(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara, this evening (Sunday, 16 February 2020), at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem, attended an event with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Following is an excerpt from the Prime Minister's remarks:
"I've been developing contacts with the Arab countries and Muslim countries, and I can tell you there's scarcely one, two, three Muslim or Arab countries around the world that we don't have deepened ties with. Sometimes it comes out in the open. A year ago, Sara and I were on a very moving visit, an open visit to Oman, and two weeks ago, we had a very moving visit with the president of Sudan. That's an Arab, or rather a Muslim country, speaking Arabic, that hosted the Khartoum Conference. And in Khartoum they have all the noes against Israel. Remember the noes? No recognition, no Israel basically. And now, we're discussing rapid normalization.
“The first Israeli airplane passed yesterday over the skies of Sudan. This is quite a change. The Israeli mochileros, the backpackers, fly to South America and start hiking. We just got down about three hours of their flight time. They don't have to go to Spain and then around Africa. They can now fly directly over Sudan right to Brazil, Argentina, and they can stop on the way in another country, Chad, which also resumed relations with us recently.
“I'm just telling you what is above the surface. How much is above the surface in an iceberg? It's about 10%. What you're seeing is about 10%. Vast changes are coming because Israel is now a power to contend with, and because collaboration with Israel helps you prepare, secure the future of your people and ensure a better future for your people. Securing the future, the safety of their people is obviously something on everyone's mind, and the greatest threat to the security of the countries of the Middle East and countries in the world, is the attempt by Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons.
“Israel will never let Iran acquire nuclear weapons. Second, we do not let Iran entrench itself militarily right in our backyard, in Syria. We resist that mightily. We take every action that is necessary to prevent that. And I believe we're succeeding. We have taken up arms against a foe that openly calls for Israel's liquidation. Obviously, we're not going to wait.".