Benjamin Netanyahu Interview on CNN

Here with me now is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, thank you so much for joining me. Let’s start with that potential deal, sir. 100 hostages, about, are still being held by Hamas. You’re sending that negotiating team to Qatar in the coming days to talk about a potential deal, free hostages in exchange for a six-week pause in fighting. As you know, Hamas is demanding the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for roughly 40 female hostages. Are you open to that? Are you close to a deal?

Well, time will tell, but Hamas’ outlandish demands, and I’m not itemizing every one of them now, makes that deal a lot more difficult. But we’re going to keep on trying because we want those hostages back. We understand also that the one thing that gets Hamas to give them, to give these hostages to us, is the continued military pressure that we’re applying there.

(01:00)
So we’re going to continue military pressure and we’re going to continue to try to get those hostages out. And we’ve succeeded already in bringing half of them out, I hope we continue along that same course.

Let’s talk about what happened here in the US this week. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer gave a pivotal speech and said you have lost your way and called you an obstacle to peace. Take a listen.

The Netanyahu Coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7th. And I believe that holding a new election once the war starts to wind down would give Israelis an opportunity to express their vision for the postwar future.

Chuck Schumer is the highest ranking Jewish elected official here in America, a staunch supporter of Israel. What’s your response?

I think what he said is totally inappropriate. It’s inappropriate to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there. That’s something that Israel, the Israeli public does on its own, and we’re not a Banana Republic. I think the only government that we should be working on to bring down now is the terrorist tyranny in Gaza, the Hamas tyranny that murdered over a thousand Israelis, including some dozens of Americans, and is holding Americans and Israelis hostage. That’s what we should be focused on.

(02:27)
And as far as what Senator Schumer said, the majority of Israelis support our governments. 82% of Americans support Israel instead of Hamas, but the majority of Israelis support the policies that we are leading. Go into Rafah, destroy the remaining Hamas terrorist battalions. Make sure that we don’t put into Gaza instead of Hamas, the Palestinian authority that educates their children towards terrorism and the annihilation of Israel. And also, an enormous majority here, including 99 Knesset members to nine, oppose the idea of ramming down a Palestinian state down our throats.

I want to get to some of those polls.

So the majority of Israelis, this is Wake-up call to Senator Schumer, the majority of Israelis support the policies of my government. It’s not a fringe government, it represents the policies supported by the majority of the people. If Senator Schumer opposes these policies, he’s not opposing me, he’s opposing the people of Israel.

Okay, I’m going to get to some of the polls that you cited in one moment, but I just want to make sure that our viewers understand that Chuck Schumer gave the big speech, but he has support in many ways from the President of the United States. President Biden is a self-described Zionist, even he is starting to distance himself from the way you are handling the war. He called what Schumer said a good speech. He said that he shared the concern of many Americans. They aren’t criticizing Israel, they’re criticizing you and your right-wing coalition.

Dana, there is a fallacy that is being perpetrated here. And you should take polls, you’ll have your own polls, and check whether the people of Israel support the policies that I’m being criticized for. That is supporting the policies of going into Rafah, destroying a quarter of the remaining Hamas terrorist army. That’s like leaving a quarter of the Nazi army in Germany and saying, “No, we’re not going to finish the last quarter, and we’re not going into Berlin.”

(04:28)
Most Israelis overwhelmingly support the position that we have to go in. They oppose the idea of ramming down a two-state solution or a terrorist state against their will, because they think that this will endanger Israel’s future. They support those policies that I’m putting forward and to present that as something that is I’m an outlier, it doesn’t represent the majority of the people of Israel, is simply a fallacy.

(04:53)
And I’ll tell you the other fallacy is they’re saying, “Well, most Palestinians don’t support the Hamas massacre.” In fact, 85% of the Palestinians do support, unfortunately, the Hamas massacre. So they’ve got two fallacies here, and you can readily check that. The majority of Israelis support the policies that I have on prosecuting the war, which is what I’m being criticized for. So it’s not just me, it’s the people of Israel who believe that we have to have this resolute victory to assure our future. And unfortunately-

I think that what you’re being criticized for…

… we have the Palestinians that haven’t aligned themselves [inaudible 00:05:24].

…is not prosecuting the war, it’s the way that you’re prosecuting the war. So I’m going to get to that in one minute, but I just want to add a little bit of context to the way that the Biden administration is pushing back. Another way is that the US Intelligence Community warned that, quote, “Distrust of Netanyahu’s ability to rule has deepened and broadened across the public.”

(05:46)
And then back to the polls, you’re talking about support for the idea of toppling Hamas, that makes perfect sense. There were other polls in Israel, three major Israeli television stations that said what Israelis also support are early elections. That’s what I really want to focus on here is Senator Schumer not calling to topple the government, but specifically says, when the war winds down, will you commit to calling new elections? That’s my question, will you?

Dana, two-thirds… First of all, what you said is wrong. The vast majority of Israelis oppose early elections until the war doesn’t end. We’ve just had many polls on that. Look, a lot of the polls are twisted-

Channel 12 says-

…and a lot of the polls are guided by all sorts of conditions, but also show-

Channel 12 says 64% of Israelis support early elections.

No, I’m afraid that they asked them the question, “Do you support it during the war?” And they said, “No.”

But that’s not what Schumer’s calling for. He’s calling for new elections when the war winds down.

Well, we’ll see when we win the war. And until we win the war, I think Israelis understand that if we were to have elections now, before the war is won, resoundingly won, we would have at least six months of national paralysis, which means we would lose the war. If we don’t win the war, we lose the war. And that would be not only a defeat for Israel, but a defeat for America too. Because our victory is your victory. We’re fighting these barbarians that are not merely-

Will you commit to new elections-

…threatening the survival of Israel, but threatening-

…when the war winds down?

…everything that we hold dear together.

Will you commit to new elections when the war winds down?

I think that’s something for the Israeli public to decide. But it’s not something… No, look, that’s something for the Israeli people to decide. I think it’s ridiculous to talk about it. It’s like after 9/11. After 9/11, you’re in the midst of fighting the war against Al-Qaeda and an Israeli would say, “You know, what we need now is either new elections in the US or if your system doesn’t allow, then President Bush should resign and we should have an alternative leader.” You don’t do that.

Well, let’s talk about why.

You don’t do that to a sister, a democracy, to an ally. You don’t talk about that. What you do talk about is, how do we help you defeat what President Biden called sheer evil? You don’t just stop after you destroyed 80% of sheer evil. You destroy 100% of sheer evil.