00:00Now during their EU summit last week right here in Brussels, European leaders were clear that
00:04this was not their war. In a statement they called for, quote, de-escalation, maximum restraint,
00:10the protection of civilians and full respect of international law by all parties.
00:15Euronews's EU editor Maria Tadeo had the chance to get the view from Israel on this by speaking
00:19to the former Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett. She asked him how he qualified this
00:24reaction from European leaders. You know, it's a bit cowardly. We are fighting their war. I'll tell
00:32you why. Iran shot two missiles to Diego Garcia, which is almost 4,000 kilometers from Iran.
00:39That's a range that reaches Brussels, that reaches Madrid, that reaches Paris. And we, in fact,
00:48had we not acted, all of Europe would be under a terrible nuclear ballistic missile menace.
00:56So we're fighting your war. And we expect not to be, you know, criticized in and on. But we expect
01:05your backing. That would be the decent thing to do. But we get it. We have to do the hard
01:09job. We're
01:10used to it. And we'll do what's right. But let me pick up on that point. So at this point,
01:15you'd say
01:15the reaction from the Europeans is that they are cowards. Many, not everyone. Some European
01:20countries have stepped up to the plate, but many others. I'm not going to name names. I think you
01:26know exactly who. I think any European leader who sort of says, this isn't our problem. So when will
01:33it become your problem? When they have a nuclear weapon? When the missile is on its way to Madrid?
01:39When it hits Madrid or Barcelona? Is that when you're going to wake up? So we're doing the fighting.
01:44We didn't ask you for any help. Nothing. All we're doing is fighting against this horrible,
01:51radical Islamist menace. We're reducing and hopefully eliminating this threat. And instead
01:57of thanking us, you're criticizing us. And what's the deal there?
02:01Well, since you mentioned Madrid, of course, there's other governments led by the Spanish
02:05government that say this war is entirely illegal and, by the way, has destroyed any sort of
02:09diplomacy in the Middle East. Is that fair criticism?
02:13No, it's just foolish criticism. Spain's leadership has been just abhorrent, I have to say.
02:21Incredibly disappointing. Because here's how it works. If you allow a threat to grow and grow,
02:29at some point it becomes so big that you can't manage a threat anymore. Like North Korea, where
02:36the world did not act. And now no one can take care and eliminate those nuclear weapons. Like
02:42Hitler, who became so big and everyone wanted to avoid war until it was too late. So this time we
02:49acted on time. But what about when a U.S. top official resigned because he says there was no imminent
02:55threat to the U.S. Regarding that guy who quit? Well, he's a schmuck. I don't I don't care about
03:02him. He's irrelevant. He's going to go down in the dustbin of history. We're fighting the most just
03:09war ever. And we should be getting your backing and not your criticism. We've seen the president
03:15of the U.S. now seems to want to make a deal. He suggests it's five days still of talks.
03:20And he
03:21says the Iranians wants to make a deal. The U.S. also wants to make a deal. What about Israel?
03:24Is a deal a good thing for Israel at this point? It depends. We have objectives. Our objective is
03:29to totally dismantle the nuclear program and ensure they never achieve a nuclear weapon.
03:34Same with the ballistic missiles and same with dismantling the terror proxies. So we have to
03:39see what the deal is. If it achieves those goals, that's wonderful. OK, and this is my final question,
03:44however, and it is the question at this point. What happens if the U.S. decides this war is over
03:49for us?
03:50We leave now. Goals have been met. But Israel considers no. Those three key goals have not
03:54been met. Will you go on fighting alone without the support of the U.S.? We're going to have to
03:58take a look at the actual results if this indeed turns into a full blown agreement and then we'll
04:06make our decisions based on those points. And what are those points? Are you working in tandem
04:11with the U.S.? That is really the question, because it seems from the outside, Israel believes this is
04:15not going to get done in a week. The U.S. is now talking about a five day until Friday.
04:20That's a big gap
04:21in the timeline. Yeah, we'll have to see. Our objectives are to dismantle the nuclear and
04:25ballistic programs, dismantle the global terror proxy network.
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