Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu delivered an address to the nation Monday evening following the arrival of the official Israeli delegation in the United Arab Emirates.
Netanyahu called the arrival of the first commercial flight from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi “the beginning of a new era.”
“I saw our flags raised – I was moved and felt immense pride. I am sure that all of you, without exception, felt the same and you must have felt that this is a special day and this is the beginning of a new era. I have worked for this day for 25 years,” the prime minister said.
“This is a historic day, a day of victory for the doctrine of Peace for Peace. I instructed Meir Ben Shabbat to invite the United Arab Emirates’ delegation to Israel,” he added.
According to Netanyahu, “peace is made with the strong, and economic power leads to military power that becomes political power. We had to make Israel a very strong state and the first thing we had to change was the centralized, socialist economy and make it a free economy, or as free as possible.”
“We have led the fight against Iran’s nuclear armament. I have strongly opposed Iran. I went to the US Congress and demanded that the nuclear agreement be rescinded. It was this strength which laid the foundations for a completely different relationship with many countries in and outside of the region,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu hinted that Israel was having informal contacts with other Arab countries. “There are a lot of things I can’t tell you about yet – but I believe over time it will be revealed. You could see the changes for yourself in recent years. I have met and I have met with a lot of leaders from the Arab world, invisible meetings. We are discussing opening direct airline flights and representative offices.”
