are leading the race to build atomic weapons that would threaten us, but not only us. We’ve done all that and many other things, but we are also aware of the fact that there’s more to be done.
So, we’re preparing. We paved the way to Tehran and our pilots over the skies of Tehran will deal blows to the Ayatollah regime that they cannot even imagine. I can tell you this, we have indications that senior leaders in Iran are already packing their bags. They sense what’s coming.
I’ll tell you what would have come if we hadn’t acted. We had information that this unscrupulous regime was planning to give the nuclear weapons that they would develop to their terrorist proxies. That’s nuclear terrorism on steroids. That would threaten the entire world.
This is what Israel is doing with the support, the clear support of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and the American people and many others in the world. So, with God’s help and with the goodwill and resolution of all free societies, we shall win.”
