Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed his nation on Friday as a ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza went into effect, heralding the agreement that would see 48 remaining hostages returned to Israel.
Netanyahu, speaking in Hebrew, took the opportunity to claim success for his strategy, against media critics and political opponents who had attacked his approach to the war throughout its two years.
Netanyahu addressed critics who, he said, predicted from the start of the war that Israel would not be able to retrieve even one hostage. He said that he had thought differently, and that he had pursued a dual approach of military pressure and diplomatic efforts. He had stood up to diplomatic pressures, foreign and domestic, he said, to give up on Israel’s military goals, and had instead used military pressure to force a better deal.
“I thought differently, and I acted differently” than those who thought he should give up the war prematurely, Netanyahu said.
He reminded Israelis that he had long promised both to defeat Hamas and to bring back every hostage. He had delivered on that promise, he said, in the new agreement forged with U.S. President Donald Trump.
He also said that Israel would retain the ability to renew fighting if Hamas did not fulfill its agreement “the easy way.” He said that Hamas would, as demanded, be disarmed and removed from power in the deal.
He closed by noting that on “this emotional day,” the nation owed a great debt to its soldiers, especially to the fallen and the wounded. He thanked Trump for his leadership, who had proved his great friendship to Israel, as well as American negotiators (including Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner) and Israeli diplomats.
Netanyahu noted that just as the festival of Simchat Torah (the last day of the holiday of Sukkot, marking the culmination of the annual reading of the Torah) had become a day of mourning in 2023, the same holiday would be transformed in 2025 into a day of “national happiness” once again.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Zionist Conspiracy Wants You, now available on Amazon. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
This post has been updated.
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