Netanyahu: “We are in a battle for Jerusalem, our eternal capital”

 “We are in the midst of a terrorist assault focused on Jerusalem. During morning prayers [last November], as they were wrapped in prayer shawls and tefillin, four rabbis were slaughtered, four innocent and pure Jews…The human animals who perpetrated this slaughter were full of…deep hatred and terrible incitement against the Jewish people and its state.

 “But what is outrageous is not only the brutality of the murder but the shouts of joy in Gaza, in Bethlehem and in other places. They gave out candies, waved axes in the air and praised the shahidim [martyrs in Arabic]. There is daily, even hourly, incitement on the streets of the Palestinian Authority [Judea and Samaria]. There, not only do the most reprehensible murderers become the heroes of Palestinian culture, but there is unending, constant incitement against the very existence of the State of Israel, against the security of Israel’s citizens…and this is the root of the conflict: The refusal to recognize—and educate for—the existence of the state of the Jews.

“I call on all heads of state in the civilized world—I want to see outrage. I want to see condemnation, a deep and uncompromising condemnation of these murders of Israelis, of Jews….

 “To my regret, there are those who currently insist on giving the Palestinians a prize in the form of unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state that does not recognize the state of the Jews. We will not tolerate this reality; we will fight terrorism and we will defeat it. We will restore law, order and security to the streets of Jerusalem.

“Citizens of Israel, I call on you to show maximum alert and to respect the law. As a state, we will settle accounts with all of the terrorists and those who dispatched them. We have already proven that we do this, but let nobody take the law into his hands, even if tempers flare and blood boils. Terrorism has followed us through all the years of the Zionist enterprise. We have always withstood it and we will do so this time as well.

“There are those who would like to uproot us from our land and from our capital. They will not achieve their aim. We are in a battle for Jerusalem, our eternal capital. In this battle we must be united; this is the order of the day. We have always known to unite in times of trial.

“We must…unite around one major issue—defending Jerusalem, defending the security of Israel’s citizens. I think that this is what the citizens of Israel expect of us at this time—to stand together as one, unified and united. What is called for at this time is national unity.”