Interview with Netanyahu: Pullout Would Lead to ‘Hamastan’

Benjamin Netanyahu, former prime minister and finance minister, is now the opposition leader in the Israeli parliament. He took some time to share his views with reporter Nicole Jansezian.

Reporter: Israel recently remembered the 30th anniversary of the rescue mission of Entebbe in which your brother Jonathan [‘Yoni’] was killed. What lessons can we apply from that operation to the situation Israel is facing today?

Netanyahu: Entebbe was a great blow to international terrorism. It showed that free societies, however threatened by barbaric evil, can overcome this evil if they muster their courage and their resolve. I think the fact that this raid was carried out against what were seemingly impossible odds, and succeeded, set the standard for the rest of the free world to stand up and fight terrorism. 

Reporter: You were against the pullout from Gaza. Did you ever imagine that Israeli troops would be back there so soon?

Netanyahu: Yes, I said as much. I wasn’t against leaving Gaza in an agreement, but I thought that unilaterally withdrawing would strengthen Hamas, which it did. It would bring the rockets closer to the towns and villages in the southern part of the country. I think we now have to undo this error. We have to restore a balance of deterrence. Hamas believes it can fire 600 rockets into our towns and villages and we will accept it. 

Reporter: What can the army do to prevent these rocket attacks?

Netanyahu: You have to make it clear that you cannot fire rockets with impunity at Israel. We will go after the people who do it. We also, in this case, take possession of the rocket sites. 

The government had said it would respond massively with the first rocket that was fired. They didn’t respond unfortunately with the first, the tenth or the 100th rocket. And then it escalated to 600 rockets. I think the first rule of deterrence is to nip bad things in the bud. Don’t let it grow because otherwise the response you would have to give becomes a lot more intense than if you had acted early enough. The second good idea is to do what you say you’ll do so it creates credibility.

Reporter: You’ve been a quiet opposition leader so far. Why haven’t you been more vocal about the planned pullout from Judea and Samaria?

Netanyahu: We’ve been very clear about it. And a lot of people now realize that this pullout is really in doubt, when you see what the previous pullout did. Many people are saying, ‘Do we really want to replicate this and create a “Hamastan,” in this case right next to the greater Tel Aviv area?’ The range of the rockets will increase with an independent Hamas state. They’ll import weapons from Iran and elsewhere. 

Plus they’re also asking, what is the logic here? Do we get any benefit? We don’t get international recognition. People will recognize or enable Israel to unilaterally make these unbelievable concessions to Hamas, but they don’t say that what you keep they recognize. Not a single government has said that.

And, how are you going to pay for it? The cost is roughly $2 billion for [every] 10,000 people [evacuated]. Olmert’s plan involves at least 70,000 people, possibly 100,000, so we’re talking about $20 billion. There is no budget for these massive displacements. 

Reporter: How would you handle the situation in Gaza right now if you were the prime minister?

Netanyahu: In the middle of a crisis, the good thing for us to do is to back the government to do the right thing. They said they would not make deals with the terrorists [for the release of the kidnapped soldier] and I support that. They seem to be taking a more forceful response to the rockets and I support that. 

Reporter: Many Christians worldwide are on Israel’s side. How can they support Israel in this situation? 

Netanyahu: Israel is under a dual attack: It is under terrorist attacks, rockets, suicide bombers, kidnappings and so on. But it is also under moral attack. We who are the victim of this aggression are being called the aggressors. Christian friends of Israel know the truth and perhaps the most important battle we’ve been fighting is the battle for truth against the lies and vilification that are hurled constantly in Israel’s direction.

We have no better friends than the Christian community and the Christian Zionists around the world who understand that the story of Israel is really a parable. It’s a parable of a people who faced all odds and have really broken the so-called iron laws of history. We’ve been re-gathered in our ancestral homeland and built a model democracy by seeking to build a better future for us and our neighbors and are now, and for some time have been, tormented by the most barbaric and murderous forces on the face of the globe. 

This is how Christian friends of Israel can help: by merely explaining this truth. We are fighting evil forces. People who chop heads off, blow up babies, smash into skyscrapers in Manhattan and kill thousands of innocent people are evil people and they should be stopped.