Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that Israel will open what he described as a new front aimed at protecting Christian communities across Africa and the Middle East, amid what he said were growing global threats to what he termed the “Judeo-Christian civilization.”
Netanyahu made the remarks in a public speech delivered on Wednesday and uploaded on the Israeli Prime Minister’s official YouTube channel.
Addressing an audience he identified as Christian Zionists, Netanyahu said their support was central to the emergence and survival of Israel, noting that “Christian Zionism facilitated the rise and success of Jewish Zionism.”
“You are representatives of the Christian Zionists who made Jewish Zionism possible,” he said, adding that the partnership between Christian Zionists and Israel had been “an enormous partnership” that had endured “through thick and thin.”
The Israeli leader stated that Israel had recently fought what he described as a “seven-front war” and emerged “in many ways victorious,” but insisted that a new challenge had now emerged.
“But there’s an eighth front,” Netanyahu said. “And that’s the front for the hearts and minds of people, especially young people.”
According to him, the battle was not Israel’s alone but one that affected the United States, their alliance, and what he described as “the future of Western civilization.”
“I think it’s our common Judeo-Christian civilization’s battle,” he said, stressing that the front must be engaged “as forcefully, with as much resolution as we engage the other seven fronts.”
Netanyahu also rejected calls for religious restraint in the face of violence, declaring that “faith should speak its voice and terrorism should be confronted, not understood, confronted and defeated.”
He disclosed that he had spoken with U.S. President Donald Trump, stating that he saw the struggle against Israel and what he described as the Judeo-Christian tradition as a global battle.
“I see the battle against us and the battle against our Judeo-Christian tradition basically being waged around the globe,” he said.
Netanyahu identified what he called “radical Shiite Islam and radical Sunni Islam” as the main forces waging that battle, pointing to Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood as leading what he described as opposing axes.
“They go to Europe, they go to the United States, they go to Africa, Nigeria,” he said.
Referring specifically to the persecution of Christians, Netanyahu said Israel was “conscious of the fact that Christians are being persecuted across the Middle East, in Syria, in Lebanon, in Nigeria, in Turkey and beyond.”
He claimed that Israel is the only country that “protects the Christian community, enables it to grow, defends it, and makes sure that it thrives.”
“And that country is Israel. There is no other, none,” he said.
The Israeli Prime Minister announced that Israel was joining efforts to form what he described as “a United Nations of countries that support Christian communities around the world,” particularly “beleaguered communities who deserve our help.”
He added that Israel was capable of supporting such efforts “in Africa, with intel, in the Middle East, with a lot of means,” stressing that protecting Christian communities was “a main part of our agenda” and would continue “with greater force and greater might in this coming year.”
Netanyahu concluded the speech by extending what he described as a “belated happy Christmas” and “a happy new year,” expressing hope for “prosperity, peace, and security for all of us, but especially for the Christian communities around the world.”