Netanyahu Responds after ICC Seeks Arrest Warrant

Prime Minister Netanyahu, thank you so much for joining us. A central part of the ICC's charges against you and Gallant is quote "starvation of civilians as a method of warfare." Now, I know that Israel repeatedly claims that enough aid is getting in, and there is not a purposeful starvation that those claiming otherwise are misinformed, are lying. Is Israel going to send a delegation to the Hague to present any evidence to defend itself?

I think these charges are exactly as President Biden called them. They're outrageous. They're beyond outrageous. This is a rogue prosecutor that has put false charges and created false symmetries that are both dangerous and false. The first false symmetry is he equates the democratically elected leaders of Israel with the terrorist tyrants of Hamas. That's like saying that, "well, I'm issuing arrest warrants for FDR and Churchill, but also for Hitler," or, "I'm issuing arrest warrants for George W. Bush, but also for Bin Laden." That's absurd. (01:05) Secondly, the charges are completely false. Let's take this charge of starvation. We've put in 500,000 tons of trucks of food and medicine for this population. We've taken 20,000 trucks. We've paved roads to put those trucks in. We've opened border crossings that Hamas closed down. I've had air drops that are facilitated. Sea root supplies. I mean, the whole thing is absurd. You should know this. The prices of food in Gaza has dropped by 80%. The markets don't lie. They talk about 23, I think, or 30 cases of malnutrition, a population of 2 million. The United States in 2022 had 20,000 deaths of malnutrition. That's three times more than in Gaza. This is completely false. It's the kind of slander that has been leveled at the Jewish people for ages, and it's renewed now against the Jewish state. It was false then. It's false now. (02:02) But one thing, this prosecutor, this rogue prosecutor didn't even bother to come here. He said he'd come here to check the facts. He didn't check the facts. He just went out and demonized the Jewish state, and he's taking the ICC down the route of the general assembly that passes infinite resolutions, flat earth resolutions against Israel or the Human Rights Council that used to have a reputation that is completely blown because half their resolutions are against Israel, not against Iran, not against North Korea, not against Syria. It's the same thing. It's outrageous and false and dangerous because it endangers every democracy.

We should note though, it's not just the ICC expressing concerns about the lack of humanitarian aid getting into Gaza, President Biden and his administration and their officials, not to mention European allies of Israel and their officials, they've all been making this case for a month that Israel is not letting enough aid in. So when President Biden expresses concern about you not letting enough aid in, is he wrong?

Well, no. We had the same concerns. We were trying to get the aid in. We got the aid in, and Hamas was looting the aid. That's what was happening. They were taking it for themselves or extorting the population. We were letting the aid in from the start. And look, this was my directive from day one. The day one thing was we have to provide... We comport with international law. We comport with the rules of war. We have to get those trucks in. We're getting hundreds of trucks every day in, and that's been an aspect of our conduct of war because we try to get civilians out of harm's way. We've done things that no country, no army has done in history. It's not me saying that it's General Petraeus saying that, the Head of the Urban Warfare at West Point, Colonel John Spencer says, "Israel's gone out of its way, both in humanitarian aid and getting civilians out of harm's way with millions of text messages, millions of phone calls and leaflets that we've been dropping, giving up the element of surprise. Israel is given here a bum rap." (04:04) I think it's dangerous because basically it's the first democracy that is being taken to the dock when it is doing exactly what democracies should be doing in an exemplary way. I think it will endanger all other democracies. Israel may be first, you're next, Britain is next, others are next too. And the second thing that is dangerous about this Jake, is I think this fans, the fires of anti-Semitism that are raging on American campuses and throughout Western capitals, he just poured gasoline on it, this rogue Prosecutor Khan, because people initially will think this is serious. They think the ICC, this is a serious thing. It's not. It's a travesty of justice and it's a pack of lies.

Let me ask you, because what Hamas did on October 7th, just to make this clear, what Hamas did is abhorrent as is the refusal to return the hostages. Abhorrent. But whether or not it was Israel's intent, tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians, including countless children have been killed and maimed by the IDF in your war against Hamas. Is there anything you and the IDF could have done any differently to avoid all the loss of innocent lives in Gaza?

First of all, every civilian casualty is a tragedy. Every child lost or every woman lost or every innocent person lost is a tragedy. But for Hamas, it's a strategy. So while we go out of our way to get them out of harm's way, Hamas goes out of its way to keep them in harm's way, shooting at them if they try to leave the battle zones. But many have left. Thankfully, I can say that. Now, because of our actions, the ratio of civilians to combatants killed is the lowest in the history of urban warfare and certainly dense urban warfare like this. It's about one-to-one, there are about 14,000 casualties, 14 to 15,000 terrorists killed, and an equal amount of civilians that were unfortunately killed because that's what happens. (06:03) But in other arenas, in Fallujah with a handful of terrorists, 3,000, 4,000 compared to 35,000 in Gaza, the ratio was much bigger than that. The same thing in Mosul. So we've gone out of our way to stop it, and let me tell you, I think that the numbers are also inflated. The UN organizations that are dominated by Hamas and Gaza is giving false information as is Hamas itself. And people believe these numbers. The other day they came and said, "Well, it's about 35,000 who are killed, but 10,000 of those we said are women and children. Now, we can't say that. We don't know who they are."

Or whatever the numbers are, it's too many.

[inaudible 00:06:43] in the meantime, the lie circles... Well look, yes, one is too many, but the reason they're there, the reason we have civilian casualties at all is because Hamas is preventing them from leaving. I'm happy to say that in the Rafah operation that we've conducted, a million people actually left. People said, "Well, there are a million people, 1,200,000 in Gaza, where they're going to go? They're going to be trapped." Well, 1,950,000 have already left, and there are very few civilian casualties because we're doing everything to get them out. This is our policy. It's humanitarian, it's responsible. We comport with the laws of war and we're the ones taken to the dock, and it doesn't give any solace that they're also taking these killers of Hamas, these murderers and putting them in the dock. As I said, Hitler's in the dock, but so is FDR and so is Eisenhower. Absurd.

After seven months of unity for your wartime government, there seems a lot of disagreement now about your plans for Gaza or lack thereof after a major military operations in Gaza is over. Benny Gantz wants a plan or he says he's going to leave your government, your defense minister, Yoav Gallant says you don't have a plan. He's basically accusing you of trying to lay the groundwork for an occupation either civilian or military in Gaza in the future. Are you denying that the plan is for an occupation of Gaza or are you taking it off the table?

No, I have a very clear plan. I think the first thing, Jake, is the day after Hamas, we have to get rid of Hamas. Otherwise, there's no future for Gaza, no future for peace. And it'll be a tremendous victory for not only for Hamas, but for the Iran terror axis that backs it and organizes Hezbollah, the Houthis and all these other sundry terrorist organizations. So I think we have to defeat Hamas and we will defeat Hamas. Rafah is the last stronghold of Hamas. Terrorist battalions will defeat them. That ends the intense part of the fighting. (08:40) But once Hamas is defeated, what we have to do is have sustained demilitarization of Gaza. And yes, on this, I think the only force that can prevent the resurgence of terrorism for the foreseeable future is Israel. At the same time, I want a civilian administration that is run by Gazans who are neither Hamas nor committed to our destruction.

So you're taking it off the table.

And the third thing that we need to do is... No, I'm not. I'm putting it on the table on the contrary. No, that's not true. In fact [inaudible 00:09:07].

I'm saying, you're taking off an Israeli occupation of Gaza. You're taking off the table on Israeli occupation.

If you mean resettling Gaza, it was never in the cards. And I said so openly, and some of my constituents are not happy about it, but that's my position. The third thing that I would do is have a reconstruction of Gaza, if possible, done by the moderate Arab states and the international community. That's demilitarization, civilian administration by local Gazans who are not committed to Israel's destruction and responsible reconstruction. That I think is a realistic plan. Look, if some people are not happy with it, maybe they want to put in the Palestinian authority that still teaches its children to seek the destruction of Israel, pays terrorists. The more Jews they kill, the more they pay and support terrorism. That's not my position. I want a different future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

I-

I think it'll affect the future of peace in the Middle East too.

Two more questions for you, sir, because I know your time is limited. Three people familiar with the ceasefire discussions that fell through earlier this month, tell our reporter, Alex Marquardt, that Egyptian intelligence quietly changed the terms that Israel had already agreed to in order to get Hamas on board. Does this raise concerns for you about Egypt being involved moving forward?

Look, I think we have a goal, which is not only to defeat Hamas, but also to release the hostages. My government has been able to secure the release of 124 hostages so far, and we're committed to get the rest. Hamas unfortunately, has been hunkering down on a demand that is simple. They say, "Well, we can release the rest of the hostages, maybe. But in order to do that, you have to get out of Gaza, end the war and allow us basically to regroup and reconquer Gaza." And they vowed to commit the October 7th massacre, this horror of beheading women after they rape them, the burning of babies, the slaughter of the innocent, the taking of hostages. We'll do that again and again and again. So that's something I won't agree to, and I hope Egypt understands that we can't agree to something like that. That's not something that we can count, and so neither can the people of Israel. (11:32) By the way, the overwhelming majority of Israelis support this policy, and I can tell you that the other day, by the way, yesterday, we had a resolution in the Knesset where 106 out of 120 Knesset members supported a resolution that says, you cannot accept the ICC statement. You cannot accept it. We'll reject it. It's a farce, and we have to stand up to it. I can tell you, I don't remember the Knesset agreeing 106 Knesset members out of 120 agreeing on anything.

But Mr. Prime Minister, you say that the majority of the American people are with you on this plan, but a poll from the Israel Democracy Institute from this month showed a majority of Israelis 56% say, getting the hostages back home should be a higher priority than military action in Rafah. So don't you just fundamentally disagree with the majority of the Israeli people?

Well, I've seen other numbers, but I take a different thing. I don't say this is more important than that is more important. I say both of them are important, and in fact, the military action that we are taking against Hamas is in fact the way to get these hostages because without military pressure, basically without squeezing them, Hamas is not going to give up anything. That's the reason they gave up the first half of the hostages, and that's the reason they'll give up the second half. So I see them as complimentary and not contradictory goals, and I intend to fulfill both of them.

Before you go, sir, we should note, well, we appreciate your talking to us. According to the independent Israeli media monitor, the Seventh Eye, you've done about two dozen interviews since October 7th, but all of them in English and all the outlets outside Israel, I don't want to begrudge that. I appreciate you doing an interview with us, but why are you not speaking with Israeli journalists the way you are with me?

That's the Tendentious reporting of a lot of the Israeli media. So I can tell you what they're not telling you is I've done, I don't know if it's two dozen or 20 or 15 press conferences with Israeli media. They can ask anything they want and they do. And I just met Israeli reporters the other day in Rafah, in fact, three days ago, and they asked me all the questions they want. So that's simply not true. I speak to them and I speak to you, and I welcome the opportunity to tell the truth and dispel the lies in both mediums.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it.

Thank you.