Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday made it clear that only Israel will decide how to deal with the security situation, and which forces it considers “unacceptable”. In a cabinet briefing, Netanyahu said that Israel is a “sovereign state”, and it would decide its security policy on its own. The remark came on the backdrop of references that key decisions about the future of the Gaza Strip are being made in Washington.
“We control our own security and we have made clear to international forces that Israel will decide which forces are unacceptable to us — and that is how we act and will continue to act,” Netanyahu said at the cabinet meeting.
“This is, of course, accepted by the United States, as its most senior representatives expressed in recent days,” he added, in a clear message to US President Donald Trump on the future course of action in the region.
Netanyahu also said that Israel’s relationship with the US is a “a partnership”.
Netanyahu’s reference to Washington
Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu refused the “ridiculous claims about the relationship between the United States and Israel.”
He recalled that while he was in the US, people said he controls the American government, “that I dictate its security policy”, he said, quoted Times of Israel.
“Now they claim the opposite — that the American administration controls me and dictates Israel’s security policy,” he further said, adding “Neither is true”.
“Israel is a sovereign state, the United States is a sovereign state. Our relationship is a partnership,” he asserted.
Israel ‘does not seek anyone’s approval’
Setting the record straight, Netanyahu added that Tel Aviv’s security policy is in its own hands. “We will not tolerate attacks against us; we respond at our discretion to attacks, as we have done in Lebanon and most recently in Gaza. We dropped 150 tons on Hamas and on terror elements after the attack on our two soldiers. And of course we also thwart dangers while they are forming before they are carried out, as we did only yesterday in the Gaza Strip,” he continued.
The Israeli PM mentioned that his country “does not seek anyone’s approval for that. We control our own security and we have also made clear regarding international forces that Israel will determine which forces are unacceptable to us — that is how we act and will continue to act.”
This comes a week after several senior US officials visited Israel to oversee the implementation of phase one of the Gaza ceasefire.
