Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this afternoon (Sunday, 25 November 2018), at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, made the following remarks:

"There will be an historic visit here today. In a few hours I will meet here with the President of Chad, Idriss Deby. Chad is a large and important African country, with a majority Muslim population and no president of Chad has ever been to the State of Israel. I met him now at the ceremony in Paris, over lunch, to mark 100 years since the end of World War I.

President Deby is coming to Israel thanks to the many efforts I have led in recent years. This is the place to specially thank you, National Security Director Meir Ben-Shabbat and the people at the Foreign Ministry who also helped.

This visit reflects the rising status of Israel among the nations. I reiterate this time and again. Every week we see the implementation of this concept, of cultivating economic-technological strength, alongside security-intelligence strength, to receive political-diplomatic strength. This is happening before our eyes, one might say, on a daily basis.

And therefore, today we turn a new page in relations with Chad, and I tell you – there will yet be other countries soon.

I would like to tell you that I have just come from an unsettling visit - there is no other word – which my wife and I held at a shelter for battered women in Jerusalem. Violence against women is an abhorrent phenomenon. It is a crime.

Of course we are against violence in general, but within this category there are special things. The special thing, of course, is that it is necessary to care for the women, the children and the families, and we are doing much, and much more needs to be done. This is part of the discussion that we will now hold in the Cabinet to mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

But I discovered, as I spoke with these women, something that astounded me, woman after woman after woman. I discovered that we are making great efforts, and there will be even greater efforts, to care for these women, at shelters and further on. We must care for them, and afterwards as well, because the threat has not been lifted and neither has the challenge. But I discovered that we are hardly doing anything against those who are responsible for this crime. It is as if we were not dealing with terrorism, and this is terrorism in every respect, and you do not care for terrorists.

I intend not only to offer them psychological rehabilitation, most of them are uninterested. If we would try to treat terrorists with psychological rehabilitation, this is one approach. But first there must be enforcement, deterrence [and] punishment. I was amazed to discover that there are women there whose husbands came with knives and nothing has been done, and other husbands come and shoot inside the house and nothing has been done to them, and three brothers imprisoned their sister, this terror, for three years in a room, and she was never allowed out even once, a room with bars, the kept her baby away from her, and nothing was done to them.

Something is missing here. I would like to formulate a plan to deal not only with the women who have been hurt, but with their attackers. First, as Herzl's great partner Nordau said, about ethics, first enforcement and punishment and then ethics. Here there is no enforcement, no punishment, no ethics and no justice. There is only the continuing fear and trauma that is difficult to describe. You see this with the women too. You also see it with the young, adorable children that my wife and I visited today. This is going to change.

I request the cooperation of all ministers and MKs in bringing about a deep and fundamental change here. We need to be the leading state in the world on this matter, just as we are the leading state in the world in the fight against terrorism.

Today, I will bring before the Cabinet the appointment of Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi to the post of IDF Chief-of-Staff. Aviv is an outstanding commander who has been selected from among four exceptional officers. He is a highly accomplished and esteemed commanding officer with extensive plans for innovation, and I am certain that he will bring the IDF to new heights. I am also certain that, like his predecessor, he will command the IDF in such a way as to meet the challenges before us.

This is also an opportunity to thank Gadi Eizenkot for his dedicated and important service during a difficult period. We will have a proper parting from Gadi, but I want to say on this occasion, that incoming chief-of-staff, Aviv Kochavi, and Chief-of-Staff Gadi Eizenkot, requested an additional few weeks to help with the orderly change of command, and I agreed to that. Therefore, the retirement date of Gadi Eizenkot will be January 15. We wish them both great success.

In recent days we have been seeing attempts to intimidate the Israel Prison Service. I view this very seriously. We do not live in the Wild West. We are a state of law - and we will bring these criminals to justice. I embrace those serving in the Israel Prison Service. I greatly appreciate their important work. We are all committed to enforcing the law."