Posted on 10/07/24
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today (Monday, 7 October 2024), at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, met with a bipartisan delegation of US Senators led by Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
Prime Minister Netanyahu:
"I deeply appreciate the visit by Senators Graham and Blumenthal on this day of commemoration, October 7th. It was the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, but unlike the Holocaust, we fight back. We’re fighting like lions with the support of the American government and the American people, and its representatives here. I want to thank you both for your stellar support for Israel throughout the war."
US Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT):
"Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister. We’re honored to be with you and we appreciate your giving us this opportunity to speak with you on this really agonizingly difficult day for your country and the people of Israel and all of us in the United States who feel so deeply that it was an absolutely abhorrent inhumane attack on the Jewish people. We’re here to say we have Israel’s back and Israel has the right to defend itself."
US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC):
"The reason people were killed on October 7th was they were Jewish. We’ve seen this movie before. We don’t want to see any more of those movies. Living in their own homeland. You said something that really struck me. No one should be a refugee in their own country. They’re going back to the north, folks. They’re going back to these kibbutzes. Whatever it takes to get your people back in their homes, you do it.
To my friends in France, you’ve got this [...] backwards. You should be doubling down on helping Israel, because the people that want to destroy Israel also want to destroy the French people. I get that. He gets that. You’re fighting our fight. We’re going to help you with your military needs.
The Twin Towers fell not because of a hurricane, because radical Islamist terrorists killed 3,000 of us on a single day. And they would kill all of us if they could. If Iran ever got a nuclear weapon, they would use it. The question would be who would they use it against first. Me? You? Saudi Arabia? We can never let that happen. So we’re going to help you."
Also attending the meeting were the Prime Minister's Foreign Policy Adviser, Dr. Ophir Falk, the Prime Minister's Spokesperson, Dr. Omer Dostri, and the Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs North America Desk, Dor Shapira.
