'I hope it's not true': Former Israeli PM

The International Criminal Corps may investigate Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged human rights violations. It’s the same group who issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin. Yes, nothing happened. No word on how their investigation into Iran is proceeding. But it’s not just some toothless international agency criticizing Netanyahu. The Biden administration is warning the Jewish state not to go forward with the invasion of Rafa. Joining us is the former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Welcome, Mr. Prime Minister. What, in your view, is the current state of this war? And will Israel continue to push the offensive so long as Hamas holds hostages? Yes, we will. We actually have no choice. The Hamas is, I would say, dedicated to destroying and annihilating Israel. They say it explicitly. They say they’re going to continue trying to kill Jews as long as they exist. And there are on our border. So we really have no choice. Mr. Prime Minister Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi call for regime change in Israel, which is strange since I don’t think they’ve called for regime change in Russia, Iran or North Korea. Jerrold Nadler just recently said Netanyahu is the worst leader in 2100 years. I mean, Nadler is old, but I don’t think he was around for all the Jewish leaders. So what do you make of American politicians inserting themselves into Israeli government affairs? I think Israel is a vibrant democracy, and domestically within Israel, we voice our opposition voice, our support. Everyone voices whatever they want and it’s the Israeli publics business to choose their leaders. Israel is a democracy and obviously no one wants to change that. The other places you mentioned, such as Iran or other locations, are not necessarily democracies and it makes sense to change a regime there. I can’t speak for Israel. I can tell you that the folks I run around with in the United States don’t really care much what Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi or Jerry Nadler think about Israeli politics. But when the Biden administration, as it’s been reported, threatens to withhold ammunition from Israel, that does get our attention. So have you heard anything to buttress this reporting that the Biden administration is actually conditioning munitions on doing what the Biden administration wants Israel to do in Gaza? I hope it’s not true. I heard the rumor. I hope it’s not true because we’re fighting not only Israel’s war, we’re at the forefront fighting the war against radical Islam, radical Islam in Gaza that is attacking Israelis, radical Islam in Europe that attacks Europeans, radical Islam on campuses in the United States of America where they’re explicitly saying that they want America to change its laws to be Sharia, religious Islamic laws. So we have to push this whole wave back and we’re the ones doing the fighting and we know that that it’s our task to do it. What we expect is that our friends have our back. Congress recently took up a bill which put the hard right in the same camp with the so-called squad. How do you define anti-Semitism? Well, anti-Semitism is the persecution of individual Jews, but it’s also denying the Jews the collective rights of being a nation. And we are. We have a Jewish nation and the the Jewish country is the state of Israel. There’s only one Jewish state on earth, and that’s Israel. There’s 22 Arab states. There’s countless Christian states, but only one Jewish state on earth. Yet some people want to deny that folks who want Israel to to disappear are anti-Semitic. What would you say? To the extent there are any college kids listening tonight, what would you say to the college students harassing Jewish students? And I wonder if seeing the raw footage from what Hamas did would impact them. You know, I I would hope that it’s a naivete of these college students. They are so much in the wrong side. And I I guess in a few years, when they grow up, they’ll some of them at least, will realize how how stupid it was, what they’re doing, because they’re fighting against the only democracy, liberal democracy in the Middle East. And we’re the ones surrounded by crazy, radical Islamic regimes that want to destroy the West, want to destroy America, want to destroy Israel. America is called the the big Satan. Israel is called by them the small Satan. But we’re the ones fighting. And and the last thing you want to do to a friend of yours that is fighting for you and for themselves is is to tie their hands or to fight them. I can only be sorry about it. I’m sure that in the future they’ll realize how mistaken this approach was. Hope you’re right. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, thank you for so much for joining us on a Sunday night. Thank you very much.