Israeli President Isaac Herzog gave a wide-ranging interview to Newsmax Wednesday, where he discussed the strikes on Iran, Middle East peace, and much more.
Herzog praised his fellow countrymen for their “wisdom” in dealing with the Iranian threat, saying that “it's not a wisdom contest, although I'm very proud of my fellow countrymen…But I would say that we in Israel, we've launched this operation in order to remove a clear and present imminent threat on Israel of a nuclear capability, which is the worst danger of all by the Iranians.”
Herzog stated that, in the words of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Israel is “doing the dirty work” for the rest of the world.
“But we are also serving the national security interests of many nations, including the United States of America, because after all, we know the Iranians declare them, the United States, as their enemy. The Iranians have carried out terror activities all over the world with proxies against American interests and Israeli interests and other interests and Western interests. So what we are doing by delineating and removing this capability, as the German chancellor said yesterday, he said Israel is doing the dirty work for us. And we are doing it because we have to defend our people,” Herzog said.
Herzog reiterated as well that Israel needs to “save the world” from the Iranian terrorist regime, stating that “[I]t's about time the world stands up to them now, as Israel has, and tell them, ‘No way, not anymore: Get the nukes out of your system, and start behaving like a normal nation should in the family of nations’…[W]e have to save the world from this, and we have to save our life.”
The ideology of terrorism must be rooted out before it’s too late, Herzog argued.
“It’s an ideology…we have to read and hear what they say day in, day out. They educate tens of millions of people to hate Israel, to hate the United States of America. And they've built this huge empire of evil with proxies all over, beefed up with ammunition and capabilities that only strong big nations have,” Herzog told Newsmax host Greta Van Susteren. “For example, a tiny little tribe in Yemen called the Houthis have 50,000 people in all. They have ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. Greta, you're in this business for many years. Very few nations have this capability. And why? What for? So they wanted to close in on Israel, of course, kind of radicalized the region, toppled regimes, kill innocent human beings, attack communities and American military and so forth with no shame.”
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Herzog also criticized the attitude most American presidents have had of appeasement of Iran.
“And it's amazing how many American presidents and how many world leaders came over and said Iran is a threat to the world; Iran cannot have nuclear weapons; Iran cannot have ballistic missiles, etc., etc.,” Herzog said. “In the free world, it's natural that people go on with their lives and do good, and the political systems are always focused on themselves…There was a rise of this threat going on and on and on; meanwhile, Iran has alliances with other countries, whether it's Russia or China or others.”
“And we came to this moment where we had to take a historic decision because they were very close to break out the capability to a bomb. And this would have meant a totally different Middle East: subordinate, I mean, serving the wish and desire of the Iranians to reign over this region. And this is the most dangerous phenomenon that would risk Europe and the United States as well,” Herzog continued.
Herzog mentioned that Israel wants “peace” and “coexistence,” as well as “Jew and Muslim to dwell together in this region.”
“You know Greta, this morning I went to pay a bereavement call to a beautiful Muslim family in Tamra who have lost most of the family — four beautiful women — because of an Iranian missile on their house,” Herzog said, noting that Iran doesn’t care who in Israel they hit with missiles.
“And so the Iranians don't really differentiate between Jew, Muslim, Christian, and what not: They want us all out of here. And what we are doing, we are fighting. We are hurting them dramatically. We are removing that nuclear capability. And it's about time,” Herzog said.
Herzog urged the Iranian population to rise up against the “oppressive regime” as well.
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