Bennett: Nasrallah's death shows Israel and the Jewish people never forget

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was interviewed by CNN following the elimination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

"The message tonight is loud and clear," Bennett said, "The State of Israel never forgets, the Jews never forget. If you hit us, we'll hit you back."

"The objective is actually to remove the threat of Hezbollah once and for all," he explained. "Hezbollah has been terrorizing [the] Israeli people for about 35 years now. They've shot tens of thousands of rockets on Israelis throughout the years, murdered hundreds of Israelis. They killed my own best friend. And it's time to remove this whole threat from Israel."

He called the elimination of Nasrallah and much of the rest of Hezbollah's leadership a "watershed event and a huge opportunity."

"We don't want to bring [the tens of thousands of evacuated Israelis] back north and then have Hezbollah recover in a few years," he said. "Hezbollah has been badly, badly damaged. We killed the CEO Nasrallah, we killed most of the board of directors of Hezbollah. We killed most of the executive management of Hezbollah, the senior. Whoever did the beeper attack took off the hands, faces, and bottoms of thousands of middle management in Hezbollah."

"So Hezbollah right now is temporarily badly harmed and injured, but if we let go of them now, they'll just recover and hit us back in two or three or five years. That's something none of us want to do," Bennett said.

Bennett: Nasrallah's death shows Israel and the Jewish people never forget

Former PM tells CNN elimination of Hezbollah's leadership a "watershed event and a huge opportunity" that would be wasted if Israel does not finish the job and eliminate the Hezbollah threat permanently.