Transcript: Isaac Herzog, president of Israel, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Sept. 22, 2024

The following is a transcript of an interview with Isaac Herzog, president of Israel, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Sept. 22, 2024.

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MARGARET BRENNAN: That was our Chris Livesay from Tel Aviv, we turn now to the President of Israel. Isaac Herzog, Welcome back to “Face The Nation.”

PRESIDENT OF ISRAEL ISAAC HERZOG: Thank you, Margaret, good morning,

MARGARET BRENNAN: Mr. President, in the past few days, Israel carried out a groundbreaking operation against thousands of Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon. The U.S. was only given 20 minutes notice ahead of time. Since then, Israel also carried out a strike in Beirut that killed senior commanders of Hezbollah. What is this strategy here, and is Israel trying to escalate into a full blown war with Hezbollah?

PRESIDENT HERZOG: Absolutely not. We did not want this war. We’re not seeking war. This war was waged upon us by the proxies of the empire of evil of Iran, on October 7 by Hamas, and on October 8 by Hezbollah. And ever since, from Lebanon in the north, and, of course, from Hamas in the south and all over the Middle East, the proxies of Iran are attacking and attacking now. Hezbollah has been attacking us on a daily basis, demolishing Israeli villages and towns, basically leading to the eviction of 100,000 Israelis from their homes. Life has been shattered in our northern border. I don’t think any American would have accepted it as a kind of a status quo situation in the United States. And at the end, there are things that must be done. The duty of a government or a nation is to take care of its citizens and bring them back home. And don’t forget, it’s 252 days- 352 days, sorry. 352 days, two weeks short of one year since our hostages were taken. We have 101 hostages in the dungeons in Gaza already waiting and waiting and we are pleading for them.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes and the U.S. is continuing its diplomatic efforts to bring those hostages home, but- but on the issue of what’s happening in the north of Israel right now, the White House argues that a war in Lebanon is not the way to bring those 100,000 Israelis back into their homes. They want a diplomatic agreement about that blue line. Do you think that the current government of Israel wants a diplomatic agreement?

PRESIDENT HERZOG: We never said that we don’t want a diplomatic agreement. On the contrary, there is a very able American envoy, Amos Hochstein, the President’s advisor, who’s trying to go back and forth between us and the Lebanese. But truly, let’s understand the situation. When you’re dealing with terror organizations, they don’t really give a damn about international affairs. They take hostages, or they fire as much as they want. They get instructions from Tehran, they send Houthi terrorists to block the high seas, and the cost of living in the world goes up. This is the culture of terror, and it’s a terror of jihadists, meaning they don’t give a damn about anything. Now we agree, time and again to go into rounds of talks. We support and welcome the efforts by the United States of America and the administration. Truly. We respect it tremendously. But at the end of it, okay, Mr. Hochstein leaves Israel, and they keep on firing and firing, and that cannot go on forever, because our citizens must go back home, because the guy in Lebanon, Mr. Nasrallah, thinks he that he wants to link it to Gaza. And in Gaza there’s another arch terrorist, Mr. Sinwar in the dungeons, who doesn’t want to get to a deal, refuses to get to a deal. This is jihadism at its best, and that’s what we are fighting. And I wish, truly, and I say it as the President of Israel officially, and I say it outright, because I know we don’t want war, but if it’s waged against us, we go all the way.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, you say you don’t want war, Mr. President, Israel moved its 98th division to the north of Israel this week. Your defense minister says the center of gravity is moving towards Lebanon. What is the intention of those military moves, if not to prepare for war?

PRESIDENT HERZOG: Because these guys who we eradicated on Friday, were gathering together in their apartment in Beirut in order to plan another October 7th. They developed this school of thought, of swarming into Israel, of trying to take hostage, of butchering– 

[CROSSTALK] 

MARGARET BRENNAN: –Do you have evidence? 

PRESIDENT HERZOG: –raping, burning, abducting 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you have evidence that an attack was imminent? 

PRESIDENT HERZOG: We have enough of risks here to take care of-Pardon? 

MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m sorry you just mentioned.

PRESIDENT HERZOG: What did you say? 

MARGARET BRENNAN: You said, you said, I think there that the Hezbollah commanders that were killed in that Israeli airstrike were planning an attack. Do you have evidence that there was an imminent attack?

PRESIDENT HERZOG: So I can’t go into all the information itself, but it is assumed that they were planning an attack. You see today. This morning, they took out a barrage of attacks on Israeli cities, towns and villages all over the northern part of Israel. Pounding with huge bombs and missiles on the northern part of Israel. Why would any nation accept it? Why would any decent nation accept it? We’re almost a year in such a situation of a kind of a vicious cycle. We want to get out of this vicious cycle. And we have, if we have no choice, then we are getting ready for escalation in which we again- we don’t want to get there, but we make it clear that it’s unacceptable anymore. We can’t go on into this vicious cycle anymore.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And the US doesn’t want that escalation or to get drawn into the fight. I want to ask you about something else that just happened overnight, Mr. President, the Israeli military raided and shuttered Al Jazeera, the news network, their offices in the occupied West Bank for 45 days. Why is Israel clamping down on the press there?

PRESIDENT HERZOG: I must tell you, honestly, I’m unaware of this, and I will check it. We were not informed about this at all. So I don’t know exactly what you’re talking about, and I would- you allow me to study this issue. It hasn’t been really heavily reported here, because what we are seeing in Israel, of course, is people’s homes being burned and burnt and blown up. And you know and don’t forget that these missiles are lethal. We don’t forget 12 children who were killed in a soccer game just about two months ago, as they were playing soccer, Druze, kids where they were playing with Muslim friends and with Jewish friends and Christian friends. All the beautiful tapestry of the Israeli north. And that is why we are- what we have to do is we have to make sure that our citizens are not threatened anymore.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you as well, though, because the United States and Israel are so close, and there is concern here in the United States about some of the decisions being made by your government. This past week, the AP put out graphic footage shot in the West Bank where Israeli soldiers pushed the bodies of Palestinians off the roof of buildings there, the White House says they want an investigation, that this is “abhorrent and egregious” behavior. How do you respond to these concerns from one of your closest allies that Israel may be adding to escalation risk?

PRESIDENT HERZOG: So we, of course, listen to our closest ally openly and frankly. This is if- if it occurred as reported, and it is under investigation, because we are a nation of the rule of law. We will, of course, take all necessary action. We will condemn it, and use all the- you know, the legal steps that need to be taken against it, but we are studying it because we are a serious army and a serious people, and we study and investigate ourselves as much as we can. Look, we are a democracy, where you have hundreds of 1000s of Israelis, for example, demonstrating every weekend against the government. This is the basic right of every human being in our nation. We are a very aggressive, active, and vociferous democracy, and I’m very proud of our nation, which, side by side with that, is mobilizing so many 10s and 10s of 1000s of Israelis from age 18 all the way to age of 96 who actually mobilized and volunteered and went to fight and go to fight, all for one reason. All we want is to live in peace, and we want- we deserve it as any other nation, but the Iranian regime with a jihadist ideology, they are sided, they want to launch a whole campaign against us. And I think this is the real watershed in the world. The world has to stop this. The world has to be with us, and the world has to understand that we are fighting for the free world, and we must bring our hostages back home as soon as possible. This is the biggest plight of humanity at this current stage.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And- and I know so many people hope those hostages, including the four remaining Americans, come home. Before I let you go, do you think that President Biden’s efforts to negotiate that hostage deal is just wishful thinking at this point? Will this be a problem for the next American president?

PRESIDENT HERZOG: So actually, I would say that I have huge respect for President Biden’s effort, and we supported the whole- wholeheartedly. But as the spokesperson of the National Security Council, General Kirby, just said the other day, we are not getting any positive signs from Hamas at all. From Sinwar, he’s out there in the dungeons taking, you know, I mean- whatever we think in our line of thinking as free, loving, nations and peoples. He thinks the other way. But I would say that the- actually the call for the family of nations in this current crisis, which is boiling hot, is actually perhaps the opportunity to go forward and change the situation by finding the right exit and bringing the hostages back home.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Mr. President, thank you for your time this morning.

PRESIDENT HERZOG: Thank you very much.

MARGARET BRENNAN:  We’ll be right back.