Interviewed by U.S. television networks, Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defends Israeli operation in Gaza • "We
will do what the U.S. would do," he says • Netanyahu declines to give a
timeline, says Israel faces a "very brutal terrorist enemy."
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu during a news conference at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv,
Friday
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Photo credit: AP |
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conducted
interviews with a number of U.S. television channels on Sunday, as
Operation Protective Edge continued.
Netanyahu appealed for sympathy for Israelis
under siege from terrorist rockets as a warning siren followed by an
all-clear signal punctuated his interview on CBS' "Face the Nation."
Credit: GPO
"When we began this interview, we were under bomb alert and as the minutes passed, now we're told people can go out into the open air again," Netanyahu said. "This is the kind of reality we're living in. And we'll do whatever is necessary to put an end to it."
Netanyahu urged Americans to imagine that U.S.
cities from the east coast to Colorado, or 80 percent of the
population, were under threat of rocket attack, with only 60 to 90
seconds to reach a bomb shelter. "That's what we're experiencing right
now, as we speak," he said.
Netanyahu declined to discuss a cease-fire or give a timeline for Israel's operation in Gaza.
Asked if a ground invasion was imminent,
Netanyahu said Israel would use any means necessary to accomplish its
goal of degrading Hamas' rocket-launching capability to restore security
for Israeli civilians.
"Whether we're at the beginning of the end or
the end of the beginning I'm not going to tell you that right now --
because we face a very, very brutal terrorist enemy," he said on "Fox
News Sunday."
Netanyahu said he had spoken with U.S.
President Barack Obama and other world leaders who understood Israel's
need to defend itself.
"We'll do what is necessary," he said. "What any country
would do; what the United States would do, what Britain would do, what
France would do, and many, many other countries."
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