Sean Hannity’s Full Interview with PM Benjamin Netanyahu

April 22, 2017  

Sean Hannity’s full show on Fox News April 21, 2017 with Benjamin Netanyahu. They discuss the reality of the Israel/Palestinian situation, President Trump and much more

Here is the video transcript of the interview…

HANNITY: So on May 3rd, the president will meet with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian authority. And here’s an interesting fact. They, A, don’t recognize the right for Israel to exist. B, there’s 36, 000 recipients — they reward as a matter of law those people that kill Israelis. I’ve read in the year 2016, close to $300 million?

NETANYAHU: Very — on an annual basis, they’re giving often hundreds of millions of dollars to terrorists or the families of terrorists who murdered Israelis, murdered Americans. It’s unimaginable. I mean, after a decade, it could be more than a billion dollars that are given to terrorists! This is from–

HANNITY: By the way–

NETANYAHU: I’m not talking about Hamas, I’m talking about main-line Palestinian authority headed by President Abu Mazen, who’s going to see President Trump in Washington.

And I think the first test of peace is to say to them, Hey, you want peace, prove it. Confront terrorism. Stop rewarding terrorism. Stop paying terrorists. And don’t finagle the books. You know, what they do is, OK, we won’t pay it directly, we’ll pay it to somebody else and they’ll pay it to the terrorists, you know, in a sort of circular fashion. No! Come clean on this. Stop paying terrorists!

HANNITY: They have to–

NETANYAHU: Repeal the law!

HANNITY: It’s a law.

NETANYAHU: Yes, on their books!

HANNITY: It’s a law.

NETANYAHU: They only pay terrorists — this is — this is the crazy thing, Sean. They pay terrorists on a sliding scale, not on the cost of living, but on the cost of killing. The more you kill, the more you get. And it accumulates to vast sums, some of it contributed by Americans, by European governments–

HANNITY: This is important because of hundreds of millions of dollars — the United States of America, the average taxpayer, we’re giving them hundreds of millions of dollars.

NETANYAHU: For — to people who–

HANNITY: Then they’re giving to terrorists.

NETANYAHU: They funnel funds to terrorists who have murdered not only innocent Israelis and others, but innocent Americans!

HANNITY: Yes.

NETANYAHU: Unacceptable! Has to change. That’s a test for peace.

HANNITY: Lindsey–

NETANYAHU: By the way, if they change, that’s significant.

HANNITY: Well–

NETANYAHU: That’s hopeful.

HANNITY: Why would you think that when he talks about every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem, we bless it?

NETANYAHU: Because they can get away with it. You know, if I say something — and not only me, President Trump, President Obama, doesn’t make any difference — in our free societies, in our open, transparent societies, if we say a syllable — I don’t even say a word, a syllable — to a domestic audience, to our base audience, than it gets beamed around the world immediately.

We’re held accountable for every word, for every sentence that we make. That’s what our free transparency (INAUDIBLE)

HANNITY: So Abbas–

NETANYAHU: But in the case of Abbas, you know, it’s like he lives in a different universe! He can say, I want peace, to Western leaders, I want peace, I’m willing to recognize Israel–

HANNITY: So he’ll say that–

NETANYAHU: — but then to his own people, he says the very opposite!

HANNITY: So he’ll see President Trump–

NETANYAHU: And you can see how different that is!

HANNITY: So he’ll see President Trump on May 3rd, and he’ll say he wants peace with Israel and that he just needs land for peace, which Israel has tried in the past.

But I doubt he’s going to say, we bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Israel, which is clean and pure blood, blood spilled for Allah, Allah willing. I doubt that comes up with President Trump.

NETANYAHU: Well, here’s the test for — I’m sure it won’t. But here’s the test for peace. When you’re dealing with such leaders, OK, or with anyone, the true test of their real intention is not what they say to foreign leaders, what they say to — what they whisper in diplomatic corridors. The real test is what they say to their own people!

HANNITY: Well, that’s the test.

NETANYAHU: And in the case of the Palestinian leadership, including President Abbas, to his own people, he says, we don’t want a state next to Israel, we want a state instead of Israel. First, we get a state. Then we flood Israel with the descendants of Palestinians. We go back to Haifa, Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Acre, you know, and so on.

HANNITY: Abbas–

NETANYAHU: That’s the end of Israel. But–

HANNITY: Abbas to his own people talks about

NETANYAHU: To his own people–

HANNITY: He also said, we won’t allow Jews’ filthy feet–

NETANYAHU: Right.

HANNITY: — as it relates to the al Aqsa Mosque.

NETANYAHU: Well, talk about religious (INAUDIBLE). You know, I — I make one very important rule, and we keep it. We guarantee full, free, unfettered access to the holy sites, to Jews, Christians and Muslims! We never say the Muslims have–

HANNITY: Right in the heart of the old–

NETANYAHU: They can go to the al Aqsa Mosque and Christians go to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher–

HANNITY: We flew right over it today.

NETANYAHU: We guarantee the freedom of religion to all with a spirit of equanimity and a spirit of tolerance and respect to all religions, very different from what they say to their own people.

HANNITY: Maybe to–

NETANYAHU: But the most important thing, how can you pay terrorists? Can you imagine?

HANNITY: No.

NETANYAHU: Can you imagine if you paid terrorists? If we paid — that’s totally unacceptable!

HANNITY: But the world pressures you to make peace with Abbas.

NETANYAHU: Fine. We — they don’t have to pressure me. I want peace. I’ve been to war.

HANNITY: How do you make peace with this guy? How do you make peace with somebody that–

NETANYAHU: You make — you make–

HANNITY: — pays terrorists and says you–

NETANYAHU: You make peace–

HANNITY: — don’t have a right to exist?

NETANYAHU: You make peace by demanding — demanding from the Palestinians to pass the test of peace.

HANNITY: I’ve got evidence. I’ve got video evidence, a clip — this is not long ago. This was October 2015, the mother of a killed Palestinian terrorist, a family that is rewarded financially by the Palestinian authority, celebrates the death of her son’s martyrdom, handing out candy, pulling out a knife, threatening her own attack on Israel.

And I’ll also play for you a clip of a October 15th again, 2015 again, a Palestinian Jordanian pre-school girl, a little pre-school girl holding a knife, saying she wants to stab a Jew. Let’s play it.

(VIDEO CLIP)

NETANYAHU: Sean, this is what they hear in the Palestinian schools. That’s the pledge of allegiance that Palestinian teachers, paid by the Palestinian authority tell them. This is what they are taught. This is what they’re inculcated with. And unless you change that, you don’t get to the root of what has been preventing peace.

It’s this persistent refusal to recognize a Jewish state in any boundary. It’s to say Israel will disappear. We’ll knife it to death. And we pay the terrorists who do so. That’s got to change not only for us but hold the Palestinian leadership accountable. Don’t let them get away with double talk. Let them say to their own people what they say to Americans–

HANNITY: Well, I liked what he said–

NETANYAHU: — to the–

HANNITY: — in October of 2015 — I’d like — I’d like him to say that to President Trump–

NETANYAHU: I’d like the–

HANNITY: — because I guarantee you he will not say that to President Trump.

NETANYAHU: OK, how about a different twist? How about if what he says to President Trump he has to say to his own people? How about if he says, Yes, Mr. President I’m going to change that law, and we’re not going to — we’re — we’re — in fact, our laws will forbid paying terrorists and I’m going to come back to Ramallah, to the Palestinian areas, and I’m going to change that legislation. And I’m going to make sure that not a penny, not a penny goes to the terrorists or their families. And I’m going to make sure it doesn’t go by circuitous ways, either. That’s–

HANNITY: Mr. President–

NETANYAHU: — a change! Sean, I would be happy. You know, prove me wrong, but prove me wrong not by nice words that are said in Washington, D.C., in front of the cameras, but the real test–

HANNITY: Mr. Prime Minister–

NETANYAHU: — change the way you pay terrorists!

HANNITY: You talk about what they tell their own people–

NETANYAHU: Don’t pay them!

HANNITY: What I tell my radio and TV audience and I’ve said for years is that for many, many decades now — and I’ve known you for decades — you have been the sole adult on the world stage with the moral clarity that recognizes the evil in our time. I think the odds of that happening are next to zero.

In part, how do you indoctrinate your own children to stab a Jew, like the tape we just played, and expect any other result than a constant lifelong indoctrination and hatred towards an enemy that you don’t even know?

NETANYAHU: If that indoctrination doesn’t change, you’re right. If they continue paying terrorists, you’re right. If they continue calling in their schools and their mosques for the eradication of Israel and for the stabbing of the — of Jews and the Jewish state, you’re right. I think that the only chance that this will change is if there’s pressure brought to them to make this real change.

If there’s pressure brought to them to say, No, we’re not going to accept just generic words, fluffy words of peace while you indoctrinate your own people with a doctrine of death. We want you to change the way you speak to your own people–

HANNITY: Well, doesn’t that–

NETANYAHU: — and stop paying terrorists. If you demand that, there’s at least a chance that there will be a change. And I’ll tell you, the first one who will welcome that change is me because–

HANNITY: You may–

NETANYAHU: — because I’ve been there. I’ve been in the battlefields, on the battle lines. I–

HANNITY: You lost your brother, raid at Entebbe.

NETANYAHU: Yes. And I was in wars. And I was in the wars between wars, in the battle against terrorism. I was shot in a rescue of hostages — our own forces, by the way. That happens in close quarters.

HANNITY: Friendly fire.

NETANYAHU: It happens. I know the cost of war. There’s no one that wants peace more than Israel. This canard that Israel doesn’t want peace, that I don’t want peace is exactly that. It’s a canard. It’s a joke. We teach peace to our children. We yearn for peace. And we don’t have double talk because what we say inside is what we say outside, and everybody holds us accountable. It’s high time that that accountability was put on the Palestinians–

HANNITY: Let me–

NETANYAHU: — that you tell them, No, I want to see what you tell your children. I want you to stop paying terrorists and their families. I want to see a change. You know, that — if that kind of demand for accountability, genuine accountability is put forward, that could make for a turning point.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HANNITY: And coming up, more of my exclusive interview with the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. Now, I asked him about North Korean aggression, the Iranian nuclear deal, and so much more.

And later — I got the chance to tour Israel from above the ground in a helicopter. That and more as we continue tonight from Jerusalem.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NETANYAHU: This is a genuine pleasure to welcome Secretary Mattis to Israel. I’ve heard a lot about him, read a lot about him. And I think this is a propitious moment. Israel has no better friend than America. America has no better friend than Israel. This is a partnership based on common values in the deepest sense of the word. We sense a great change in the direction of American policy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And welcome back to “Hannity.” Now, that was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking earlier today right before his meeting with the defense secretary, Mattis, right here in Jerusalem.

And here’s part two of our interview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

So I had an opportunity today to get on a chopper, and Israel is about the size of the state of New Jersey.

NETANYAHU: Yes.

HANNITY: Not a very big country.

NETANYAHU: Right.

HANNITY: And you’re surrounded by Lebanon and Syria and Jordan and Egypt, at times historically not always friendly countries. And when you look at the borders — at different points, we are literally a mile or two away from where some of your enemies are. Do you think most people understand the security concerns here?

NETANYAHU: Probably not because it’s hard to imagine. You just have to compress the United States to, as you said, the size of New Jersey, and then put in a lot of militant Islamists with short-range, middle-range, long-range weapons, suicide bombers trying to cross into your territory, terror tunnels being dug into you. So obviously, Israel security challenges unlike any other country.

But Israel is unlike any other country because it’s New Jersey, but it’s New Jersey with F-15s and F-16s.

HANNITY: And bigger.

NETANYAHU: Well, courtesy of American help, by the way, which we appreciate — F-35s, and a very robust army, a citizen army that is willing and able to defend ourselves by ourselves.

And this is the secret of our success. We’ve been able to, you know, throw away all these attackers, repel all these dangers by the will of our people to defend ourselves. But in so doing, we’ve found partners in the region because they’re being attacked by the same militant Islamists. And they realize that Israel is not their enemy, but their crucial ally in warding off the same threats.

So yes, Israel is small, but Israel is powerful.

HANNITY: Maybe an–

NETANYAHU: Israel is attacked, but Israel is able to defend and occasionally attack our offenders.

HANNITY: Maybe an unintended consequence — and I remember the speech that you gave before a joint session of Congress. I know at the time, President Obama was not exactly happy with it, but I thought it was one of your more powerful speeches that I had seen.

But maybe an unintended consequence of this bad Iranian deal — and I concur with your conclusions about this. A nuclear armed Iran is A-squared B-squared C-squared, radical mullahs, weapons of mass destruction threatening to wipe Israel off the map — is not a consequence the world should ever see.

NETANYAHU: I’m threatening you.

HANNITY: And threat–

NETANYAHU: And all your allies.

HANNITY: We’re the great Satan.

NETANYAHU: Right.

HANNITY: You’re the little Satan.

NETANYAHU: We’re the close-by (ph). We’re the–

(CROSSTALK)

NETANYAHU: We’re the closer Satan.

HANNITY: Right.

NETANYAHU: We’re the — we’re a mini-United States right here in the Middle East.

HANNITY: Well, the only democracy in the region.

NETANYAHU: The West stops here.

HANNITY: The West stops here.

So my question is this. As an unintended consequence, there seems to be maybe an alliance that a couple of decades ago wouldn’t have been possible–

NETANYAHU: That’s right.

HANNITY: — with the Saudis, Jordanians, the Egyptians as they fear Iranian hegemony and a nuclear-armed Iran here.

NETANYAHU: There’s no question that the deal with Iran, which paves the way to eventual Iranian acquisition of the critical elements of nuclear bombs, a nuclear arsenal, something we don’t accept and never signed on the deal and we won’t let happen — but because many in the region are threatened by that same Iran and would be immeasurably threatened more by a nuclear-armed Iran, that has brought a lot of the countries in the region to a different thinking about Israel.

And so I think this is potent with possibilities ultimately for peace, but certainly for our common security. And I think there’s a recognition of that today in Washington by President Trump, by Secretary Mattis, with whom I just met.

HANNITY: You met with him earlier, yes.

NETANYAHU: Yes. And by Secretary Tillerson. I talked to him as well. I think we realize that we face common challenges. And the greatest challenge is the challenge of militant Islam of both kinds, the Shiite variety led by Iran, the Sunni variety led by Isis.

Of the two — both have to be rolled back and defeated. But of the two, the greater long-term danger is from Iran. It’s a country of 80 million. It’s got oil. It’s got other resources. It’s developing submarines, developing precision-guided rockets and missiles. It’s developing — it’s developing nuclear weapons down the line, satellites.

That’s — have that power in the hands of a militant Islamic regime and the whole world is threatened. And therefore, you know, a lot in the Arab world understand it. We in Israel understand it. And I can say today that Washington understands it. That’s an important change.

HANNITY: That’s a — well, OK, you finished where I was going. Let me — so many instances — we see what’s happening now with North Korea, and they’re in the news. And you got Pyongyang saber rattling. And they’re out there suggesting about the United States, and they’re warning of a super-mighty preemptive strike against the U.S.

I want to do a little history lesson here because I have a tape of then- President Bill Clinton. He’d given the North Koreans $4 billion with the promise they wouldn’t get nuclear weapons. I’m going to play that tape.

I’m going to follow that tape with a tape of Susan Rice, John Kerry and Barack Obama saying the red line in the sand in Syria that that would prevent any further use of chemical weapons, that that eliminated all of Assad’s chemical weapons.

And then I’ll play Obama’s promise that his nuclear deal with Iran, $150 billion, would prevent the Iranians from ever getting a nuclear weapon.

Now, we’re wrong about North Korea and we’re wrong about chemical weapons in Syria. Are we going to be wrong on Iran and what it would mean to the world?

Let’s play those tapes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, THEN-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is a good deal for the United States. North Korea will freeze and then dismantle its nuclear program. South Korea and our other allies will be better protected.

SUSAN RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: We were able to find a solution that actually removed the chemical weapons that were known from Syria in a way that the use of force would never have accomplished.

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: Russia has been constructive in helping to remove 100 percent of the declared chemical weapons from Syria.

BARACK OBAMA, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: People may criticize us for not having, you know, launched missiles against Assad after chemical weapons had been used, but keep in mind why we didn’t. We didn’t because they got rid of the chemical weapons.

Today, the United States, together with our allies and partners, has reached a historic understanding with Iran, which if fully implemented will prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Your reaction.

NETANYAHU: I want to give credit to President Obama for the things we cooperated on, a lot of things, including signing an MOU, a memorandum of understanding, for a 10-year support for Israel. But we had our disagreements, too. And the most fundamental disagreement was about Iran.

I think the deal paves the way for Iran to get to a bomb. And I think it also paves the way for Iran’s economy to get untold billions of dollars with which they can not only fund their nuclear arsenal but also fund their aggression, which since the deal was signed has been growing in the region.

And I think — I think it’s important to recognize that. I think President Trump does. I think it’s important to take action, both political action and diplomatic action and economic sanctions action, and also to take military action, as President Trump did, against Iran’s proxy, Syria, when it used chemical weapons.

I think that is an important change.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HANNITY: And coming up, more of my exclusive interview with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as we continue from Israel.

And later today, we went up in a helicopter and got a tour of Israel and its borders. We’ll show you what we saw as we continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JACKIE IBANEZ, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, and live from America’s news headquarters, I’m on Jackie Ibanez in New York.

Right now many polls suggesting the French election is too close to call. Other polls suggesting a slight lead by the far right candidate Marine Le Pen. The election begins Sunday with two rounds of voting. President Trump giving his support to Le Pen, saying in a tweet after Thursday’s terror attack, quote, “The people of France will not take much more of this. It will have a big effect on presidential election.” French police now saying the suspect in that Paris terror attack had a long criminal record.

A note praising the Islamic State was found near his body after he was shot and killed by police. Now they’re trying to figure out if he had help in plotting his attack.

And former president Obama returning officially to the public eye for the first time on Monday. He’ll headline an event at the University of Chicago aimed to inspire the next generation of leaders. The former president has taken a number of vacations since leaving office.

I’m Jackie Ibanez. Now back to “Hannity.”

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NETANYAHU: We have common values and also common dangers. The common dangers are based on the twin threats of militant Islam, the Shiite extremists led by Iran, the Sunni extremists led by Daesh. We are committed to thwarting these dangers as we are committed to seize to common opportunity, great opportunities that I think I think are before us, Mr. Secretary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: That was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking earlier today before his meeting with Defense Secretary James Mattis. And here’s more of my exclusive interview with the Israeli prime minister.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANNITY: Bill Clinton was so wrong on North Korea, and they got nuclear weapons. And President Obama was so wrong about the red line resulting in the elimination of chemical weapons. Now just to me it makes sense, if you have the country that’s the number one state sponsor of terror, Iran that repeatedly says they want to wipe your country, Israel, off the map, and also fire weapons of the United States, burn the American flight, the Israeli flag.

NETANYAHU: And kill Americans.

HANNITY: Kill Americans.

NETANYAHU: They nearly assassinated the Saudi ambassador in Washington, downtown Washington, D.C. That’s Iran.

HANNITY: And they’re fighting multiple proxy wars against you and others.

NETANYAHU: And your allies.

HANNITY: Very true. How does the United States president to give $150 billion to the number one state sponsor of terror? I know you took him on. You still say you had a decent relationship with him, though, with Obama, President Obama.

NETANYAHU: On other matters yes, but not on this, and also realistically the way to pursue peace between us and the Palestinians. But on the question of Iran, I want to make clear, because I think this is important. Our problem with the deal, my problem was not merely that they would violate the deal, and they will wherever they can. It’s that if they don’t violate the deal, they walk into, within 12 years, into unimpeded enrichment of uranium, which is what you need to make bombs. From there, the distance to making bombs is nothing.

So I disagreed with him. And I didn’t think — and now look at what has happened. The deal has been signed. Iran’s economy is improving, maybe not at the rate that they would like, but down the line, they’re going to get hundreds of billions of dollars not only because of the cash that will flow into them but also investments that will flow into them. They will get more lethal weapons, including the deals that they signed immediately with Russia as soon as the deal was —

HANNITY: Including missile-defense if Israel and the United States and allied countries that want to take out those nuclear sites.

NETANYAHU: And if you add to that their aggression in the region — they moved into Yemen in a big way, which is a maritime route for the world.

HANNITY: And threatening the Saudis.

NETANYAHU: Not threatening, firing at the Saudis with rockets and missiles into Saudi territory. They moved into Syria. They’re trying to establish a naval base on the Mediterranean. Can you imagine Iranian submarines in the Mediterranean? You have the sixth fleet there. We have our own maritime shipping. You want Iranians there? No.

And I said to President Putin. I said it’s not a good idea.

HANNITY: What did he say?

NETANYAHU: I’ll tell you what I said.

HANNITY: What did he say?

(LAUGHTER)

NETANYAHU: I said it is not in the interests of anyone, including Russia, to have an Iranian naval base in the Mediterranean. And I didn’t hear a forceful argument.

HANNITY: Damascus, Tehran, Moscow, they get along. He props them up.

NETANYAHU: Well, I have to say that we have a good relationship with Russia. We have a good relationship with President Putin, but here’s one point where we disagree. That’s an understatement.

HANNITY: There is a new sheriff in town. You spent time with President Trump. He this week said that the Iranians are violating the spirit of the nuclear deal. And we can see that he and Rex Tillerson, the secretary of state, are now moving in a direction to get America out from under the deal. I think most of the money was transferred. How important is it that they act on that?

NETANYAHU: Here’s my position, but it’s my position. Vis-a-vis the deal with Iran, if I had to compress it to two words, repeal or replace.

HANNITY: Those are words Americans know well.

NETANYAHU: That would be my position. I think Washington has to decide its own position. But clearly one thing that has to be changed is to not let Iran have the best of all worlds, which is the worst of all worlds for Israel and the Arab countries, the United States, the world.

HANNITY: The new U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley was slamming the U.N. Security Council just yesterday for what she called Israeli bashing sessions, and tried to refocus the Security Council on exactly what you are saying, that is the threat of Iran and Hezbollah and terror, which of the U.N. steadfastly refuses to focus on.

NETANYAHU: Right. Well, first of all, it’s great that she’s doing it, and I know that this comes from her own convictions, which are real. But I think from President Trump, it’s a very strong position and it’s the correct position, because what is happening in the U.N. is a farce. Terrible injustices are happening to women, to gays, to Christians, to Yazidis, to Muslims by these horrible regimes who permeate the globs and the terrorist organizations that they support. And who does the U.N. bash? Israel, the one real democracy in the Middle East.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And coming up, the final part of my interview with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as we continue from Israel. And then later, I was given a tour from the air in a helicopter. We’ll show you what we saw as it relates to Israel’s borders. That’s straight ahead tonight on the HANNITY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIEUTENANT COLONEL PETER LERNER, IDF SPOKESMAN: Effectively we are on the tri-state border, meaning we are literally between Israel, Jordan, and Syria. The villages around us here are all controlled by the Islamic State affiliates, and we see them frequently on this hill. We see them training– acrobatics, running, and we’ve even heard them firing, shooting target practice.

It’s around 40,000, 50,000 Syrian residents that live in that area with about 1,000 Islamic State operatives that manage the area. Just a few months ago we had ISIS affiliates target and IDF control that we’re operating not far from here. They target them. They actual missed. And in our response we killed four of their operatives, took out their position. They had actually set up their position in an abandoned United Nations facility. So that no longer poses a threat. And we sent a clear message — if you mess with us, you’re going to pay dearly.

And this is just one parcel of the Islamic State which is one problem. Going further north, you have other forces linked to Al Qaeda, and going further north we have Hezbollah. So everywhere we look east from the border between Israel and Syria, we see negativity on the other side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And welcome back to “Hannity.” So earlier this week an IDF spokesman gave our “Hannity” producers a tour of Israel’s northern border with Syria. Today I asked Prime Minister Netanyahu about how his country has been impacted by the instability in the region and much more. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANNITY: It’s interesting because we see the saber rattling of Kim Jong-un and North Korea, and the threat that he made, again, a super mighty preemptive strike he’s talking about against the United States of America. And this perhaps should be factored into when we talk about Iran, and that is that North Korea has nuclear weapons. They would like ICBM capability, married to those nuclear weapons, then they would have the capability of reaching the continental United States. I guess my question is, if you have a nuclear armed Iran, how does the United States militarily stop him, Kim Jong-un, from getting ICBM capability when we know he has the capability of launching nuclear weapons at Japan, China, South Korea? How do you stop that at that point? It’s too late.

NETANYAHU: Let me talk about Iran. I think it’s immensely dangerous to have a regime that is not merely a rogue regime but one in this case, Iran, which is, I think Henry Kissinger put it best. He said it’s a cause, not a country, Iran. What is the cause?

HANNITY: The caliphate.

NETANYAHU: The cause is to dominate first the Middle East and then the world with a Shiite revivalism, and to subjugate or remove anybody that stands in their wake him up first in the Muslim world and then everybody else.

HANNITY: Convert, die, or die.

NETANYAHU: Now you say, well, that’s madness. It can’t be that in the beginning of the 21st century there are still regimes and movements, causes that believe in this madness? Is it really? Can it be? Of course it can. It is. It’s right before our eyes.

And what you see in ISIS is small compared to what you could see with Iran. They too have a cause. They think we’re the ones who should be dominated. The world should be Islamist hill, and we’re going to be king of the hill. And that’s what they’re fighting with that Iranian Shiites, who is going to be king of this Islamist hill?

But they don’t disagree that it only has room for those who adopt and accept through submission their version of Islam. So who is resisting? First of all, other Muslims, they don’t want to go down this path. And of course non-Muslims like us, we don’t want to go down that path either. So we’ve made common cause to stop these people.

But the question right now is what will happen in this battle if an Islamist state, an Islamist terrorist state, which is what Iran is, the preeminent terrorist state of our time, has the weapons of mass terror, nuclear weapons. You can imagine that this mad scheme, this mad ideology will have the powers to intimidate the world and do irreparable damage. We cannot allow that to happen. In the case of Iran, clearly it hasn’t yet happened. And if we are resolute in our policies, very firm in our policies, we can make sure it doesn’t happen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HANNITY: And coming up next, my tour of Israel and its borders from a helicopter as “Hannity” continues from Jerusalem.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Welcome back to “Hannity.” And we are broadcasting tonight from Israel. And earlier today before my interview with the prime minister, I was given a tour of the country from the air in a helicopter. Take a look at Israel’s borders.

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HANNITY: So here we are. We’re just leaving the airport in Tel Aviv. So the Mediterranean Sea on this side. This is the edge of Tel Aviv over here. We are heading up north to Haifa. And then we’ll get the proximity of Israel being surrounded by Lebanon and Syria and Jordan and Egypt.

Give people just the size and proximity of just how small a country this is, and over the years starting in the 67 war or the 73 war, how important defensible borders are for Israel, especially in in light of being surrounded by a lot of enemies. So from Tel Aviv, where is the closest border where rockets are being fired in Tel Aviv?

BRIGADIER GENERAL RAM YAVNE, HEAD OF ISRAELI MILITARY’S STRATEGIC DIVISION: Gaza Strip which is about 60 kilometers, during the last operations in 2013–

HANNITY: I was here when that happened.

YAVNE: So the last time, a few times we they hit the iron dome, and only one time it penetrated the iron dome —

HANNITY: And got into Tel Aviv.

YAVNE: But it was Tel Aviv metropolitan.

HANNITY: To give someone maybe in the United States a little bit of perspective, the landmass of Israel is probably the size of a state like what, New Jersey?

YAVNE: Like New Jersey, yes. Only three states in the U.S. which are smaller than Israel. And so all the others are much bigger.

Here you can see the roofed city. The red roofs are Israelis settlements here. Inside Israel, it’s inside the red line. Then you see the green line, you see the wall, and behind the wall is the city. So you see how it’s connected to each other. It’s less than 200 meters between the Israeli community and the Palestinian community on the other side of the fence.

HANNITY: And then if you plan to the right with the camera then that goes to the Mediterranean. That’s an eight-mile width. Understood.

When people in the United States, they talk about land for peace, what are they talking about in this general area?

YAVNE: Because of the city, which is a huge one, it is very clear that the line would be very near what we see today. It will be included in the Palestinian side. The depths of Israel in this area will be only an eight miles. This is the real point for the Palestinians. Israel will lose its ability to have any depth in this area.

HANNITY: Well, eight miles is not a defendable border. It’s impossible.

YAVNE: It’s a border, and when it is coming, the terror of using rockets and so on, it’s very close to the target. Their ability to defend Israeli cities from rockets and missiles might be launched from the Palestinian side is very narrow because of the proximity.

This is an Israeli community from one side. On the other side you see a village, this is a Palestinian one. In between there is fence, but before 2003, I think, there was no fence at all in that area and a lot of suicide bombers came from this area.

HANNITY: In other words, right here at the top of the hill is an Israeli neighborhood, right to the right is a Palestinian neighborhood, and you have a border fence in between, and it is basically a separation?

YAVNE: Today there is a separation across borders in some areas here. Before this line was operated, you can see.

HANNITY: You’ve got an Israeli city, you’ve got a Palestinian city? Is that a mosque in the Israeli area?

YAVNE: It’s an Arab community.

HANNITY: So the mosque is in —

YAVNE: In the Arab community there are many, it’s a free country religiously.

HANNITY: We’re going to land. We started in Tel Aviv and we’ve made our way around the west, Jerusalem now where we’re over at this point. Mount of Olives, the Temple Mount, the Knesset we just passed, all of which is 20 miles away from Jordan. There really is no space.

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HANNITY: Coming up, more “Hannity” right after this break as we continue tonight from Jerusalem. We’re in Israel on the road.

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HANNITY: Welcome back to “Hannity.” Unfortunately that is all the time we have this evening. As always thank you for being with us. We’ll be back in New York on Monday from Jerusalem in Israel. Anyway, it’s “Hannity” on the road. By the way, Tucker’s new 8:00 p.m. eastern show will begin on Monday, and don’t forget “The Five” at 9:00 and we’ll be at our regular time, 10:00 eastern on Monday. Set your DVR so you never miss an episode of “Hannity” from Jerusalem. Have a great night and a great weekend.

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