Sky News reporter Alistair Bunkall, spoke to Israeli President Isaac Herzog about Israel’s possible response to the Iranian attack on Saturday night, stating that Israel currently has the support of Britain, the US, France, and other countries in the region.
He added, however, that the leaders of the aforementioned countries have also commented on Israel’s possible response, with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying that, “calm heads should prevail.” US President Joe Biden said that Israel should “take the win.”
President Herzog was asked if he agreed with those clear messages from Israel’s allies not to retaliate and escalate the situation in the Middle East, to which he responded, “The last thing that Israel is seeking in this region, since its creation, is to go to war. We have initiated peace with our neighbors, time and time again. Unfortunately, it all started on the 7th of October, when another proxy of Iran, Hamas, led an unbelievably brutal massacre against Israeli citizens, and the rest is history. So we should put it in perspective.”
President Herzog continued to say, “Naturally we always listen to our partners and allies. We respect their views. We always review all our options, but we will take whatever it takes to protect and defend our people.”
When asked if he personally believes that Israel should respond to the attack by retaliating against Iran, President Herzog said that, “Everyone of us should ask ourselves what would we do had we been attacked in such an aggressive way, as we were attacked last night from four corners of the Middle East, with proxies shooting at us, firing ballistic missiles, drones, and cruise missiles. This is a declaration of war. Because we are restrained and because we know the repercussions and because we have deliberations with our partners, we are considering all options, and I’m quite confident that we will take the necessary steps to protect and defend our people. We are not war seekers.”