Netanyahu: The Root Cause of the Gaza War? Hamas' Commitment to Kill Every Jew

Netanyahu: The Root Cause of the Gaza War? Hamas' Commitment to Kill Every Jew (Prime Minister's Office)

On Sunday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a donor conference in Cairo: "We must not lose sight of the root causes of the recent hostilities: a restrictive occupation that has lasted almost half a century...."
    On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Jerusalem:

• "The root cause of the violence that burst from Gaza is not Israel's occupation in Gaza, for a simple reason: Israel doesn't occupy Gaza. Israel left Gaza to the very last centimeter, to the very last inch. We uprooted all the settlements and vacated all the settlers. So there is no Israeli occupation of Gaza."
• "The root cause of this summer's outburst of violence was Hamas' rocketing of Israeli cities, and these rocket attacks often exploited UN neutrality, using UN facilities and UN schools as part of the Hamas machine of terror. And when rockets were discovered inside UN schools, some UN officials handed them back to Hamas - that very same Hamas that was rocketing that very same time Israeli cities and Israeli civilians."
• "What is the root cause of Hamas' rocket fire on Israel? It's Hamas' opposition to Israel's very existence....They're committed to killing every Israeli and every Jew. You just have to read their charter - they say that very plainly....A real peace can only be achieved through bilateral negotiations with those who believe in peace."
• "I believe that unilateral steps by the Palestinians at the United Nations will not advance peace. I think they'll do the very opposite. They'll bring about a further deterioration in the situation - something none of us want. If the UN wants to support a genuine reconciliation, it must avoid any steps that could undermine peace."