​(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening (Wednesday, 12 December 2018), at the Shalva National Center in Jerusalem, attended the Annual GPO New Year's toast for foreign journalists, the keynote of which was International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which was marked last week.
 
Prime Minister Netanyahu answered journalists' questions.
 
Regarding a question about Israel's red line:
 
"Less than a year ago, we went in and took the crown jewels from the Tower of London in Tehran. You know what that is? Iran had a secret atomic archive in which they stashed the material that they amassed in a secret nuclear program. And instead of destroying this material when they said that they stopped, they stashed it so that when the time is right they could come back and reveal. It was in a warehouse, an innocent looking warehouse. We found 55,000 pages in these files and 50,000 additional CDs. We found there everything. I mean what we found is a plan. Their goal, which they said quite openly, was to produce five atomic warheads. There it is. This is a page from the file. Design, produce and test five warheads each with a ten kiloton TNT yield for integration on a missile. The missile of course wasn't covered in the agreement either. They cheated by not coming clean on this to the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency. That was a premise of caring out the Iran Deal. They didn't tell this. And then of course the ballistic missiles weren't covered in the deal and they were ready to do this. So we went to Iran and took it out. Did you see Argo, the movie? This is Argo to the nth degree. But we got this stuff out.
 
The answer to your questions is our red line is our survival. We do what is necessary to protect the State of Israel against the Iranian regime that openly calls for the annihilation of the Jewish state."
 
"I'm not ruling out doing anything that we need to do to defend ourselves. For the moment Israel's military is the only military in the world that is directly engaging the Iranian forces. We're doing that in Syria and pulling them back. Because what they want to do is bring their army right here, 1,500 kilometers from Iran to our border. Bring in missiles from 400-700 kilometers which covers all of Israel. Bring in 80,000 Shiite militias with the express purpose of destroying us.
 
My policy has been we're going to stop you. We're going to stop things, bad things when they're small. So we meet Iran head on in Syria and if we need to we'll do whatever else we need to do to protect ourselves. As you would too."
 
Regarding a question on the allegations of corruption and how they affect political considerations on holding early elections:
 
"I believe nothing will come of it because there is nothing in it. And it doesn't affect me, it doesn't affect my support, because people believe what I just said and they also believe that we're doing the right things for the country – economically, militarily, diplomatically. You can see the roads, the highways that are built. You can see the prosperity and the construction. And this is in the heart of the Middle East which is the most volcanic region in the world politically and in terms of security. Israel is like an island of progress. Not that we don't have challenges. We do, we just spoke about that but people can appreciate it. And I believe nothing will come out of it and I believe the Israeli public will also express that when the time comes."
 
Regarding a question on the request received by the German government to reconsider the financing for the Jewish Museum in Berlin:
 
"I don't remember that particular item. I do remember that I spoke to her about the fact that Germany and the EU fund NGOs that openly call for boycotting Israel, prosecuting our soldiers who hold the highest moral standards of any army in the world as war criminals, or supporting terrorist organizations, Palestinian terrorist organizations, that masquerade as human rights organizations. For example, one of them which I pointed out I think to the leaders of Denmark, and I think I mentioned it to Angela Merkel too, supports the Dalal Mughrabi foundation. Dalal Mughrabi was a Palestinian terrorist, a woman, who murdered 39 Israelis on a bus near Tel Aviv, including little children and babies. And money from Germany, or from European countries or from the EU itself, goes to support these foundations that are not even front organizations. They are openly committed to our destruction. And yes I said, 'Stop it.' Imagine if we would fund organizations committed to the destruction of Germany or the destruction of France or the destruction of Britain. The real question you have to ask is how come we didn't ask this before."
 
Regarding a question on his opinion of the conservative wave that is shifting Latin America to the right and whether he will travel to the inauguration of the Brazilian President and his expectations of him:
 
"The answer is yes. Our concern is not the domestic decisions, the political decisions, but what is their relationship to us? I was very glad to hear that Mr. Bolsonaro thinks that we should upgrade and change Brazil's attitude to Israel. Mind you we had good relations but we didn't have the flowering of relations that is happening between Israel and China, Israel and India, Israel and Japan and so on. Why not? Brazil is a great country. It has great enormous economic potential and I think that this will be a tremendous benefit for both our countries. The President[-elect] said something I very much like. He said he's going to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. It's only been for 3,000 years.
 
We have important relations with all the countries of the world. And I value tourism from all the countries of the world. And we make it very easy for Israelis to fly to all the countries of the world. But if I had to say what are the most important air routes that Israel has? The most important. Obviously Israel-New York, Israel-Washington. I mean Tel Aviv-Washington. These are vital. But the new ones that are the most important are these. The first one is Israel-San Francisco. That's got to be the most productive air route in the world. Because there are very few tourists on it but they're solidly booked. And these entrepreneurs and technologists keep flying back and forth and the time they spend in the air produces zillions. The second one is Israel to the various direct flights to China. The third one is the one from Israel to New Delhi. Soon Israel, Tel Aviv-Mumbai. Huge market. Huge technology.
 
You asked me about Brazil. We think this one is important too. To get there right now you have to fly like this and come around like that. I spoke to the President of Chad and so he agreed that our planes could fly like this – Egypt, Chad, Nigeria and reach São Paulo. That's a shortcut. If I can, I'm not sure I'll be able to, I'll fly this way too. So I'll see you in Brasília."
 
Regarding a question as to how he assesses the leadership of Muhammad Bin Salman vis-à-vis Israel and the Iranian threat, and the peace process and whether his role was impaired by the murder of Jamal Khashoggi:
 
"What happened in Istanbul is horrific and I think that will be dealt with. Each country will have to figure out, especially the countries that have formal relations, will figure out what to do with that. It's balanced by the importance of Saudi Arabia and the role it plays in the Middle East because if Saudi Arabia were to be destabilized the world would be destabilized. Not the Middle East, the world would be destabilized and I think that has to be taken into account.
 
This is an important question to be considered in democracies but the criticism comes from countries that themselves practice hangings in the public square, of journalists or gays or political dissidents. About 1,500 are executed in Iran each year. To have Iran lecture us on this is absurd.
 
People should ask the question: What is the universal standard that is applied here? Now we have always tension between the most basic human rights, the right to life and the right of a free press, but on the other side there is also realpolitik. And I don't deny it. There's always a balance. But to have this criticism emanate from dictatorial theocracies that oppress their own people, execute their own people and oppress journalists; that's a measure of hypocrisy that we don't have to tolerate."