
As Israel continues to target Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure in Lebanon, President Isaac Herzog was interviewed this evening for CNN’s One World news program.
In his interview, President Herzog called on the world leaders currently meeting at the UN to place the issue of the hostages and bringing calm to Israel’s northern border at the heart of the global agenda. He said, “We are attacking their (Hezbollah’s) capabilities of huge missiles and specific missile launchers aimed at our families, at our homes, other cities, at our villages, in order to enable us again to get to calm in the north, bring our people back and work as much as we can to get a hostage deal. This should be the most important priority of all the world leaders who are meeting right now at The UN General Assembly.”
The President stressed, “We have to change the equation. I have advice to world leaders. If we want to prevent war, we have to work really hard at getting out of this crisis in a new arrangement that enables the release of the hostages, that enables the day after in Gaza, that enables a calm and defensible border with Lebanon, meaning adhering to international resolutions that Hezbollah never adhered to.” He added, “Many Muslim citizens were attacked today by Hezbollah. Muslim Israelis, Arab Israelis, were attacked by Hezbollah missiles. Christian Israelis, Druze Israelis and Jewish Israelis, the beautiful tapestry of our Galilee is being attacked, and we won't accept it.”
He reminded viewers that, “Israel did not want this war. This war was waged against us through a terror attack of the worst kind on October 7, and the day after Hezballah started attacking us day in, day out, endlessly for the last almost one year.” He said, “There's a limit to how much a nation can absorb when 100,000 of its citizens are totally deprived of their homes. Their homes have been destroyed. The whole region has been desolated. This is impossible. We have the full right to defend ourselves. We want to change the equation, and we want to see a new horizon, which, by the way, the Palestinians and the Arabs deserve as well.”
Asked about the potential for a diplomatic solution the President praised US efforts to promote an agreement and said, “We have been trying endlessly to get to an arrangement on our northern border. But Hezbollah doesn’t want to stop. Nasrallah, their leader says, I am linking it to Gaza, and in Gaza we have 101 hostages there in the dungeons going through Hell. The leader of Hamas, Sinwar doesn’t want to move an iota. That’s the truth, that’s the crux of the matter, and it’s been said time and again by American leaders.