"America is next" in line to be attacked by radical Islamic forces unless it keeps pushing back, as it is "fighting the same battle" as Israel, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told Newsmax on Sunday while pointing to the growth of pro-Palestinian protests nationwide.
"Those are Hamas supporters across campuses in the United States, many of them," Bennett said on Newsmax's "Sunday Report." "I heard them chant that they want Shariah law in the United States, so we're seeing this massive wave of terrorists in Israel and Shariah law supporters in America … that's why we have to together hold hands and win the war."
His comments come as an apparent impasse is underway in talks between Hamas and Israel, with Hamas demanding that the war end before it frees any hostages, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruling that out.
"My understanding is that Hamas turned down the deal, which again is not very surprising," said Bennett. "We cannot have Hamas remain at the end of this whole ordeal because Hamas is a genocidal terrorist group, which explicitly they say in their own words, that we're going to attack Israel again and again until we annihilate Israel. So there's really no choice here."
Bennett added that it is "absolutely the case" that colleges in the United States are becoming radicalized by Iranian sympathizers.
"We know that Qatar and Iran are massively funding folks in America who are pushing this agenda of turning the whole world into a radical Islam state," said Bennett. "That's their goal. They're trying to do it in Europe, trying to do it in Israel, trying to do it in America, and we have to understand that we're facing the same threat together."
He did agree, though, that the right to freedom of speech allows criticism of Israel and its policies, as "any country can be criticized."
"What is not OK is when people explicitly and publicly call for the demise of Israel and deny Israel's very right to exist, and that's what these riots are about," said Bennett. "I have no sympathy for these violent riots across America … if they get it their way, I can vouch guarantee to you that the radical Islamic terror will hit American ground."
But if the United States and Israel support each other, "we can defeat it and we can defeat it and we will defeat it," said Bennett. "But we cannot give in to these rioters on the campuses or to Hamas in Gaza."
Meanwhile, Bennett said he never gets into U.S. domestic policy, so he would not directly criticize President Joe Biden's potential plans to allow refugees from Gaza into the United States.
"All I can say is that there's a massive global wave of radical violent Islam," said Bennett. "In this case, we're seeing a lot of it and with the goal of creating a world state of Shariah, radical Islamic rule. We won't let this happen. Backing us is essentially the best investment the United States can make because we're fighting everyone's war."
Bennett, however, did criticize the delay in Israel's incursion into the Gazan city of Rafah to dismantle the Hamas leadership and Biden's insistence that the United States will not back the military action unless guarantees are made to protect civilians.
"[Israel] should have gone in and obliterated Hamas and Rafah months ago," he said, adding that he does not think Biden or anyone "has the moral right to tie our hands."
The delays are also a "practical mistake," said Bennett, as they are "just prolonging the misery of everyone. This needs to be short and quick and it can be if we just go ahead and do it."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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