yesterday with president obama, and i m very happy with the progress of those talks. larry: all right. but abbas isn t the only leader we have to concern ourselves with. would you sit down with hamas? i ll sit down with anyone who will recognizes my existence. somebody who calls for our destruction, my destruction, is unfortunately, not a partner for peace. larry: so you would not sit down hamas that calls well, you know, would you sit down with somebody who said we want to destroy the united states. now come and talk to us? larry: do you think they can that can change at all? do you think there s some way secretary mitchell senator mitchell maybe somewhere in between can get a little tempering of the language? i mean, we re trying for the same result here, nobody gets killed hopefully. i think in the case of hamas, it s basically a proxy, a terror
same result here, nobody gets killed hopefully. i think in the case of hamas, it s basically a proxy, a terror proxy of iran. iran openly calls for our destruction. it denies the holocaust. it sponsors terrorism everywhere. it brutalizes its own people. hamas, by the way, does the same thing to the palestinians in gaza. they don t really have a choice. they can t really vote the hamas out. they can t decide their own fate. but look at what is happening in the west bank with our cooperation. you know, we removed i removed hundreds of checkpoints, hundreds of road blocks, and the palestinian economy on the west bank is just booming. i mean, there s coffee shops, there s shopping malls, there s e-businesses, you name it. it s growing at about 8% or 9% a year, which isn t bad these days. and i m very happy for that. and i want to add on to that a formal peace, peace with security and prosperity. hamas is totally the other way around. they are you know, they re subjecting their own pe
countries alike. larry: what s what about hezbollah, lebanon, that four years since the war with hezbollah and lebanon. are you still concerned about them? unfortunately, yes, because it is basically an iranian terror proxy. look, lebanon was the switzerland of the middle east. it s a very beautiful country. it had robust economy. and iran has moved its surrogates, hezbollah, into lebanon. it has piled weapons there. they fire those weapons on israel. and they undermine any attempt at moderation and any movement towards peace. we always hoped that lebanon we always said we don t know who the first country to make peace with israel, which country that
peace, economic blessings, the human blessings of every sort. but today the context of the peace is made perhaps more likely and more possible because of this common enemy that threatens israel and arab countries alike. larry: what s what about hezbollah, lebanon, that four years since the war with hezbollah and lebanon. are you still concerned about them? unfortunately, yes, because it is basically an iranian terror proxy. look, lebanon was the switzerland of the middle east. it s a very beautiful country. it had robust economy. and iran has moved its surrogates, hezbollah, into lebanon. it has piled weapons there. they fire those weapons on israel.
i think in the case of hamas, it s basically a proxy, a terror proxy of iran. iran openly calls for our destruction. it denies the holocaust. it sponsors terrorism everywhere. hamas, by the way, does the same thing to the palestinians in gaza. they don t really have a choice. they can t really vote the hamas out. they can t decide their own fate. but look at what is happening in the west bank with our cooperation. you know, we removed i removed hundreds of check points. hundreds of road blocks. and the palestinian economy on the west bank is just booming. i mean, there s coffee shops, there s shopping malls, there s e-businesses, you name it. it s growing at about 8% or 9% a year. which isn t bad these days. and i m very happy for that. and i want to add on to that a formal peace. peace with security and prosperity. hamas is totally the other way around. they are you know, they re subjecting their own people to