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Interview With Benjamin Netanyahu
Aired January 28, 2003 - 14:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now to Israel, where there's less than an hour of voting left in their third general election in four years. The turnout could end up around 70 percent, which is low for Israel.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party is expecting an easy win, but will it be enough to govern?
Let's talk with someone who knows Israeli politics inside and out, former prime minister and current foreign minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. He joins us from Tel Aviv -- sir, we appreciate your time. Let's start out by looking at the two candidates here. You have Sharon, 29 years military experience. He oversaw the '82 invasion of Lebanon. Tough reputation. Uses force when it comes to the Palestinians.
Mitzna, 30 years military, retired general, commanded troops in the West Bank when the first uprising took in 1987 with the Palestinians. Who is the man to lead Israel?
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: Well, clearly Ariel Sharon, and I think the voters are going to say that tonight. It's not because of the military record, it's because of the policy. I think that voters are completely disenchanted with Arafat and with any attempt to mollify him or win him over because we've seen that all that gets us is terror and suicide bombings. And I think that the fact that the Likud under Sharon has taken a tough stance against terrorism garners for him and for the party the kind of support that is garnered by any leader, including in the United States, that takes a tough position against terrorism.
I think voters, too, understand that the only way we are going to get peace is if we are able bring down terror, that the two cannot coexist. And that is why I think the Likud will certainly form the next government.
PHILLIPS: Explain to me your support for Sharon. I mean, Israel has been rocked by dozens of suicide bombings since 2000. What is he doing that you think is working?
NETANYAHU: Well, I think he's done one important thing, and that took place right after that horrific Passover evening massacre many months ago.
We had, at that point, almost a suicide bombing a day. And Mr. Sharon took over -- or rather instituted a policy of going after the terrorists where they are, taking forceful military action in the lairs of the terrorists, and the result has been a precipitous decline in the rate of terror. I wish I could say a complete elimination of terror, and that has not yet been the case, but definitely a very sharp decline, and I think the voters appreciate that, and they're going to reflect it today in the way that they're going to vote.
PHILLIPS: Let's talk about Yasser Arafat. Sharon has said, No way. I'm not going to deal with him. Mitzna takes a different approach. He says, You've got to deal with him. Don't you have to deal with Yasser Arafat?
NETANYAHU: Do you have to deal with Saddam Hussein? No. There's some leaders who disqualify themselves by virtue of their behavior. I think President Bush had it -- put it perfectly when he said that those who are compromised by terror cannot be legitimate partners for peace.
Arafat is not compromised by terror, he's up to his ears and his eyeballs in terror. He sponsors, perpetrates, facilitates terror of the worst kind on earth, and I think he's turned suicide bombing into a curriculum in his schools, in the kindergartens of the Palestinian children.
So he's doing a terrible injustice not only to us, Israelis, but to his own people, to the Palestinian children themselves. I think this is not a leader who can lead us anywhere except into chaos and violence, and I think that many Palestinians, although they're afraid to admit it openly, secretly yearn for his replacement by a more responsible and more moderate leadership with whom we can make piece.
PHILLIPS: Now, we've been reading some public opinion polls out of Israel, and I was reading one specifically that said Israelis like Mitzna's ideas but only trust Sharon to carry them out.
NETANYAHU: I think if people ask, do Israelis want peace, the answer is, desperately. Do they think that you can achieve peace by a policy of weakness and just unilateral concessions in the face of terror? The answer is definitely not.
So I think what they seek in Sharon and the Likud leadership is a prudent and firm approach to the achievement of peace, which means bringing down terror, seeking a genuine partner on the other side, a partner who doesn't want to destroy Israel.
You know, you can make peace with an enemy, but only with an enemy that decides to stop being your enemy, that wants peace. An enemy who uses the peace process only as a tactic of war to get more territory from which he can attack you and drive you into the sea, on whose beach I'm standing, right now, that's not a partner.
And I think people in Israel, across the board, virtually across the board, have figured that out. Maybe one day Amram Mitzna will figure that out too.
PHILLIPS: Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, thank you for your time, sir.
NETANYAHU: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 28, 2003 - 14:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now to Israel, where there's less than an hour of voting left in their third general election in four years. The turnout could end up around 70 percent, which is low for Israel.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party is expecting an easy win, but will it be enough to govern?
Let's talk with someone who knows Israeli politics inside and out, former prime minister and current foreign minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. He joins us from Tel Aviv -- sir, we appreciate your time. Let's start out by looking at the two candidates here. You have Sharon, 29 years military experience. He oversaw the '82 invasion of Lebanon. Tough reputation. Uses force when it comes to the Palestinians.
Mitzna, 30 years military, retired general, commanded troops in the West Bank when the first uprising took in 1987 with the Palestinians. Who is the man to lead Israel?
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: Well, clearly Ariel Sharon, and I think the voters are going to say that tonight. It's not because of the military record, it's because of the policy. I think that voters are completely disenchanted with Arafat and with any attempt to mollify him or win him over because we've seen that all that gets us is terror and suicide bombings. And I think that the fact that the Likud under Sharon has taken a tough stance against terrorism garners for him and for the party the kind of support that is garnered by any leader, including in the United States, that takes a tough position against terrorism.
I think voters, too, understand that the only way we are going to get peace is if we are able bring down terror, that the two cannot coexist. And that is why I think the Likud will certainly form the next government.
PHILLIPS: Explain to me your support for Sharon. I mean, Israel has been rocked by dozens of suicide bombings since 2000. What is he doing that you think is working?
NETANYAHU: Well, I think he's done one important thing, and that took place right after that horrific Passover evening massacre many months ago.
We had, at that point, almost a suicide bombing a day. And Mr. Sharon took over -- or rather instituted a policy of going after the terrorists where they are, taking forceful military action in the lairs of the terrorists, and the result has been a precipitous decline in the rate of terror. I wish I could say a complete elimination of terror, and that has not yet been the case, but definitely a very sharp decline, and I think the voters appreciate that, and they're going to reflect it today in the way that they're going to vote.
PHILLIPS: Let's talk about Yasser Arafat. Sharon has said, No way. I'm not going to deal with him. Mitzna takes a different approach. He says, You've got to deal with him. Don't you have to deal with Yasser Arafat?
NETANYAHU: Do you have to deal with Saddam Hussein? No. There's some leaders who disqualify themselves by virtue of their behavior. I think President Bush had it -- put it perfectly when he said that those who are compromised by terror cannot be legitimate partners for peace.
Arafat is not compromised by terror, he's up to his ears and his eyeballs in terror. He sponsors, perpetrates, facilitates terror of the worst kind on earth, and I think he's turned suicide bombing into a curriculum in his schools, in the kindergartens of the Palestinian children.
So he's doing a terrible injustice not only to us, Israelis, but to his own people, to the Palestinian children themselves. I think this is not a leader who can lead us anywhere except into chaos and violence, and I think that many Palestinians, although they're afraid to admit it openly, secretly yearn for his replacement by a more responsible and more moderate leadership with whom we can make piece.
PHILLIPS: Now, we've been reading some public opinion polls out of Israel, and I was reading one specifically that said Israelis like Mitzna's ideas but only trust Sharon to carry them out.
NETANYAHU: I think if people ask, do Israelis want peace, the answer is, desperately. Do they think that you can achieve peace by a policy of weakness and just unilateral concessions in the face of terror? The answer is definitely not.
So I think what they seek in Sharon and the Likud leadership is a prudent and firm approach to the achievement of peace, which means bringing down terror, seeking a genuine partner on the other side, a partner who doesn't want to destroy Israel.
You know, you can make peace with an enemy, but only with an enemy that decides to stop being your enemy, that wants peace. An enemy who uses the peace process only as a tactic of war to get more territory from which he can attack you and drive you into the sea, on whose beach I'm standing, right now, that's not a partner.
And I think people in Israel, across the board, virtually across the board, have figured that out. Maybe one day Amram Mitzna will figure that out too.
PHILLIPS: Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, thank you for your time, sir.
NETANYAHU: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
