Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country’s military operation against the Hamas terror group will not be completed until the Gaza Strip and Palestinian society as a whole are “deradicalized” — citing the example of defeated Germany and Japan after the Second World War.
“Gaza will have to be deradicalized,” Netanyahu wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Tuesday. “Schools must teach children to cherish life rather than death, and imams must cease to preach for the murder of Jews. Palestinian civil society needs to be transformed so that its people support fighting terrorism rather than funding it.”
“Successful deradicalization took place in Germany and Japan after the Allied victory in World War II,” the Israeli leader added. “Today, both nations are great allies of the US and promote peace, stability and prosperity in Europe and Asia.”
Allied forces occupied Germany for four years following the defeat of the Nazis in May 1945, while the occupation of Japan following that country’s surrender lasted until April 1952.
The purging of Palestinian terror ideology was one of three “prerequisites for peace” Netanyahu laid out in the op-ed, along with “Hamas must be destroyed” and “Gaza must be demilitarized.”
On Monday, the 74-year-old paid a visit to northern Gaza to meet with ground soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
“First thing — we will do everything to keep you safe,” Netanyahu told the troops. “Secondly, we are not stopping. Anyone who talks about stopping — no. We’re not stopping. This war is going to go until the end. Until we finish them. No less than that.”
In the WSJ op-ed, Netanyahu defended the conduct of the IDF, saying it “does its best to minimize civilian casualties by dropping leaflets, sending text messages and using other means to warn Gazans to get out of harm’s way. Hamas by contrast does its utmost to keep Palestinians in harm’s way—often at gunpoint.
“Unjustly blaming Israel for these casualties will only encourage Hamas and other terror organizations around the world to use human shields.”
Netanyahu also called for a “temporary security zone on the perimeter of Gaza and an inspection mechanism on the border between Gaza and Egypt that meets Israel’s security needs and prevents smuggling of weapons into the territory.”
The prime minister also reiterated his opposition to giving the Palestinian Authority future control of the area, the preferred outcome of the Biden administration.
“The expectation that the Palestinian Authority will demilitarize Gaza is a pipe dream,” Netanyahu wrote. “It currently funds and glorifies terrorism in Judea and Samaria and educates Palestinian children to seek the destruction of Israel. Not surprisingly it has shown neither the capability nor the will to demilitarize Gaza. It failed to do so before Hamas booted it out of the territory in 2007, and it has failed to do so in the territories under its control today.
“For the foreseeable future, Israel will have to retain overriding security responsibility over Gaza.”
Israel launched airstrikes and a ground invasion of Gaza following the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas, which killed an estimated 1,200 people, including 33 Americans.
Hundreds more were brought back to Gaza as captives and only a handful have been released.