JERUSALEM, Israel – Israel is making it clear that the world will not plan its future as fighting continues in Gaza and in the north.
The Israeli government issued a proclamation rejecting the international community's plan to impose a Palestinian state on Israel. The Knesset is expected to ratify the declaration on Monday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier presented the statement.
“Israel categorically rejects international edicts on a permanent arrangement with the Palestinians," he declared. "Such an arrangement will be achieved only through direct negotiations between the sides without preconditions. Israel will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. Recognition such as that, following the massacre of Oct. 7, will grant a major prize to terror, a prize that has not been seen before, and will prevent any future peace arrangement.”
Israel Making Progress in Battle to Destroy Hamas Military Power
In Gaza, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced Sunday that 200 Hamas militants surrendered at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and dozens more at the Al-Amal Hospital.
"We can say today that the Khan Younis Brigade has been defeated. The Khan Younis Brigade is no longer functioning as a military entity in any way. The remainders on the margins in the central (Gaza Strip) camps and with the Rafah Brigade. And what is standing between them and the total collapse of their military system is the IDF’s decision."
Gallant asserts the terror force has no confidence in their commanders, and Hamas leaders outside Gaza are looking for someone to lead inside Gaza.
War cabinet minister Benny Gantz believes it could take a long time to change the reality in Gaza.
He said, "We have tried everything but eliminating Hamas...(Israel is) facing a very long journey to change the reality, in Gaza and from Gaza. I would dare say it would take a year, a decade, and a generation."
Speaking at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem, Gantz warned if Israeli hostages aren't returned by the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in mid-March, Israel will press forward into the Rafah area.
“To those saying the price is too high, I say very clearly: Hamas has a choice. They can surrender, release the hostages, and this way the citizens of Gaza can celebrate the holy holiday of Ramadan," he stated.
Brazil's President Demonizes Israel
Meanwhile, it's clear the existence of the Jewish people, and not only Israel, is under attack.
Netanyahu condemned comments by Brazil's President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, who compared Israel to Nazis, and the war in Gaza to the Holocaust.
"Today, the president of Brazil, by comparing Israel's war in Gaza against Hamas - a genocidal terrorist organization to the Holocaust - President da Silva has disgraced the memory of 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis, and he's demonized the Jewish state like the most virulent anti-Semite. He should be ashamed of himself," the prime minister said.
Israel Discovers Hamas Book that 'Hails the Holocaust'
Israeli President Isaac Herzog met with the Qatari prime minister on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference about gaining the release of more than 130 hostages still in Hamas's hands in Gaza. Family members accompanied Herzog to the conference.
Herzog also showed a book found by the IDF in Gaza and written by Hamas Co-Founder and Former Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister, Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahar, entitled, The End of the Jews. It depicts swords and daggers piercing Stars of David, and Jews drowning in a sea of blood.
Herzog stated, "The book mainly hails, first of all, the fact that we should not recognize the fact that there are Jews and Jewish people – but most predominantly it hails the Holocaust. It hails what the Nazis have done, and calls for nations to follow what the Nazis have done."
He continued, "Now we're in Munich. On the outskirts of Munich, there's the Dachau Concentration Camp. Tens of thousands of our nation of Jews were slaughtered in Dachau. And that's the problem, meaning, we have to have a coalition of all the moderate forces in the world fighting this ideology, and the moderate forces in the world include many Sunni countries, too, because they will be attacked by the same jihadists as well."
In The Hague Monday, hearings opened on the legality of Israel's 57-year-old so-called "occupation of lands" that Palestinians want for a future state. That would include Gaza as well as biblical Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), which Israel obtained as a result of the 1967 Six-Day War. More than 500,000 Israeli Jews currently live there.
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