Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons is something that is dangerous to Israel and dangerous in fact to the world. CNN LATE EDITION WITH WOLF BLITZER Aired January 8, 2006 - 11:00 ET BLITZER: Prime Minister Netanyahu, welcome back to Late Edition. You worked so closely with Prime Minister Sharon over many years in various capacities. As you see what's happening at the Hadassah Medical Center here in Jerusalem right now, what goes through your mind? NETANYAHU: I think that there is something that I feel and every Israeli feels, and probably many friends of Israel around the world, that Ariel Sharon, who led so many battles for the security of Israel, is now making the great battle for his life, and we all are united in prayer that he succeeds. I think -- I think that that's what people want to hear and want to see, that -- that he makes it through this terrible ordeal. BLITZER: Do you regret leaving his cabinet in recent weeks? NETANYAHU: No, I think that there are obviously questions of policy that can crop up at any particular time, but over the years -- I've known Ariel Sharon for 33 years. Actually, my first meeting with him was on the banks of the Suez Canal in the Yom Kippur War, when I saw his resolve, his courage, his determination. And we've had the ability to work together over many, many things. On many things, we saw eye to eye; on a few things, we didn't. He served in my government; I served in his government. And we had I think a stellar success in rescuing the Israeli economy in the last three years, really to make it one of the great successes of the developed economies of the world. But equally, we had the ability to work together for Israel's security, to restore Israel's security, and I think Sharon has been a great leader. You can agree with him or disagree with him, but you cannot -- you cannot -- it's impossible not to appreciate it and respect his leadership. He's a great leader. BLITZER: You split with him on the issue of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, the dismantling of Jewish settlements there. Looking back, knowing what you know right now, did he do the right thing in calling for and implementing a withdrawal from Gaza? NETANYAHU: I think time will be the judge of everything, but I don't think time will judge Sharon harshly in the larger perspective of his contributions to Israel's security. This is a man who fought in the war of independence, and the Suez crisis, who had brilliant, just brilliant military contributions in the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War, when Israel was with its back against the wall, perhaps in its worst period, and he performed brilliantly in flanking the Egyptian army and changing the tide of battle, in Lebanon fighting terror and fighting terror in recent years as well. So I think history will judge him as the great leader that he is, and notwithstanding differences of opinion that exist, existed, I think there is a -- I certainly share the view that many in Israel share, and I've always said it. I think he's one of our great generals. I think he's been one of our great political leaders. BLITZER: Just one historic footnote: If you had been still in the Israeli cabinet right now, instead of having left, would you be the acting prime minister right now? NETANYAHU: No. There is a law there, and it's quite clear, that one of the strengths that you see in Israel today is so apparent -- Israel is a democracy with very strong institutions and the rule of law. And we have a very clear procedure in these cases, which we hope we never get to, but unfortunately we do on occasion. And you see the strength and resilience of Israeli democracy, the continuity and also the fact that political leaders who are even political rivals who do the right thing at the right time. I think this is one of the moments where you have to put politics aside. However briefly, you put politics aside, and you do what is right, what is decent for the country. And that's what we've all been trying to do -- I certainly have been trying to do. BLITZER: All right. Let's talk about this poll that came out in Haaretz on Friday. It showed that if the elections for the 120-member Israeli Knesset, the parliament, were held right now, Sharon's new centrist party, even without Sharon atop the list, would get about 40 seats; Labour would get about 18; Likud, your party, would only get about 13 seats. That does not bode well for your political future if these poll numbers hold up between now and the scheduled elections at the end of March. NETANYAHU: Well, I'm not going to discuss the politics. There are two and some months, almost three months left until the elections. I'm sure we'll have a lot of time to address these questions and a lot of time to see the shifting tide of public opinion. I would prefer at this point to tell you that there is unity in the country in the hopes that this particular man who's now battling for his life, Ariel Sharon, the prime minister of Israel, wins that battle, and I think that's where we are right now. I think that the fog of politics, the fog of uncertainty will lift at a certain point. But I think right now what people want is certainty of his own survival, and that is really the main focal point right now of Israelis, of people in the streets, people in their homes. They're glued to their televisions, praying and hoping that he'll succeed. BLITZER: Well, having said that, is there any possibility you might reunite with some of your former government colleagues, including those formerly in the Likud, like yourself, including the acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and come back into this current government in advance of the elections? NETANYAHU: Wolf, I've taken a timeout from politics, and I see that I have a hard time asking you to take a time out from political questions, but this is just not the moment. There will be moments, I'm sure, in the future, but this is not one of the moments where I'm going to engage in political speculation or in politics at all. You can, I'm sure, understand and appreciate that when the prime minister of Israel and one of the great heroes of Israel is battling for his life, we can wait. Nothing will happen if we wait and, frankly, if you wait. It will take a few days to find out if we all hope -- as we all hope, that he's out of it. I think we can give him that time and that respect. BLITZER: All right, fair enough. Let's talk about Iran, which you and so many other Israelis see as a serious threat to Israel. The president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, quoted as having said, "European countries have imposed an illegally established Zionist regime on the oppressed nation of Palestine. Give a piece of land somewhere in Europe or America and Canada or Alaska to Jews to set up their own state." With Iran reportedly working aggressively to try to develop a nuclear bomb, you've been quoted as suggesting that perhaps Israel should think of some sort of preemptive strike, along the lines of what Israel did in 1981 when it destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor at Osirak. Explain your position on a preemptive strike. NETANYAHU: No, I didn't say that, and if anyone said that I said it, they're actually engaging in misquoting. What I did say and what I think is shared by an overwhelming number of people in Israel is that Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons is something that is dangerous to Israel and dangerous in fact to the world. And I think that we have to find a way, which could include diplomatic and other ways, to prevent that from happening. Iran has clearly put Israel in its sights. It says so openly. Here's a man who says that he wants -- the president of Iran -- who says that he wants to erase a member state of the United Nations, he wants to erase it off the map of the Earth. Not only does he want to erase Israel, he wants to erase 3,000 years of Jewish history and our presence and our belonging to this particular land. I mean, where is the Bible coming from? Where is the whole of Jewish history? What is it all about? And yet we are supposed to be this foreign implantation that has no connection to this land. Obviously, they don't subscribe to the idea that we will have to establish a modus vivendi with our Arab and Palestinian Arab neighbors, that we have to find a way to live together. He wants us to be wiped away. And that is an indication of the dangerous ideology that this regime has. And it applies to us merely as what they call the Little Satan. The Great Satan is of course the United States; Europe is the Middle Satan. We are to them a foreign, Western implantation, and the West itself is some kind of cancerous growth that should be reversed. History was wrong. The rise of the West was wrong, and there are corrective measures, including the development of nuclear weapons. That's very dangerous to the entire world. And I believe that we should find a way, as Prime Minister Sharon has said, as I have said, as many others have said, to prevent that danger from materializing, because all of us, all of us -- the United States, Israel, the West, the moderate Arab regimes -- everyone will be endangered by this development. BLITZER: Prime Minister Netanyahu, as usual, thanks very much for joining us on our special "Late Edition" from Jerusalem. Thank you very much. NETANYAHU: Thank you. (END VIDEOTAPE) TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com |
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