Israel President Isaac Herzog interviewed exclusively on Channel Seven’s Sunrise – The President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, has just given an exclusive interview to Natalie Barr on Channel Seven’s Sunrise.
Full Transcript (video below)
NATALIE BARR
The President of Israel will take his Australian tour to Melbourne today, where up to 5000 protesters are expected to gather. Isaac Herzog travelled here following an invitation from Anthony Albanese in the aftermath of the worst terrorist attack our country has ever experienced. Throughout the visit, President Herzog has honoured the 15 innocent people killed in the Bondi massacre, while also acknowledging the many lives that have been permanently changed by the anti-Semitic attack. For many, his presence has offered comfort at a deeply painful moment, but for others, it has been a difficult week, with thousands of demonstrators taking to the streets protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza and calling for the president’s arrest. For more, we are joined by the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog. Good morning to you.
PRESIDENT ISAAC HERZOG
Good morning to you, Nat. It’s an honour to be in your program.
NATALIE BARR
Mr. President. You are in Australia at the invitation of our Prime Minister. You met with him yesterday. Your government has previously accused Anthony Albanese of not doing nearly enough to combat anti-Semitism in Australia. Has anything changed?
PRESIDENT ISAAC HERZOG
So this has been a very emotional trip, and it has been a trip where I could hug and strengthen and console the Jewish community, which has gone through a horrific terror attack at Bondi Beach and also an opportunity to reignite the incredible relations we have with Australia throughout the history of our nations. And it was an opportunity also to present their true story and the true nature of the relations and the future that it holds, because what Australia and Israel have as two strong democracies is an enormous amount of issues to share. We. We are nations who do good in the world, and we can work on climate change and science and health and technology and food, nutrition and anything that helps humanity. And we cannot only discuss issues of political nature, such as the conflict with the Palestinians, because that is one of the facets of the dialogue and not the only. I had enormous pleasure of meeting your leadership to be hosted by the Governor general and, of course, by the Prime Minister and various other leaders. And I hope that this message came through. I’m saying to my people and to the Jewish people worldwide that I found in Australia, which is different from what was depicted. There is anti-Semitism. It is frightening and worrying, but there’s also a silent majority of Australians who seek peace, who respect the Jewish community and of course, want a dialogue with Israel.
NATALIE BARR
There are some people who are deeply troubled by your visit. We have had mass demonstrations, people protesting Israeli military action in Gaza. You have been accused of inciting genocide. Can you understand why people are angry?
PRESIDENT ISAAC HERZOG
So God forbid I never incited genocide. It’s a libellous lie. And that’s part of the whole circumstances of our lives. Meaning enormous brainwashing with a lot of lies and blasphemy which has no basis. We were attacked by the most barbaric and vicious terror organisation on October 7th, 2023, and our citizens were at their beds, sleeping or going jogging in the morning or taking a ride with our bicycles were butchered and burned and raped and abducted, taken hostage. And we went to defend ourselves. It was extremely difficult, extremely painful. None of us want war. All I want is for our neighbours, just like us to live in peace and quiet and tranquillity. Unfortunately, we as a very small country. Australia is 371 times bigger than Israel. We went to defend ourselves in a very complicated terrain, which is all civilian terrain, where we found endless amount of tunnels and ammunitions and missiles and people’s homes. Believe me, I care for the pain of the Palestinians. But terror cannot reign in the world. And my message also to the leadership of Australia. Terror is unacceptable. And the terror emanates from a Coalition of terror based in Tehran, with proxies all over the Middle East who have attacked us in this war and who many of them were hurt badly by our defence forces.
NATALIE BARR
Yes, I know the UN Commission of Inquiry named you as having incited genocide. That was in October 2023, where you said all Palestinians were responsible for October 7th. I know you have walked back that statement. Let’s talk about October 7th.
PRESIDENT ISAAC HERZOG
No one disputes. I walked back that statement on the moment of the interview. During the interview, of course, that there are many incidents in Palestinians. It was a total lie of that inquiry committee, which is totally, totally politicised. Like many other international organisations. Unfortunately, yes.
NATALIE BARR
Now, no one disputes the incomprehensible, barbaric events of October 7th or Israel’s right to defend itself. The Israeli military has reportedly acknowledged at least 70,000 people in Gaza have been killed since October 7th. Mr. President, when is enough? Enough?
PRESIDENT ISAAC HERZOG
So not right now. That’s that’s where we are at at this stage of trying to exit from the war, meaning President Trump and his team has led an incredible process whereby finally the hostages got out. We went to rescue, where well over 200 hostages throughout the process, and a ceasefire was declared. And now there is a process what’s called the next stage of the UN Security Council resolution and the plan laid down by President Trump, which is an amazing plan. And now a whole worldwide effort is based in Israel and in Gaza in order to decommission Hamas, take out its arms and enable a better future with huge development and investment in Gaza. Is it realistic? Is it feasible? We pray and hope, yes, and Israel is doing its best to move forward. But of course the proof of the pudding is in the eating, meaning we have to see that Hamas really is disarmed and hopefully it won’t require another round of battle, which no one wants.
NATALIE BARR
When will you lift the ban on international media going into Gaza?
PRESIDENT ISAAC HERZOG
So thank you for this question. Not because the issue in Gaza is that you have a very dense area, all booby trapped, full of ammunition and bombs. If you send a sniffing dog, a whole building explodes. And that is why Israel was cautious so that people were, you know, journalists will not be hurt now in coordination with all the other forces around, because now there’s a huge international force of multinational facets, including, by the way, an Australian representative. It’s been discussed so that it can be lifted and enable the foreign press to go in and hopefully the real story will come out. Meaning we have only demolished about one third of the tunnels underneath. Now take these tunnels. It’s huge amount of investments that could have gone to give a better life to the Palestinians in Gaza. Just like, by the way, the Iranian regime is spending billions of dollars spreading hate all over the world and killing its own citizens and not caring about their goodwill. And I ask all these protesters in Australia, where are you when about 50,000 Iranians have been mowed and killed brutally by their own regime and is doing it still right now?
NATALIE BARR
You have paid your respects at Bondi. You have met with victims’ families. You have visited a Jewish school. What message are you hoping your visit will have sent to Australia?
PRESIDENT ISAAC HERZOG
So I bring a message of goodwill to the people of Australia and its leadership. Australia is minted extremely deeply in our history. It was the Australian Light Horse Brigade who has actually freed our land, the Land of Israel, in 1917, with their with their courage and with their life. And it was Australia was the first nation to declare Israel to recognise Israel in the United Nations resolution declaring the creation of a Jewish state in 1947. And it was Australia which had enormous cooperation and relations with us on a multitude of fields throughout history. Israel was a bipartisan issue. I truly hope that it will go back to bipartisan issue, that the enormous respect and mutual respect between our nations will move, upgrade, and we move forward. We can have our differences. I don’t argue with that. Believe me, a lot of things that are said here, between us, between our governments is said in our Parliament and our public body and in our news and our media. Because we are a vibrant democracy. We’re going to elections this year. It’s a critical elections, but the dialogue has to be out of respect, definitely not out of harassment and protests that carry out slogans that actually undermine our right to exist. That’s totally unacceptable. And you’ve seen the price of hate, of anti-Semitism in the terrible Bondi attack, which culminated after two years of an anti-Semitic wave in this country and elsewhere. So I hope there will be change. I hope things will relax. And I had very productive meetings with Prime Minister Albanese and with all our leaders, and I hope that it will there will be change.
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Israel President Isaac Herzog interviewed exclusively on Channel Seven’s Sunrise
