Prime Minister Netanyahu at his weekly cabinet meeting. Photo: Screenshot.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on world leaders to show the same level of indignation over terror against Israelis as they do over terror attacks around the world.

“The time has come for countries to condemn terrorism against us to the same degree that they condemn terrorism everywhere else in the world,” Netanyahu said. “It would be proper for Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas], who condemned the attack in France yesterday, to condemn ruthless terrorism against innocent people in Israel and fight the incitement that motivates it.”

His comments were made at the start of his government’s weekly cabinet meeting, less than two days after massive, coordinated terror attacks left 129 dead in Paris — and an Israeli father and son, Rabbi Yaakov and 18-year-old Netanel Litman, were killed while driving in the West Bank.

The premier said that the two attacks should be seen in the same light, noting their close proximity to one another, and calling for world unity to combat the shared threat of terrorism.

“Mere hours after the murder was perpetrated near Otniel, terrorists set out on a vicious assault in Paris and murdered innocent people,” he said. “In Israel, as in France, terrorism is terrorism and standing behind it is radical Islam and its desire to destroy its victims. The time has come for the world to wake up and unite in order to defeat terrorism.”

He also had words of caution for those who seek to justify or explain terror attacks: “We should remember – we are not to blame for the terrorism directed against us, just as the French are not to blame for the terrorism directed against them. It is the terrorists who are to blame for terrorism, not the territories, not the settlements and not any other thing. It is the desire to destroy us that perpetuates this conflict and drives the murderous aggression against us.”

The prime minister further stressed that the fact that the attacks in Israel were not of the same scale as those in Paris was not due to the lack of will on behalf of the terrorists, but due to the efforts of Israeli security services.

“The terrorists who attack us have the same murderous intent as those in Paris,” he said, but, “Thanks to our aggressive policy against terrorism – to control the ground, go into the villages, demolish terrorists’ homes and take preventive action against the infrastructures of terrorism – along with the determined action of the IDF and the security services in carrying out this policy, we succeed many times in frustrating and preventing more serious disasters.”

Speaking to the Litman family, Netanyahu said he expressed his condolences and told the grieving widow and bereaved mother that “the entire nation grieves over the awful double disaster that befell her and her children.” He also vowed to “deal with the murderer to the fullest extent of the law.”

According to Israeli media reports, the perpetrator of the Otniel attack was apprehended last night in a special forces raid. He was a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.