As some western nations have threatened Israel with economic actions if they do not cease their renewed military operations in Gaza, former mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat told Newsmax on Tuesday that "if the world wants the war to stop in Gaza, the pressure must be put on Hamas."
"They must surrender their weapons, bring us our hostages back, and the war will be over in a minute," Barkat said during an appearance on "Wake Up America." "The [Hamas] terrorists are hiding behind civilians.
"The pressure the world must put is not on Israel, it's on the terrorists that we are fighting,"
The United Kingdom announced later in the day that it was suspending trade talks with Israel and implementing sanctions until they ended their military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
Barkat, the Israeli Minister of the Economy, said none of these Western nations would want Hamas as a neighbor.
"We can never allow them to come back to Oct. 6 because they [Hamas] will want to do it again and again," he said. "We have to defeat the evil axis. The axis that calls Israel 'the little Satan,' and the U.S. 'the big Satan.'
"We've got to do that — and Ambassador [Mike] Huckabee and of course, the whole administration led by President [Donald] Trump are aligned with us on those goals."
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James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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