(JTA) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exchanged rhetorical jabs as Ahmadinejad’s Lebanon tour came within shouting distance of Israel’s border.
"The entire world should know that the Zionists will disappear," Ahmadinejad said Oct. 14 in Bint Jbeil, a town within two miles of Israel, in a speech that was audible to Israelis along the northern border. "Today the Zionist occupiers have no choice but to surrender to reality and return to their homes and countries of origin."
Ahmadinejad, whose government is the principal backer of Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist group, repeatedly has expressed his desire to see Israel disappear.
Netanyahu chose to respond in the hall in Tel Aviv where David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, declared independence in 1948.
"We heard today the cursing and the language of contempt from the Lebanon border," Netanyahu said, Haaretz reported. "We will continue to build our country and we will know very well how to defend it."
