Israeli President Isaac Herzog gave an interview Sunday morning with Trevor Phillips on Britain's Sky News channel in which he discussed the ongoing war and the recent escalation between Israel and the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon.
At the beginning of the interview, Herzog was asked about the danger that the conflict could further escalate into a full regional war and responded, "It is clearly a very dangerous situation and clearly has the potential of escalating dramatically, but we have to understand the situation prima facia, meaning, Hezbollah started this war. It started following the horrendous attack of Hamas on October 7th. Hezbollah, since then, has been bombarding us endlessly. Almost 100,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their homes. The entire north has been shuttered."
"We kept on being restrained and restrained and restrained, but something has to end. We have to bring our citizens back to their homes. That's the most natural obligation of any nation to its citizens," Herzog said.
When asked if Israel has "abandoned restraint" in the last week, Herzog emphasized that "we do not want war. We absolutely did not seek this war. We didn't want this war. This war was instigated by the empire of evil, the Iranian proxies in the region under the command of Iran. From the south by Hamas, from the north by Hezbollah, from Yemen by the Houthis, from Iraq, from all over the place, as part of the strategy as the Supreme Leader of Iran just said yesterday, that Israel is a 'tumor that must be removed.'"
"Therefore," he said, "Israel is fighting for its well-being, its existence, its citizens. That's what we are doing, we are doing whatever is the right thing to do." He asked the interviewer to consider if British citizens were forced to evacuate to Manchester for a year due to constant attacks. "How long would the British government be restrained?"
"We decided to change this equation and we are working to change the equation," he said.
When asked if Israel is not at war with Lebanon, he said that "Israel is not interested to be at war with Lebanon."
He explained, "Lebanon has been hijacked by a terror organization which is also a political party in Lebanon called Hezbollah. It's been armed to its teeth by the Iranian empire of evil. And all of these leaders who were eradicated on Friday by the Israeli attack, all of these leaders were meeting together in order to launch the same horrific, horrendous attack that we had on October 7th by Hamas. By burning Israelis, butchering them, raping their women, abducting and taking hostage old people and little babies. This is exactly the same plan that they've been planning for years under the plans of the empire of evil of Iran."
The interviewer turned to the changes in British policy towards Israel since the Labor government of Keir Starmer came to power over the summer, including the suspension of 30 arms exports licenses to Israel, the resumption of funding to UNRWA despite the organization's extensive ties to the Hamas terrorist organization and employment of Hamas terrorists, and the dropping of the UK's opposition to the prosecution of Israeli leaders by the International Criminal Court.
"We are a vibrant aggressive democracy," Herzog responded, noting the degree of disagreement that exists within Israel. "Sometimes, I'm quite surprised at our friends. I believe our friends should understand that we are fighting their war too. In the long-term, you have to understand that there is an empire of evil which really things and believes, as part of an ideology, in the jihadist ideology, in conquering the Middle East and moving on into Europe and the rest of the world. They call you satans. They want to plant bombs in your cities all over the world. Hezbollah has terror cells situation in countries all over the world," he said.
The President said that "there is a sense of disappointment in Israel" that the British government is not standing with Israel as it has in the past. “We expect that all our allies will be side by side with us in combating this terrible situation and fighting like we are to bring back our hostages home.”
He stressed: “We are working to change this equation, meaning we have to bring our hostages back from Gaza, and we have to make sure that this attack does not recur from Gaza, and we have to make sure that this attack does not recur again from Lebanon. That's all there is. It's very simple, and life can go on in a peaceful manner on an internationally recognized boundary between Israel and Lebanon.”