Excerpt from PM Netanyahu's remarks at the opening of the Winter Assembly of the 25th Knesset's Second Session

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today (Monday, 16 October 2023), at the opening of the Winter Assembly of the 25th Knesset's Second Session [translated from Hebrew]:
 
"This is a moment of genuine struggle against those who have risen up against us to destroy us. Our goal is victory – a crushing victory over Hamas, toppling its regime and removing its threat to the State of Israel once and for all.
 
There are many questions about the disaster that befell us ten days ago. We will investigate everything thoroughly. We have already begun to apply immediate lessons. However, now we are focused on one goal: Uniting our forces and storming forward to victory.
 
To this end, determination is required because victory will take time. There will be difficult moments. There will be pitfalls. Sacrifice will be necessary. But we will win because this is our very existence in this region, in which there are many dark forces.
 
Hamas is part of the axis of evil of Iran, Hezbollah and their minions. They seek to destroy the State of Israel and murder us all. They want to return the Middle East to the abyss of the barbaric fanaticism of the Middle Ages, whereas we want to take the Middle East forward to the heights of progress of the 21st century.
 
This is a struggle between the children of light and the children of darkness, between humanity and the law of the jungle. We saw this in the horrors that the reprehensible murderers perpetrated in Kibbutz Be'eri, in Kfar Aza, in the other communities of the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip, and in the killing field of young people at a festival in Re'im.
 
Many people around the world now understand who stands against Israel. They understand that Hamas is ISIS. They understand that Hamas is the new version of Nazism. Just as the world united to defeat the Nazis and ISIS, so too will it unite to defeat Hamas.
 
I tell our friends in the enlightened world: Our war is also your war. If we do not stand together in a united front, it will reach you as well.
 
We have a message for Iran and Hezbollah: Do not test us in the north. Do not repeat your previous mistake because the price you will pay will be much worse.
 
President Biden told you in English: 'Don’t do it.' I tell you in Hebrew: Be careful.
 
We have gone to war. We will win. We will not stop until victory."