Presidential hopeful says threat to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv is identical to threat to Paris, London and US cities
Republican presidential candidate senator Marco Rubio of Florida spoke during a community rally called “Never Again” to bring attention to what the organizers say is a rise in worldwide anti-Semitism and the campaign against Israel’s right to exist on November 15, 2015 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP)
Rubio said Israel’s fight against terrorism is the same one being fought by the United States and Europe.
He spoke in Miami Beach during a large rally in support of Israel and against anti-Semitism and said the threat to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv is the same as the threat to Paris, London and US cities. Rubio warned against “casting out one of our own”—meaning Israel—in hopes of appeasing jihadis.
He was joined at the rally by democratic senator Bill Nelson and other top Florida lawmakers. The “Never Again” rally was organized by major Jewish organizations to bring attention to attacks on Israel and to commemorate the 77th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass.
Earlier Sunday prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew parallels between the massive terror rampage that rocked Paris Friday and attacks against Israelis, saying the world that rallied to condemn bloodshed in France must do so for Israel as well.
“It is time for states to condemn terrorism against us just like they condemn terrorism anywhere else in the world. It is appropriate that [Palestinian Authority president] Mahmoud Abbas, who condemned the attack in France yesterday, will condemn the cruel terrorism against innocents in Israel and fight the incitement fueling it,” Netanyahu told his cabinet meeting.
Referring to a shooting attack Friday which left a rabbi and son dead in the West Bank, Netanyahu said the perpetrators had been the same.
“Hours after the murder in Otniel, terrorists went on a ruthless terror attack in Paris and murdered innocents,” he said. “In Israel, as in France, terrorism is terrorism, and the force standing behind it is radical Islam and its wish to destroy its victims.”
At least 129 people died in the attack in Paris and more than 300 were wounded in a large coordinated shooting and bombing attack claimed by the Islamic State, the worst violence to hit the country since World War II.
Other Israelis have also drawn parallels between the terrorism in France and Israel.
“The whole world now understands what we experience in Israel and Jerusalem—murderous terrorism motivated by the same hatred and a mission of death against innocents in the West,” Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat wrote Saturday after attending the funeral for the West Bank victims Yaakov and Netanel Litman.
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