Israel’s President Isaac Herzog told Sky News on Sunday that Israel expects “all our allies” to stand side by side with the Jewish State in its fight for survival, with as much commitment as Israel has shown in fighting to rescue hostages from dozens of nations kidnapped by Hamas.
Herzog spoke with Sir Trevor Phillips in an interview on the UK-based news outlet against the background of the increasing tensions on Israel’s northern border, and the fact that the UK has suspended arms export licenses to the Jewish State for use in military operations in Gaza, claiming violation of international humanitarian law.
“Hezbollah started this war,” Herzog pointed out. “It started following the horrendous attack of Hamas on October 7, and Hezbollah since then has been bombarding us endlessly.
“Almost 100,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their homes. The entire North has been shattered.
“We kept on being restrained and restrained and restrained, but something has to end. We have to bring our citizens back to their homes. That’s the most natural obligation of any nation to its citizens,” he emphasized.
“The simple message of Israel: we do not want war. We absolutely did not seek this war. We do not want to get into a war with Lebanon, but Lebanon has been hijacked by a terror organization which is also a political party in Lebanon called Hezbollah.
“It’s been armed to its teeth by the Iranian empire of evil, and all of these leaders who were eradicated on Friday by the Israeli attack, all of these leaders were meeting together in order to launch the same horrific, horrendous attack that we had on October 7th by Hamas, by burning Israelis, butchering them, raping their women, abducting and taking hostage old people and young, and little babies – so this is exactly the same plan that they’ve been planning for years under the empire of evil of Iran,” Herzog said. “So we are fighting, actually the war for the entire free world.”
“We are working to change this equation, meaning we have to bring our hostages back from Gaza, and we have to make sure that this attack does not recur from Gaza, and we have to make sure that this attack does not recur again from Lebanon. That’s all there is. It’s very simple, and life can go on in a peaceful manner on an internationally recognized boundary between Israel and Lebanon.
“I believe our friends should understand that we are fighting their war too,” Herzog said.
“In the long term, you have to understand that there is an empire of evil which really thinks and believes as part of an ideology, in the jihadist ideology, in conquering the Middle East and moving on into Europe and the rest of the world. They call you Satans. They want to plant bombs in your cities all over the world.
“Hezbollah has terror cells situated in countries all over the world and you ask yourself, why? How come Iran armed a tribe in Yemen called the Houthis on the shore of the Red Sea, and they’re affecting the cost of living of each and every British family or European family or American family? This cannot go on.
“We expect that all our allies will be side by side with us in combating this terrible situation and fighting like we are to bring back our hostages home.
“There are 101 Israeli hostages, already 152, days they are in the dungeons of Gaza.”
