(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today (Tuesday, 23 July 2019), at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, met with US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry. Following is an excerpt from the Prime Minister's remarks:

 

"I just had a visit with a delegation of journalists from Arab countries. With the exception of one, none of them have formal relations with us. They talk about how so many in the Arab world want to have peace with Israel, normalization with Israel, want to come to Israel. They’re not always free to express it, and there’s always opposition from those who want to take us back, but they expressed that desire.

 

But within the region, and this is what I told them, within the region, Israel is the irreplaceable power, because there is no other power within the region without whose presence and activity here, I would say the region would collapse. Without Israel, without the things that we do and the things that we stand for and the things that we protect, I think the entire Middle East would collapse to the forces of Islamic radicalism, whether Shiite led by Iran or Sunni radicalism led by Daesh."