Israeli PM: “Islam in the Arab countries needs radical change”
Wednesday, November 29, 2023The war in Gaza may not be a war against Hamas after all, it is a war on the ideology and beliefs of Hamas. Echoing France’ President who called for an “Enlightened Islam”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during his meeting with American businessman Elon Musk, who visited the Gaza Strip settlements, that “Islam in the Arab countries needs a radical change.”
Israel will purge Gaza’s mosques and schools of their “poisonous” ideology once its war with Hamas concludes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told X (aka Twitter) owner Elon Musk in an interview on Monday.
The Israeli premier pointed to the wealthy Gulf states as
examples of Muslim countries that had been “de-radicalized.”
Speaking to Musk in an interview live-streamed on X,
Netanyahu said that the destruction of Hamas would be a “precursor” to more
systemic changes in Gaza.
Expanding on his vision of a “de-radicalized” Gaza,
Netanyahu told Musk that “you first have to get rid of the poisonous regime, as
you did in Germany, as you did in Japan in World War II.”
Netanyahu pointed to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain as
examples of Arab states that had undergone this process, likely referring to
their recognition of Israel in 2020. With Riyadh on the cusp of a US-brokered
recognition deal before the current war began, Netanyahu added that the “same
thing is happening to a considerable extent in Saudi Arabia.”
The Israeli leader suggested that his country’s “Arab
friends” could help rebuild Gaza, where the UN estimates that around half of
all homes have been destroyed since the war began. Earlier this month,
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said that the Arab nations would not
take part in any potential post-conflict peacekeeping in Gaza, nor would they
“clean the mess” left behind by the Israeli military.