'Israel Won't Bow Down to Forces Trying to Deny Right to Exist'

By Cynthia Blank

Addressing cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu stresses Israel has nothing to apologize for, and all it must do is 'say the truth.'

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu began his weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday, Haaretz reported, asserting that Israel was facing an "international campaign to tarnish its image."
According to Netanyahu, that campaign is not connected to Israel's policies in Gaza or Judea and Samaria, but is rather an anti-Semitic attack to deny Israel the right to exist.
"The last thing that we should do is bow our heads and ask where we erred, where we went wrong," Netanyahu told his ministers.
"We did not err, we did not do wrong. We are put up to standards that no other democracy is forced to face. We do not need to justify ourselves. We just need to say the truth."
The Prime Minister's remarks come in the wake of yet another Palestinian move against Israel in the international arena, namely the proposal to bar suspend the Jewish state from international soccer association, FIFA.
In the end, a compromise was reached at the FIFA Congress in Zurich on Friday by which an international committee will be charged with examining the restriction of movement on Palestinian players in Gaza and Judea-Samaria.
"It doesn't matter what we do, but rather what we represent. What hasn't been said about Jews throughout history - that we are the source of evil in the world, that we drink the blood of small children - all this has been said of us. It wasn't true then, and it isn't true now."
"As long as we reject this and refrain from self-flagellation, we will be stronger and more solid," Netanyahu stressed.
"They say if only we were nicer, or more generous," Netanyahu added. "We've made many concessions and it hasn't changed a thing, because this campaign of delegitimization is much deeper, it wishes to strip us our right to live here."
"There is no criticism of Syria, no protests, but we are accused of being child killers."