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00:30Israeli airstrikes. What is your reaction and your comments to this first statement?
00:35Well, it's not like they didn't try to kill Israelis and Americans and people from the EU and Saudi Arabia
00:42and everywhere else before that.
00:44This is what they do. That's the regime.
00:48This is why we've been telling everybody this is not a real government.
00:52This is a terror organization disguised as a regime that took hostage an entire country, a glorious culture.
00:59The Iranians are an ancient culture that was taken by force by the people who are saying this kind of
01:07thing.
01:07So we're not really threatened.
01:09Mr. Lapid, the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, which is now in its second week,
01:14is arguably this very rare case in which Israel's opposition is fully supporting the government and there is no disagreement.
01:20Can you explain why is that?
01:23Well, because it's a just war. You're right.
01:25I think I've earned the title the most bitter political rival of Benjamin Netanyahu.
01:32But here we are fighting an existential war against a regime that has been spreading terror,
01:40that has been trying to develop nuclear weapons in order to use them against Israel,
01:45that was developing his ballistic missile operation in order to shower Israel with missiles.
01:51One of them fell next to my mom's house. She's 91 years old. She's nobody's enemy.
01:57And of course, that was suppressing its own people in the most brutal way.
02:02So in the 21st century, it is not easy to have a war with moral clarity.
02:09But here we have a war with moral clarity.
02:11So before being the opposition leader, I'm an Israeli patriot, and therefore I'm supporting a just war.
02:19This doesn't come to say that I agree with everything Benjamin Netanyahu is doing or saying on other issues.
02:24But on this one, we are on the same page.
02:27But there is exactly the claims regarding the criticism of this clarity.
02:32This is not exactly clear for everybody when it comes to the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran.
02:38Why is that?
02:39I mean, I've heard people talking about the international law on the subject.
02:44If it wasn't so sad, it would be funny.
02:47The last time I've checked, the international law was there to protect us from rogue terrorist countries, not to protect
02:57them.
02:58These are the people who just killed more than 32,000 of their own people last January when they took
03:06to the streets.
03:06This is the people who are fueling Hezbollah and Hamas and the Iraqi Hezbollah with weapons and money.
03:14These are the people who said, they were outspoken about this.
03:18They said, we want to have nuclear power because we want to use nuclear power against Israel.
03:24Is there anybody in his right mind who believes in the good intentions of the Iranian regime?
03:29Mr. Lepid, the critics would turn this argument regarding the international law,
03:35because according to Tehran, there are also over 1,200 Iranians killed since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war.
03:43Yeah, well, these are casualties of war.
03:45Nobody killed them intentionally.
03:47First of all, you have to doubt their numbers.
03:49But still, nobody is killing them intentionally.
03:52We are targeting, the Americans are targeting, this operation is targeting strictly military targets.
03:59They are targeting Israeli and other countries, civilian targets, in order to kill as many civilians as possible.
04:06I'm not saying that in every war there are casualties, it's heartbreaking, children should not die in grown-ups' wars.
04:13But still, this is a mistake.
04:16What they're doing is trying, in purpose, to kill civilians.
04:20That's exactly the difference between the two countries.
04:23What would be your argument and your comment regarding the school attacked and hit in Iran?
04:29That this is a terrible, terrible, horrible tragedy, and my heart goes to the parents.
04:35And again, this is the kind of things that are happening, should not happen, but happening in war.
04:41Nobody wanted this to happen.
04:42Nobody intended this to happen.
04:44And at the same time, the Iranians are targeting, in purpose, Israeli schools, Israeli hospitals, Israeli civilians.
04:53So, this is, again, nobody is claiming that war is not a horrible thing.
04:58Sometimes even a just war is a horrible thing, because there are casualties and there are civilian casualties.
05:03And again, I send my condolences to the parents of those children.
05:07What do you see, what is the clear goal of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran?
05:13Is that the regime change?
05:15I would say there are three goals.
05:17First is to obliterate the nuclear program of Iran.
05:21Second, to obliterate the ballistic missile program of Iran.
05:25And third, is not to change the regime, because I'm a very small believer in the ability to change a
05:32regime with airstrikes.
05:33But to create better conditions for the Iranian people to take their fate and their destiny into their own hands.
05:41I think last January, when they took to the streets and they were killed by the thousands, by the Bastige
05:47and the Revolutionary Guards,
05:49they felt alone.
05:51And I don't think they feel alone right now.
05:53I think the conditions and the ability and the probability of them changing the regime has grown significantly.
06:00Now it's up to the Iranian people.
06:02I don't know if there will be an Iranian Nelson Mandela, an Iranian Gandhi or an Iranian Lech Walesa.
06:10But I hope for their sake, for the people of Iran, there will be and there will be a regime
06:16change.
06:16But that was already stated as the goal as well during the 12 days war in June.
06:21And then after those 12 days, the process went into negotiations.
06:26And now it's been two weeks back from negotiations to the war.
06:30Is that the cycle?
06:31Is it going from the period of war and then negotiations and back to the war?
06:36Hopefully not.
06:37What happened was, after the 12 days in June, they have signed the truth and then they wanted negotiations.
06:46And then it was very obvious that these are not real negotiations.
06:50What they really did was trying to stall and buy time in order to rebuild the nuclear program and ballistic
06:58missile program.
06:58It was interesting to me, Stephen Whitcoff, the American mediator, told everybody that during the negotiation in Oman,
07:07the Iranians told him proudly that by now they accumulated enough enriched uranium to build 11 atomic bombs.
07:17So they were not really negotiating, what they were really doing is deceiving and lying and buying time in order
07:24to build weapons of mass destruction.
07:26There are claims that, in fact, it was not the U.S. president's decision to attack Iran and now to
07:33continue two weeks into the war,
07:35but that he was spurred on by Israel.
07:37Do you think that was the case?
07:38Was Israel pushing harder and pushing the United States into attacking Iran?
07:43Sasha, does Donald Trump strike you as somebody who can be pushed around?
07:47I don't think so.
07:48I think, I mean, he's the president of the biggest military army in the history of humanity.
07:54He's a determined man.
07:56Israel is filled with gratitude and admiration to his courage, to his moral clarity on the issue,
08:03to the fact he decided to go this war, understanding this is protecting peace on earth.
08:09So, no, I don't think somebody, there's a person, well, maybe with the exception of Melania,
08:15I don't think anybody can push Donald Trump to do anything he doesn't want to do.
08:19Let me ask you about the wider region, because given Iran's proxy networks in the region,
08:25do you see them as part of Israel's strategy in the ongoing war?
08:29And what, you know, how to deal with that?
08:32Because, for example, when it comes to Lebanon, Israel has a long and rather complicated history with Lebanon.
08:37Do you think Israel can defeat Hezbollah by force?
08:41This is when the escalation is getting bigger and wider.
08:45I agree.
08:46Well, first of all, we have to remember who decided to make this bigger and wider.
08:50I mean, Iran started this war by bombarding the EU, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman,
08:59all those countries who's done them no harm just because they wanted to escalate everything.
09:03Part of this escalation is using the proxies.
09:06You're right.
09:07Last night, there were more than 200 launches from Hezbollah towards Israel.
09:12Israel is stronger than Hezbollah.
09:14We're going to strike back.
09:15We're going to strike back in a painful way.
09:20It needs to be dealt.
09:22But this is also a problem of the Lebanese government.
09:24When I was prime minister, I signed an agreement with the Lebanese government trying to improve the relationship.
09:31But Lebanon will not exist as a country, as a sovereign country, if they will let Hezbollah keep on doing
09:37whatever they want to do from Lebanon.
09:40So now we are hitting Beirut and we are hitting southern Lebanon.
09:44But I think it's in everybody's interest and first and foremost Lebanon's interest to make sure Hezbollah doesn't join this
09:52and stop shooting at Israel because the price will be painful.
09:56Well, Lebanese government said it was willing to enter direct negotiations with Israel.
10:00Is that something that Israel would be open to?
10:02Well, if it was up to me, I would do it.
10:05I think I would use this like a scissor effect.
10:09I would fight Hezbollah fiercely.
10:11I would go into southern Lebanon if necessary, making sure Hezbollah is pushed over the Litani River.
10:17And while doing it, negotiate with the Lebanese government because it's their problem as well.
10:22Right now, it's up to the Lebanese people to determine whether it's a country with a terror organization or a
10:31terror organization with a country.
10:33If Lebanon wants to be a real country, then they need to do much more in controlling Hezbollah.
10:39Mr. Lupit, with this war now in the Second War, entering the Third War, with Hezbollah joining the escalation and
10:48the whole spillover over the Gulf region, is this now turning into a bigger and ultimately never-ending war?
10:56I don't think so.
10:57I think many of the goals of the war are achievable.
11:01I think Iran made a huge mistake because what they did was they thought that if they will bomb the
11:07neighbors in the Gulf, this will create pressure on Washington because all those countries will go to Washington and say
11:13to the president, listen, you have to stop the war.
11:15This is killing us.
11:17Instead, they have, by their own doing, created the coalition they always feared of.
11:23Right now, we are on the same coalition with the Saudis, with the Emirates, with the Omanis, with everybody, opposite
11:29Iran's rogue violence, opposite their try to burn everything and everyone.
11:37And on the long term and not so long term, I think this is going to have a rebound effect
11:46against Iran.
11:47So, no, I don't think this will be a never-ending war.
11:50Thank you very much for your time, Ray Lapid, leader of the opposition in Israel.
11:54Thank you.
11:55Thank you, Sasha.
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