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Netanyahu on Brussels Attacks: One Continuous Assault On Us All

CBN

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JERUSALEM, Israel – Just hours after multiple terror attacks hit Brussels, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the annual gathering of the American Israel Policy Action Committee (AIPAC) there's no difference between the terrorism in Brussels and the terrorism in Israel.

Speaking via satellite, Netanyahu said there's a common thread running through terror attacks around the world.

"The chain of attacks from Paris to San Bernardino to Istanbul to the Ivory Coast and now to Brussels – and the daily attacks in Israel – this is one continuous assault on all of us," he said.

Netanyahu's remarks came less than a week after three Israeli tourists were murdered in a suicide bombing in Istanbul.

He said there's no way to resolve the so-called grievances terrorists have against the West.

"It's not as if we could offer them Brussels, or Istanbul, or California, or even the West Bank [Judea and Samaria]," he continued. "That won't satisfy their grievances. Because what they seek is our utter destruction and their total domination. Their basic demand is that we should simply disappear."

Netanyahu said the only way to defeat terrorism is to come together and fight with political unity and moral clarity.

Until now, that unity and clarity hasn't existed.

CBN News' European reporter Dale Hurd called Brussels the "jihadi barracks" of Europe and wondered why an attack like this didn't happen sooner.

"Security has been so lax there. It's a very easy target," he said. "I always wondered did they really think they're never going to be hit."

Hurd said Belgium will need help to deal with the threat.

"We used to joke that if you walked through Brussels airport with a hand grenade and you dropped it, a soldier would stop you and hand it back to you," Hurd said. "Even after 9/11, I thought security was frankly a joke and I'm not sure Belgium is up to the job to handle this."

Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport is considered one of the most secure in the world, partially stemming from a series of Palestinian terror attacks on Israeli planes and passengers in the 1970s.

"In Israel we have paid a heavy price in blood and therefore we made a decision that there is zero tolerance for terrorist attacks in our airports so we are willing to spend the money in extra security…and we are willing, the citizens themselves are willing to take the extra few minutes to be questioned and to be patient when going through these security systems," said Hebrew University security expert Simon Perry.

Swedish tourist Rakis Lindstrom said, "I feel more secure here than in Sweden."

Perry said Europe must make the same investment.

"In Europe, apparently, the governments have not felt there was a need until now to provide such expensive security, and the citizens themselves didn't feel there was a need," Perry said. "Once there will be a decision that there is zero tolerance for attacks in airports, I'm sure that the European governments will implement similar security systems in the airports in Europe."

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