The full interview with Israeli President Isaac Herzog

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How do you judge Emmanuel Macron's speech and proposals?

The visit by President Macron was first and foremost for us a visit of solidarity and friendship, a visit of expression of huge, deep sorrow, of friends, of sorrow for the enormous, atrocious pain that we are going through – the tragedy that has befallen my people, my nation. The tragedy that has befallen civilians and human beings who were just going in their daily lives and they were butchered, and their families have been hijacked, and heads have been chopped off, all ages. And he came forward as a friend and expressed solidarity and emotions which were very important to us. President Macron also gave a whole outline of ideas, which are very important ideas, because at the end of the day, let's understand we are dealing with a crisis which impacts civilization. In a way there is a conflict here, a clash of civilizations. Why? Because there is a civilization that believes in a world order. Yes, there could be conflicts and clashes unfortunate ones in world order. But there is also a civilization out there, of ISIS, of Hamas of Al Qaeda and all of these organisations, the Houthis, which all they want is basically to swarm, conquer the Middle East, get the Jews out, and the next will be Europe, you have to study their philosophy. This coalition of evil starts from Iran. It has forks all over the Middle East, this is their life their lifelong vision, and they're using the most brutal means possible, atrocious means that we never believed we will see following the Holocaust, that we will see them in modern times. And this is why President Macron outlined the whole vision of a coalition of nations that stands up towards this evil.

Do you think that the resumption of a peace process is possible, with the creation of a Palestinian state and an end to colonization in the West Bank?

You know at the end of the day, we are still in the crisis itself. When one looks at the day after, whenever it will come, there are many ideas to be dealt with. First and foremost, we have to uproot the military capabilities of Hamas. If people want to enable human beings to live where they chose to live, these were peaceful minded people. Actually, a large group of peace lovers lived on that border. They lived, and they had an immense dialogue with their Gazan friends and neighbors. They helped them in many ways and means, they take them to hospital and whatnot. Some of those people are either abducted or have had their heads chopped off. So, it calls for deep questions, you just can't go idly by and said okay, from now on, we move to another peace process, we have to identify and identify and understand how one can live further. How does one make security? How does one protect the civilians while living there? We didn't want to go to war. We do not want to be warmongers. We are simply protecting and defending our people. And on 7th October in the morning, there was a war waged at us, at Israel and its people, and we have to protect and defend ourselves, first and foremost, to take the capabilities of Hamas out of the homes of people have neighborhoods, underneath the ground and above ground with a huge amount of weapons, dangerous and lethal weapons, and make sure that people can go on with their lives. Perhaps it will also have the Palestinians in Gaza to take control of themselves and live well off in the future.

Are you in favor of the creation of two states that will coexist and support the birth of a Palestinian state?

So I want to elaborate further on the entire question. For example, Yesterday I heard the comments of the Secretary General of the United Nations Guterres. In a way he eluded as if the source of all this evil has to do with the conflict. I absolutely reject his words. Because there was a sort of implication or even consent for atrocities, for terror. The problem with the conflict is terror. The most inherent problem that derails the peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians has to do with terror. We have been suffering endless terror - day in day out. In the last year as President, I visited mourning families all throughout the country. But now we have seen the most atrocious example of what terror is all about. Since World War Two, since the Holocaust, there hasn't been such a number of Jews killed in one day. You want to speak to me about a Two State Solution, can you guarantee our security? Can you guarantee that the nation near us will not repeat the same atrocities? How can I trust this when even in your cities in France or anywhere else in the world there are extreme Islamists who take swords and knives and hatches and cut the heads off innocent people. That is the problem. I truly believe in a dialogue with our neighbours and I truly believe in a dialogue with Islam. I don't think that these examples represent this theology of Islam - God forbid. But what I'm saying is, if the world does not understand, and secure our ability to live without terror, how can we move on? Why would anybody agree to a process when he wants to live in peace, but he is afraid of his level? This is the question that everybody needs to ask.

Creation of an international coalition to fight against Hamas: does this seem useful and credible to Israel?

First of all, it's a very innovative idea. It's very original, because it looks at the grand picture of the Middle East. For the last fifty years since the 1973 war between Israel and Syria and Egypt. And following that with a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. Following that we are seeing a historic process, a movement towards more inclusion of Israel in the region. And it came forward with agreements with Jordan, Egypt, Jordan, the Abraham accords, agreements with the Palestinians, and further with the dialogue that started becoming public with Saudi Arabia. I believe that a lot of this war was waged in order to undermine and derail the inclusion of Israel in the region. This was done by the Empire of Evil which emanates in Tehran. We have to understand it. It's a clear ideology. They want to have full control of the Middle East, it is a long lifelong vision of that regime. They want to get the Jews and the Israelis out of the region. And that's why they're operating to undermine its process. I truly believe that the moment will come, and the day will come, when we will be fully immersed in the region. And we will have a dialogue of peace, including with our Palestinian neighbors, but for that we need security in the region. And President Macron’s vision here can be a lynchpin for security in the region, it can be a major basis for security in the region because you're talking about regional cooperation on security.

Is the IDF ground operation essential and imminent in Gaza?

I will not speak about the ground operation. I'm the President. It's a continental structure of presidency, not the French model, but like some of your neighbours. So I'm head of state but there is an executive arm which is headed by the Prime Minister, Prime Minister Netanyahu, and the emergency coalition war cabinet, which is a very good body of experts and professional and smart leaders who are convening together and leading this, and they will decide when and how and under which circumstances, but naturally, when you will want to undermine the ability of your enemy from killing your citizens, you use your right for self defence, and in many, many instances, you do it with the military – and this time as well, but how and under which circumstances I leave it up to them.

Is the complete eradication of Hamas really possible?

I would say they show that everybody is focusing on is the military capabilities of Hamas. Let's remind our viewers about the history. In 2005, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided to pull out from the entire Gaza Strip. It was to show the world that Israel is willing to uproot settlements, to move to the international border, and to enable, to give a chance to the Palestinians to show that they are capable of state building of nation building. I was a member of that cabinet, and we were telling our people, we were telling the world, we were telling the settlers, there will be a new Hong Kong in the Middle East, you will see, Gaza will turn the turn into the Hong Kong of the Middle East. And tragedy befell us because this reality was totally shattered. In 2007 Hamas in a coup d'etat, in a brutal coup d'etat, killed their brothers, sisters and cousins of Fatah, of the Palestinian Authority, throughout the Palestinian Authority from the region, and seized full control as an Iranian supported platform of terror. This is exactly the story that emanated, and since then thousands of missiles have landed on our heads, and again and again and again repeated military clashes that have endangered our citizens, millions of citizens - we try to explain it to the world. The world kept on judging us according to proportionality, not understanding the strategic situation that no other nation faces. This is a platform of terror, people are holding their missiles and ammunition in their own homes, mosques, shops, you press the button from this living room and you send a missile of 200 kilometers. That's the story and we have to understand it, the world has to understand it and by the way, the international community, those countries who are democratic countries, peace loving countries, understand that we are fighting for our defense.

Which means that you exclude a humanitarian ceasefire to rescue the trapped populations of Gaza?

No, we are actually, we've approved more and more humanitarian aid going to Gaza, on almost on an ongoing or recurring basis. We are working very closely with the United Nations, with the Red Cross, with UNRWA, and many other agencies. We are following and monitoring very closely the humanitarian situation of the people of Gaza on an hourly basis. One has to know the truth. There's no electricity in Gaza because of Hamas missiles, their missiles blow up the wires, that the electricity. We are not interfering in the water in Gaza. And we only supply 7% of the water in Gaza. They are the ones who've ruined their own infrastructure. You see how tragic this all is? Your taxpayers like the entire European nations paid more and more money in infrastructure in Gaza to make the life of the citizens better. Israel in the last few years opened up its borders and enabled tens of thousands of Gazans to work in Israel. All that was shattered by a horrendous terrible attack on our people, killing them with the highest amount of casualties in our history, torturing people and butchering them, and celebrating their heads being chopped and, and children being abducted. This is the situation we're at. It's a call of duty for the international community to understand that we are fighting for good. We are fighting evil.

Is a truce possible if it is not a ceasefire?

So that's all been discussed now. Many ideas have been put on the table, I don't want to go into it, because many of the issues are not up to date on a on a constant basis. There is a military and war cabinet there is a prime minister and government. And then of course there is all the relevant agencies and the Israel Defence Forces.

The concern of the Jews of France is great. But anti-Semitic acts have increased. Are you following the situation on French soil and does it worry you?

Extremely concerned all over the world. The tragedy is, of course, that the first ones to suffer are Jews, as always, but they are never the last ones to suffer. That is the real issue. It's not an issue for Jews to be worried. It's an issue for all democratic societies and societies around the world to be worried and governments to be worried, and take the necessary precaution. I was, of course, fully advised by President Macron of the strong steps that the cabinet in France have taken, the security forces, to protect the Jews in their communities. These are historic communities. My family has a long lineage of life in France for hundreds of years. And my family also lost family members in the Holocaust, who are deported from Paris and Drancy, so we remember history, and we are very much aware about the need to fight antisemitism all over the world, and to be on the sight of doing good, and extending our hands for peace and holding a dialogue. I think it's a major challenge for the world to deal with the rise in antisemitism.

Many French people who are friends of Israel are very worried about the population of Gaza and the Palestinian population. What do you have to tell them?

That we care we care for our neighbors, we always did, that we operate according to international humanitarian law, that we've asked the civilians to move to a safe zone and humanitarian zone and the ones who are blocking them are Hamas, that we said that there's a huge amount of fuel reserves in Gaza that were abducted under the hands of Hamas, we shown pictures, that we monitor the humanitarian situation on a daily basis. But one has to give us the answer. How exactly are we to defend ourselves? What exactly are we supposed to say to a three-year-old girl who I met today, beautiful child, whose family has been abducted, abducted or killed? What do I tell her? What do I tell all her friends want to go back and toil the land and work and live? Is there any chance tolive in such an area? Or perhaps that is the major program and plan, to get us out by hitting us again and again and again, and trying to threaten our nation? My nation is bereaving in huge tragedy, and I thank all our friends and supporters all over the world. And when we are bleeding and hemorrhaging, we also rose up as a lion. We are a united, a united people. We have strength, we've shown resilience. We came out of the worst atrocities in history. We will come out of this too. We are a strong democracy. Everybody can say whatever he or she wants in this country - our neighbors are not. And we are working extremely hard to find ways and means to be included in our region and do good. But we cannot go on this way, that we are attacked, and that hundreds of people are abducted out there, and we demand their immediate release: old people needing medication with a with foreign caretakers, or with dementia, young children – thirty children, thirty children, have been kidnapped. Has there any been any case like that in the world in such a multitude of nationalities, and the Israelis were all there abducted in cellers, tortured abused, raped. This is the issue. That's what we're dealing with. We're dealing with evil, pure evil. And that's why we are calling for all our friends to be there with us in this moment.

Do you think we will be able to free the hostages being held in Gaza right now?

So there is a major international effort in this respect, and of course, a lot of negotiations between various countries. I can only say what I've said to the families, and I'm meeting families and loved ones all the time. This is a top priority for many, many countries. I was heartened to hear President Macron express this as well. And I leave all the rest to hopefully, some hope behind the scenes. Let's wait and see.