Translation Of Netanyahu's Speech Today http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/news.php?Itemid=2956 Benjamin Netanyahu held a press conference Wednesday evening to discuss and defend the flotilla clash. Here are translated excerpts from his speech. Israel is being attacked by international hypocrisy, and it is not the first time. Two years ago we fought against thousands of missiles launched by Hamas onto israel after we exited Gaza and were promised peace to do so. Hamas not only attacked Israel but they hurt their own citizens and hid behind them. We did all in our power to ensure that we were not hurting innocent people in retaliation. But who did the UN blame for war crimes? Not Hamas - they blamed Israel and sadly this is a similar situation. The same thing is happening now. Hamas is getting stronger. Iran is sending missiles and weapons to Gaza. It is important to point out that the weapons sent to Gaza are sent to hurt the people in Israel. I said this before, I warned about this and no one listened. They want to hurt Israeli citizens.... Because of this, in accordance with international law, we are allowed to stop weapons from coming into Gaza via air, land, or sea. The last government understood this and the reason for the blockade. They knew that stopping weapons from entering Gaza was to weaken Hamas. The intention behind this flotilla was to stop the blockade - that was their intention. And if it had worked, more boats would come, hundreds... and the amount of dangerous things, of war weapons that fit on a boat is immense. It is a much bigger threat than the tunnels. Thousands of missiles can fit on a boat. One boat that we intercepted in the past held hundreds of tons of weapons sent from Iran to Gaza.... So it is our obligation to check everything going to Gaza, to check for weapons and determine whether to allow them in. I want the world to understand what would happen if we didn't have the blockade. Iran would have its own port in Israel, a few kilometers from Jerusalem. It would be pending death for every citizen in Israel and a grave danger to the safety of the country. I say to you, those criticizing us: An Iranian port in the middle east would be a huge threat to Europe as well as us. And so we will continue to check every boat, like we did. We will try to get them to dock in Ashdod, and then proceed to Gaza. Unfortunately the people running the boats said no, [to the option of docking in Ashdod] immediately. There was no consideration. So we had to board. On five boats everything went quietly with no special occurrences or anything out of the ordinary. The sixth boat was a whole new thing - our soldiers had an extreme and violent group of people that support terror originations and who still supports Hamas. It was not the love boat, it was the hate boat. It was not a peaceful mission. It was a terrorist flotilla. They attacked our soldiers, turned their own weapons on them, stabbed them, and they pushed them off. They tried to lynch Israeli soldiers. These are soldiers of peace? Pacifists? Pro peace people? No. these are supporters of extremism and terror. Israeli soldiers showed restraint and courage, and I am proud of them What would other Democratic countries do? What would their soldiers do? They would in the best case scenario act the same way.... but in many cases they would have done much more. Of course we are sorry about the loss of life. But our soldiers could have died and they protected themselves. I asked the other world leaders that I spoke to this week, what would you have done? What would you have done to protect your country from thousands of missiles? What would your soldiers have done? We all know the truth. So we will continue to protect our soldiers and our citizens and the IDF will continue to preserve lives. That is our first obligation. The obligation to protect the citizens of Israel. It is above anything. And on this issue it is so important that we [in Israel] all be united and together as one.