Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back Sunday on CBS host Margaret Brennan’s topical “grenades” by claiming the Israeli people support his plan to defeat Hamas.
Netanyahu appeared on “Face The Nation” to discuss the ongoing war between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas which started Oct. 7, 2023. Brennan questioned the world leader on the progress claimed to have been made in the military campaign, asking if he is “reconsidering” his plans since the U.S. has given indications the current strategy is not as effective as expected.
“You said that victory is within reach, but U.S. intel says the IDF has only destroyed 30% of Hamas leadership and that the amount of tunnels that Hamas uses have really only been tiny in terms of what has been destroyed by the IDF. There is growing distrust of you personally, sir — you know this — in the U.S. Congress and within the Biden White House. When your closest ally is telling you things like this, and telling you that you need to reconsider a strategy, isn’t it worth considering?” Brennan questioned
Netanyahu pushed back, stating the U.S. agrees on the goal of “destroying Hamas” and pointed out doubts that were told to Israel prior to entering the war with Hamas. (RELATED: ‘Bring Down Hamas’: Gazans Reportedly Rally Against Hamas Rule)
“A lot of things that we were told by the best of friends, initially, turned out not to be true. They said you can’t enter the ground war without having enormous complications. They said you can’t enter Gaza City, you can’t go into the tunnels: it will be a bloodbath. All of that turned out to be not true. Our soldiers are in the tunnel network. We don’t have to take apart hundreds of kilometers of tunnels. We are taking apart the missile production factories that are underground, the command and control headquarters, the computers that are there, the money that is there, the weapons that are there and the ammo that is there. We’re doing that methodically. So we’re doing the war,” Netanyahu stated.
“You can’t substitute for the Israeli military command, and we’re doing it very responsibly. John Spencer is the head of urban warfare at West Point, [and] says that no other army has gone through the lengths that Israel’s army has gone through to clear civilians out of harm’s way even though Hamas is doing everything to keep them in harm’s way — ,” he added.
Brennan interjected and claimed officials had questioned the country’s “end game,” before attempting to pivot the conversion. Netanyahu jumped on Brennan’s point and highlighted the confidence the Israeli people had in the prime minister’s goals.
“Sure, but the former head of [U.S.] Central Command was on this program just a few weeks ago and said basically you have not articulated any specific endgame here, so — but putting that aside I want to come back to a few different things you said —” Brennan stated.
“Wait a minute, Margaret. You lob these grenades at me and you keep on moving. Well, first of all you say there’s no confidence in me. Well, the Israeli public has confidence in me. Last week — ,” Netanyahu stated.
“There were massive protests throughout Israel yesterday,” Brennan jumped in.
“Of course we have protests. We have protests, Israel is a democracy. We’ve had protests for 30 years, but the Israeli people are united as never before. Last week they voted 99-9 in the Knesset for my proposal that says that we have to do two things: we have to win the war, have total victory, but also not have an international dictate of a Palestinian state shoved down our throats that would endanger Israel. The people are overwhelmingly united on this. When is the last time we had 99 votes in the Knesset? I’ll tell you, 30 years ago. So, the people are united, the policy right, the people support it, and I intend to take it to completion because that’s what we have. We can’t compromise with total victory because, I’ll tell you, we can’t win the peace if we don’t win the war. And we will win this war,” Netanyahu stated.
The White House released a press statement Feb. 11 confirming a call between Netanyahu and President Joe Biden. During the call Biden told the Israeli prime minister he should “not proceed” with military operations in Gaza City unless he had a “credible” plan. While some Democrats have rallied behind calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict, Biden and his administration reportedly looked into recognizing an independent Palestinian state, claiming it would help normalize relations between Israel and the Middle East’s Arab nations, according to Axios.