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Israel Prime Minister Previews Speech Before Congress; Israeli Prime Minister Downplays Partisan Divisions; Israelis Divided Over Tomorrow's Speech; Israeli Elections Are Two Weeks Away; Witness To Murder Speaks Out; Israeli Prime Minister To Discuss Iran Nuke Deal; Dozens Of Democrats To Boycott Netanyahu Speech; Dems Boycott Speech; Netanyahu Controversy

Aired March 02, 2015 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 8:00 p.m. in Jerusalem, 9:00 p.m. in Moscow it's 3:00 a.m. Tuesday in Pyongyang, North Korea. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Up first, the Israeli prime minister facing a friendly audience ahead of a controversial speech before the United States Congress. The address tomorrow threatens to strain already tense relations between the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the President Barack Obama. And it goes beyond the fact that the House speaker, John Boehner, invited the Israeli leader without even consulting the White House.

At the core of this huge controversy right now, nuclear negotiations with Iran. Prime Minister Netanyahu told the pro-Israel lobbying group, APAC, that tomorrow's speech is not intended to show disrespect to the president of the United States but to show that the safety and the security of Israel is at stake.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRESIDENT, ISRAEL: I plan to speak about an Iranian regime that is threatening to destroy Israel, that's devouring country after country in the Middle East, that's exporting terror throughout the world, and that is developing, as we speak, the capacity to make nuclear weapons. Lots of them.

Ladies and gentlemen, Israel and the United States agree that Iran should not have nuclear weapons. But we disagree on the best way to prevent Iran from developing those weapons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Our Global Affairs Correspondent Elise Labott is with us here in Washington. Elise, you were at this event, 16,000 people, APAC supporters were there. I'm sure he was very well received. But he did try to ease this current crisis in U.S.-Israeli relations.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, I think he tried to lower the temperature by saying that he has such respect for the White House, respect for what the U.S. has done for Israel over the years but that he feels that he needs more discussion about the nuclear deals shaping up.

Israeli officials tell us that they know quite a bit about what's going on in these negotiations in Geneva, the deal that's on the table. And what the prime minister wants to do tomorrow in his speech to Congress is to lay out what he knows to be the deal and explain why it is that this deal is bad for Israel and bad for the world.

And so, even though he tried to lower the temperature, I think that's also an effort to kind of focus the issue on Iran. Because make no bones about it, this prime minister is going to do whatever he can to try and put a wrench in the deal that's on the table right now.

BLITZER: Because, in effect, what he's suggesting is that the president of the United States, the secretary of state of the United States, the national security adviser, they're willing to accept the deal that he says could endanger not just Israel's security but its very existence. Those are strong -- that's a strong condemnation of what the Obama administration is doing.

LABOTT: Well, you know, I've been in Israel for the last month and there's a feeling in Israel and it goes way beyond the prime minister. Three out of four Israelis do not trust President Obama, this White House on Iran. They do not think that the U.S. has Israel's interests in their foremind. Obviously, the U.S. has its own national security interest.

And so, the prime minister said -- when he got on the plane, he said, I'm going to be the messenger for all Israeli people. A lot of people don't agree with him but he's going there to say, this is a bad deal for Israel. And that's what he's going to lay out tomorrow. He feels that Congress has not been fully informed of this deal. He wants more discussion. And he's going to urge Congress to push back the March 24th deadline so that more discussion can take place.

BLITZER: Now, you've been talking to Israeli officials. You've just come back. You flew back here to Washington from Israel with -- on the prime minister's plane. Do they acknowledge that behind the scenes, background conversations with you, that they totally mishandled this invitation from the speaker of the House and seriously undermining Israel's relationship with a huge group of influential Democrats?

LABOTT: I think they wish that it didn't happen the way that it did. And I think, a little bit, that the Israelis feel they got played a little bit by House speaker, John Boehner, in extending this invitation without talking to the White House. Of course, they could've mentioned it. But what the speaker did, in effect, was allow Prime Minister Netanyahu to inject a partisanship into the U.S.- Israeli relation, which you know has never been there in all the years. This APAC, 16,000 people, saying how important a bipartisan relationship is.

And then, what he did was kind of open up the door for the White House to inject themselves into the election that's going to go on in a couple of weeks. This White House does not like Prime Minister Netanyahu, Wolf, and I don't think they'd like him to win the election.

BLITZER: Yes, but if you read the Israeli papers of the Israeli press, the idea for this speech before a joint session of Congress was not Boehner's. It was the Israeli's idea. They came to Boehner and he said, OK, good idea. Then, they worked it out in a rather awkward way that has really hurt this U.S.-Israeli relationship, at least in the short term.

All right, Elise, thanks very much.

The prime minister's speech before Congress tomorrow morning is not just creating divisions here in the United States. Israelis disagree about the motive and the timing of the speech. CNN's Kate Bolduan has that part of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As diverse is the landscape, the culture and the Israeli people themselves, so are the opinions here on their prime minister's decision to speak before Congress. A recent poll suggests the public is split down the middle. I saw that firsthand at this dipper party in the heart of Jerusalem.

(on camera): Thank you so much for having us. This is so great.

(voice-over): Nachshon Carmi thinks it's wrong and all about reelection.

(on camera): What do you make of it?

NACHSHON CARMI: I think this is a classic move of distracting the voters from domestic issue to foreign policy.

BOLDUAN: Do you think this is a campaign move?

CARMI: Totally.

(voice-over): Malynnda Littky disagrees.

MALYNNDA LITTKY: I'm amused by the amount of power that the left seems to give to Netanyahu. He wins, he was giving a speech on a topic that he knows a lot about and that's important to us. But it's still just a speech.

BOLDUAN: Just a speech but its focus remains a central issue concerning all Israelis, the threat of a nuclear Iran.

LEVI WEIMAN-KELMAN: Every Israeli, no matter what their politics, on some deep level feels a deep sense of insecurity about our own survival.

BOLDUAN (on camera): Do you think -- do you think anything that Netanyahu says in the speech can push the needle on the negotiations with Iran?

LITTKY: One way or another, I think Netanyahu isn't going to be the reason that America make this decision.

WEIMAN-KELMAN: Oh, I agree. I'm just worried that he will be blamed for it.

LITTKY: Will he be --

WEIMAN-KELMAN: Even --

LITTKY: -- will he be given the credit if he -- if we -- if -- I mean, if (INAUDIBLE) stand out of it?

WEIMAN-KELMAN: And I -- and I doubt he will be given the credit. So, it's lose-lose. That's why I don't -- that's why I think it's such a bad idea.

EYTAN GILBOA, BAR ILAN UNIVERSITY: Most people think that the speech is not going to affect the negotiations with Iran. Most people are concerned about this warfare between the United States and Israel.

BOLDUAN (voice-over): Professor Eytan GILBOA is an expert on the American-Israeli relationship.

GILBOA: There are many crises in American-Israeli relations but this one is the worst.

BOLDUAN (on camera): You really think it is the worst?

GILBOA: Because it has been lingering for a long period of times. There are very little trust between the two leaders. And this agreement and crisis is about almost everything.

BOLDUAN (voice-over): Back at the dinner table, these Israelis hope this doesn't mean irreparable damage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The connection of Israel and the United States goes so deep and is on so many levels. Yes, we're going through a bad time but it -- we'll get over it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Kate is joining us now live from Jerusalem. Kate, the prime minister said, today, that the United States and Israel will weather this storm. That seems to be the view, at least of some of the people you've been talking to there in Jerusalem and in Tel Aviv. But Israelis are deeply worried, I sense, about the state of U.S.-Israeli relations right now.

BOLDUAN (live): I think you're absolutely right. I think they would like to say that the bond between Israel and the United States is much more than one -- than a controversy or personality differences or even deep dislike between the leader of their country and the leader of the United States. They -- I'll put it this way. They're hopeful that the bond is that strong.

But there is concern about what this episode, if you will, what it will -- what kind of damage it could do to the relationship. Is there a chink in that armor? There is fear that this speech could be counterproductive to that relationship. I mean, just look at the length that Netanyahu himself went today in his speech before APAC talking about how strong the bond -- the bond remains, that alliance is strong. That in and of itself suggests that there's concern amongst his people back home. And there was a poll -- there's a lot of polling going on right now because, obviously, they're in the very -- close to the end of the -- this election, Wolf.

And one of the questions I was asked in a recent poll I found interesting. They asked, whom do they believe -- whom do voters believe -- do they trust the most to protect the U.S. relationship. Fewer than a third of those, fewer than a third of likely voters said they trusted Benjamin Netanyahu to protect their relationship. That's about as many who thought that his opposition -- his opposition, Isaac Herzog, would protect that relationship.

BLITZER: Yes, the Israeli elections two weeks from tomorrow. And I have no doubt at least part of the reason the prime minister wanted to come here to Washington to address Congress, that he thought this was going to help him, politically, in his bid for reelection. It's a very close election, by all accounts. Right now, he might not be reelected. But to -- a lot of the experts over there suggest this visit may have backfired from his narrow political perspective.

Much more on this coming up. Kate's going to be back with us later today in "THE SITUATION ROOM" as well.

Back in the United States, there's increasing backlash over the Israeli's prime minister speech before Congress tomorrow. And it's not just coming from the Democrats.

And later, she's a 23-year-old Ukrainian model, the girlfriend to an outspoken critic for the Russian President Putin and the only witness to his murder. And now, she is speaking out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: When the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, addresses Congress tomorrow, there will be dozens of empty seats, seats that would normally be occupied by Democrats who instead have decided to boycott this speech by a visiting prime minister of Israel.

Let's get some -- one of those members, Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont. You have decided you will not go to the -- hear a speech from the visiting prime minister of Israel. It's pretty unprecedented, isn't it?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT, COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS: Yes.

BLITZER: Has that ever happened before? A prime minister of Israel comes to the United States and a group of Democrats, or Republicans for that matter, decide to boycott this -- the leader of a friendly Democratically?

SANDERS: I think you're right. That is unprecedented. BLITZER: Why have you decided, Senator, that it would be best, from

your perspective, to not go sit in the chamber, sit in the House of Representatives, and at least give him the courtesy of hearing out what he has to say?

SANDERS: Well, a couple of reasons, Wolf. The first open most important is everybody knows constitutionally and unprecedented, the president of the United States of America, whether he is a Democrat or Republican, is the leader of this country in foreign policy. That's a fact. The idea that speaker Boehner would politicize foreign policy to the degree of not even consulting with President Obama about Netanyahu's visit is, to me, extremely unfortunate.

BLITZER: But that's the speaker. You want to blame Netanyahu for what the speaker did?

SANDERS: Ah, no, no, no. Mr. Netanyahu is a fairly sophisticated politician. And I think he could have picked up the phone and said, you know what, Speaker Boehner has invited me, Mr. President. We want to work closely with you. How do you feel about that? That call was never made.

Second point, and you just made it. Right now in Israel there's a very hard fought election. It's not certain that Netanyahu's party will win. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. But I do not like the idea that two weeks before an election in a foreign country the prime minister there, running for re-election, is using the U.S. Congress as a prop and a photo opportunity for his re-election. That's wrong.

BLITZER: He spoke on the sensitive issue. He was speaking at AIPAC earlier today. I'm going to play you a little clip. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: The last thing that anyone who cares about Israel, the last thing that I would want is for Israel to become a partisan issue. And I regret that some people have misperceived my visit here this week as doing that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Has Israel become a partisan issue?

SANDERS: Look, when you have a very partisan Congress and the speaker invites Mr. Netanyahu without speaking to the president of the United States, of course it's a partisan issue and I think Mr. Netanyahu understood that.

BLITZER: And do you think that the idea for this speech before a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress was Speaker Boehner's idea or the prime minister of Israel's idea?

SANDERS: I have no idea, but they're both big boys and they both understand that the leader in this country in foreign policy is the president of the United States. And the other issue, Wolf, that concerns me very much, of course underlying all of this is the very difficult negotiations with Iran to make certain that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon. And, you know, I get a little bit upset that we have some politicians who try to be very tough on foreign policy. You know, it's good policy. Stand up to Iran. And I would remind those people, they were tough in the war on Iraq, they were tough with Saddam Hussein and it led to the worst foreign policy blunder in the modern history of the United States of America. The president is trying to negotiate a very difficult situation to see that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon.

BLITZER: So when Netanyahu says that for the U.S. it's a matter of security, but for Israel it's a matter of survival, you say?

SANDERS: That the president has made it clear and I think virtually every member of Congress supports the concept that Iran will not get a nuclear weapon. But you know what, I want to see us do that without having to go to war. A war in Afghanistan, a war in Iraq is enough for me.

BLITZER: I don't remember a time when so many members of Congress, like you, supporters of Israel, Jewish members of Congress, members of the congressional black caucus, former chairman of the Democratic Party, Senator Tim Kaine, have decided to boycott a speech by the visiting prime minister of Israel. How do the Israelis fix this?

SANDERS: I think it will be fixed. Look, I think from day one, from the establishment of Israel as a state, there has been overwhelmingly strong bipartisan support for Israel. I think that that will continue. I am simply upset that Speaker Boehner made this a political issue when it should not have been.

BLITZER: One final question. I know you're thinking of running for the Democratic presidential nomination this time. Your decision to go ahead and boycott this speech by the visiting prime minister of Israel, how is that impacted politically, what's been the reaction you're getting?

SANDERS: I have no idea how it plays out politically. In my state, there are some people who have written and called and supported and some people do not.

BLITZER: Is it leaning one way or the other?

SANDERS: No.

BLITZER: More positive or more negative to your decision?

SANDERS: I think it's pretty equally divided.

BLITZER: (INAUDIBLE). But you're getting some criticism from -

SANDERS: We're getting some support and we are getting some criticism.

BLITZER: But you're willing to stand - take the heat?

SANDERS: Yes. BLITZER: Wouldn't be the first time. Senator Bernie Sanders, thanks - thanks very much for coming in.

SANDERS: My pleasure.

BLITZER: So what do Americans think about the Republicans invitation to the prime minister of Israel to speak before Congress? We're going to have much more on the political fallout of this controversial visit when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The United States and Israel, they're like family. Those are the words of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he highlighted the close bond between the two nations. During a speech today and before the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, he said his address to the U.S. Congress tomorrow and the dangers posed by Iran's nuclear ambitions is not intended to slight President Obama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: My speech is not intended to show any disrespect to President Obama or the esteemed office that he holds. I have great respect for both.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's bring in our chief national correspondent John King and our chief political analyst Gloria Borger.

He says the U.S. and Israel will weather this storm, but it is a storm, at least in the short term. They've got a lot of work to do.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: They do have a lot of work to do and he's come under a lot of criticism in this country, as well as at home, about whether he should even be here this close to an election. And I think the big question that people are asking is, does his rocky relationship with the president endanger the strong relationship between Israel and the United States of America? And if it does, that's a real problem and he's getting flack at home for that. But he's in a very tight election, Wolf, as we all know. He's playing his base in the Likud party because his move here to talk about Iran is popular with them and that's what he's going for.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Security front and center is the Bebe calling card in politics.

BORGER: Sure.

KING: Will the relationship survive? Of course it will. Will the relationship thrive? Of course it will. But even Prime Minister Netanyahu, several times in making that point, said in future years. He's well aware that in future weeks and months the dysfunction between him, the personal relationship between President Obama and the prime minister is quite dysfunctional and there's no question it's likely that, a, definitely not getting any better in the short term. The question is, will it get worse?

BORGER: You know, when I was talking to a senior Democrat who's debating whether to go to this speech and the question this this Democrat was asking is, does Netanyahu's appearance here add anything to the sum total of knowledge about what we know about the Iran sanctions debate? Is he going to tell the American Congress anything different than they already know from hearings and from meetings with the administration, meeting with the White House? What's the - what's the real purpose of this?

BLITZER: He didn't do that today. He didn't provide any new information today.

BORGER: No. Well -

BLITZER: But he said the substance of his speech, John, will be delivered tomorrow. The more technical parts of his opposition, of his concern with the U.S. and its - and the other members of the Security Council are doing.

KING: Right. He was - he was trying to be - and it's somewhat uncharacteristic for him, but trying to be more diplomatic today. Trying to say I regret this has become so partisan, trust me, I respect President Obama and his office, which he needed to do. He needed to do it for his domestic audience here in the United States, but also for his political audience back home. Tomorrow he will get into the nuts and bolts, but it - as he gets into the nuts and bolts, number one, the administration has publically accused the Israelis of distorting -

BORGER: Right.

KING: The substance of the negotiations. That's been part of this dysfunction, the open distrust, and essentially accusations of lying, of changing the story about (INAUDIBLE).

But the other players, Wolf, philosophically, this is a snapshot of both who the president is and who the prime minister is. President Obama says of course let's try to negotiate. We won't take a bad deal. But why wouldn't you at least try to get a deal. The prime minister says, they're evil. You can never trust them. Don't waste your time.

BORGER: And so the question is, if Netanyahu goes before the Congress tomorrow and explains why he thinks this is a bad deal, and gets very specific about it and explain why he thinks the administration cannot, under any circumstance, negotiate with Iran, what does the administration do in response that that? Do they just let him leave without saying anything? How does this White House respond to what he's going to say to the United States Congress? Will they use surrogates on Capitol Hill to do it? That will be very interesting for us to watch in the - in the wake of this speech.

KING: Because if they think they're going to get a deal, Secretary Kerry's at the negotiating table right now.

BORGER: Right. KING: So we'll know more about this in 48, 72 hours, than we do now about whether they can get a deal. But to your point, it's a Republican Congress. That's a Republican Senate, it's a Republican House. If the president needs to get something ratified, get - get - he's going to take a deal, and there's been a debate about this, but he's actually going to take a deal to the Senate and try to get it ratified, they're going to have no choice but to rebut the prime minister.

BORGER: But - but -

BLITZER: He says that he doesn't need to do that.

KING: He says he doesn't need to that.

BORGER: Right.

KING: But that will be another great debate in Washington about executive power should he go that route.

BORGER: And, you know, there are - there are the - recent NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll shows that nearly half of all Americans believe that Republicans should not have even invited Bebe Netanyahu here without first checking with the president, never mind Democratic congressional leaders. And so they're on some thin ice here too for playing politics as well.

BLITZER: Yes, it's - you know, I don't remember a time, John, I'm sure you don't, near does Gloria, when you have Bernie Sander, the independent senator from Vermont, who himself is Jewish, other Jewish members of the House and the Senate -

BORGER: Right.

BLITZER: Members - former chairman of the Democratic Party, Tim Kaine, senator from Virginia, members of the Congressional Black Caucus who have publicly decide they're not willing to shy away from it. You just head Bernie Sanders. They're not even going to listen to the prime minister of Israel and the president of the United States is not even going to talk to him, not even going to have a phone conversation with him. That underscores the rupture that has occurred right now.

KING: Underscores the rupture, underscores the personal nature of it between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama. And, look, it puts the politics front and center. Speaker Boehner issued this invitation the morning after the president's State of the Union Address. It was a card he was holding to change the subject after President Obama's State of the Union Address, number one. Then the prime minister accepts it and the speech is scheduled two weeks before his election back home. So here in the states and our close friend Israel, you have politics front and center. It's one of the most pressing policy challenges, global security challenges of our time, but at the moment it is wrapped heavily in politics.

BORGER: It's also -

BLITZER: There's a lot of work they've got to do. Very quickly.

BORGER: Well, it's also pure Bebe Netanyahu.

KING: Right.

BORGER: As we were talking about before we came on the air, I mean this is someone who kind of likes mixing it up in American politics. You'll remember in Mitt Romney's attempt to gain the presidency, he sort of winked and said, you know, Romney and I knew each other from our years at Bain (ph) Capital. We're good friends. He met with Romney when Romney was abroad. So I think that this is not the first time we've seen Bebe Netanyahu kind of try and get involved in American political life.

BLITZER: I think that the prime minister and his political advisers thought this was going to help him in his re-election bid -

BORGER: They did. They did.

BLITZER: But it might have turned out to be a blunder, a political blunder, because a lot of Israelis are concerned about the current state of the U.S.-Israeli relations right now.

BORGER: Which is why he's being so careful. We'll see.

BLITZER: All right, guys, thanks very much.

And stay with CNN tomorrow for complete coverage of the prime minister's visit to the United States. Don't miss our special coverage of the prime minister's address before a joint meeting of Congress. Our coverage begins tomorrow morning 10:00 Eastern.

Up next, Secretary of State John Kerry is in Switzerland right now for talks with Iran. He says they're making some serious progress on the nuclear issue but that doesn't necessarily mean a deal is close. We're going live to Switzerland when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)