Israeli officials lauded a Monday statement by U.S. President Barack Obama announcing the assassination of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying Israel shared the "joy of the American people."
Obama issued a statement just before midnight on Sunday, Washington time, saying that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is dead and his body has been recovered from Islamabad, Pakistan by U.S. authorities.
The U.S. president said that "justice has been made" in his heartfelt address Sunday, commemorating the nearly 3000 people that were killed in the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington orchestrated by the al-Qaida leader.
In a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday, Netanyahu called the U.S. operation a "resounding victory for justice, freedom, and the values shared by all democratic countries fighting shoulder to shoulder against terror."
The premier personally congradualted the U.S. president as well as American soldiers, saying that "the State of Israel shares the joy of the American people on this historical day, that of bin Laden’s ouster."
President Shimon Peres also referred to Monday’s announcement, saying "bin Laden was the great murderers and was destined to be hanged."
"This is a great achievement for the American security establishment, a great achievement for the U.S. president, this is a great achievement to the free world," Peres said.
"Again we have come to realize that the fight against terror is shared with the world’s leading democracies and it will be won by a joint, multilayered effort that has yet to be finalized," Barak added.
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