Only joined us live in progress. You see a lot of outside counsel from iran and others. Therefore this is a tragedy that is extremely painful to all of us. In a split second, we could have celebrated three heroes who managed to come back home. That is what i want to follow up, you described it as a tragedy, as a major mistake. My question is are you confident that the rules of engagement are sufficient, are you confident that the way that is really forces are operating is such that this will not happen again . Pres. Herzog first of all, i trust the israeli army. Our sons and daughters are there. 350 thousand israelis like you and me of all age groups, all the way up to age 95, have left to their home. People are brought up as soldiers to maintain humanitarian law, to obey strict rules of engagement. Never judge someone, a very jewish saying, never judge somebody until you come to his place. That terrain is extremely dangerous, it is all boobytraps, rpgs all over the place, all kinds of equipment. Huge concrete infrastructures underneath. People come out of it. It is all detonated. You cannot judge. You can say it is a huge tragedy, mistake, make sure you check yourself before you take such action again. Believe me, the soldiers and commanders, they were all put on the spot by this, the national reaction. I trust the army, that they will do whatever they can. Mary how are you, mr. President , prioritize and rescuing the remaining hostages in gaza versus what israel has articulated as the chief goal of eliminating hamas . Pres. Herzog i think it goes parallel. The fact that we have gone into gaza, the fact that there are negotiations, there were negotiations, we brought back 121 hostages. Now we have to do another effort. As i said, you are dealing with someone who is not thinking in the same manner like you and me or the average person who says, ok, it is the opposite. The psychology is such that they will do whatever it takes to torture you, to make you suffer, to ache. It is nerveracking on families, in a democracy, in a nation that cares for every human being. On the other hand, somebody who really doesnt give a damn about the people in gaza, only wants the mission, wants to be a leader in history. That is what we are dealing with. I have said it today and i will repeat, israel is willing to enter another humanitarian pause , bring in additional humanitarian aid in order to bring back the hostages. The entire responsibility for this is with his people. Mary this is news. As you said, you said earlier today you are leaving with ambassadors from 80 countries and said israel is ready for another truce in exchange for hostages. Is that an official offer, is that on the table, where does it stand . Pres. Herzog i dont Say Something without i am the head of state, so i am responsible for what i say. Right now, we know there is an effort by brokers. I dont know much more than that because i am not involved in the details, but i know that Prime Minister netanyahu met with families of hostages one hour ago and peed in the fact that they have already sent the head of mossad to europe twice in order to reignite the process. But one has to understand the situation. We dont intend to stop our attacks on hamas in order to undermine their military capabilities or their abilities in gaza. We intend to change the course of history. If they refuse to go into any negotiations hostage release, exchange, etc. , we will continue as such with no limitations. Mary i just want to make sure i understand better pres. Herzog i did make it clear that he is willing to go into another humanitarian pause. Now the responsibility lies on the others. Mary is that also Prime Minister netanyahus position . Pres. Herzog if i Say Something, i dont say it out of nowhere. I guess the president of israel said something, i guess it is quite responsible. Mary so the current status is, this offer is out there and you are waiting for a response . Pres. Herzog i dont want to go into details. Truly i am saying, i am not involved in the nittygritty. In general, there could be another window of opportunity. We saw yesterday three old men, aging 80 to 85, in a video clip that was sent out early by hamas. They said, under gunpoint, what they had to say as part of the psychological warfare of hamas on the israeli public. We are a resilient public, we understand the effort to drive us nuts. We would simply say the following. We want to bring the hostages back. This is a basic humanitarian duty. That is what the people of morality do. Bring them back home. We will do whatever it takes through various means to bring them back home. This is what we are trying, one of the main ways to do that, is simply by having another process with hamas. Mary one more on this before we move on. Why now . Why not an offer of another truce, why not earlier . Pres. Herzog we had many efforts, all the time. Truly, hamas did not want to. It is their problem because we are going into khan yunis or and more. More and more. We just completed a total conquest. We intend to take over the entire gaza strip and to change the course of history, enabling israelis and palestinians living peacefully in the future without the platform of iran driving everyone down into the abyss of bloodshed. Let us all remember what happened here in 2005. Israel pulled out of gaza unilaterally, approving our brothers and sisters living there for decades, telling our nation that it would be the new hong kong of the middle east. Instead, in a coup detat, one of the most brutal ones, hamas took over. Since then, we have had thousands of missiles on our head, recurring rounds of battle. So, now, this has to end. In order for israel is to live in peace on our border. Mary you will have seen last week where President Biden warned that israel is losing support International International support because of indiscriminate bombing, his words. Would you share where you were when you heard that, what went through your mind . Pres. Herzog first of all, i dont think we are carrying out any indiscriminate bombing. All of our plans are followed closely by legal counsel. I think we are one of the armies that has more lawyers in each unit in proportion than any other army. We check all targets, we alert people in advance, we send millions of leaflets, we send millions of text messages, we call people, give them hours to prepare. If it is questionable, we prefer not to carry out the attack. Unfortunately, in such intense areas, there could be damages that are very tragic. We know it. But according to international law, we warn people very cautiously so there is no indiscriminate bombing. We seek advice, Exchange Opinions and views with our partners. One thing is clear. The people of gaza are not our enemy. The enemy is only hamas. We are fighting hamas and its partners. Mary i hear you saying that israel is taking every percussion it can to alert people, send out leaflets to tell people where to go, to get hours to prepare. How should we square that, sir, with last week, one of the deadliest strikes in a residential area in Southern Gaza near the border crossing, where civilians were told by israel to go, because they were told you will be safe there. Told repeatedly. The United Nations has more than 20 people were killed in that strike, what im referring to. Why is israel striking areas where it has told civilians to go . Pres. Herzog i dont think the information of the United Nations is correct. Mary it is not correct . Pres. Herzog the United Nations has been to various agencies, some of them more biased, some of them less. We can talk about the United Nations in this hour, believe me. There are many questions regarding the United Nations. But there is a huge area that was defined as a safe zone for palestinians to go, according to the humanitarian corridors. They are mistaken completely. It can occupy hundreds of thousands of people. The United Nations refused to cooperate, turning that into a humanitarian zone, but we have made it into a humanitarian zone in rafah. It is the biggest amount of smuggling of armaments and weapons, including smuggling of hamas operatives. We have alerted the place well in advance. Rafah is not excluded from the war but we are not going there now. Therefore, the information that you raise with the United Nations is wrong. Mary again, which piece of it is wrong . The number, the 20 that were killed . Pres. Herzog the fact that every palestinian was hurt, it aches me, very painful for me, believe me. I say that as the head of state of israel, where our enemies come from. But even the last few days, missiles were fired from the safe zone area by hamas on our families, on our homes. Even in the safe zone, even from u. N. Zones, they are firing missiles from the parameter of those zones. We made a special effort not to hurt civilians as much as we can and we alert them well in advance to mitigate any consequential damage because it hurts us. Mary do you hear the questions on peoples minds, that israel is being too callous about civilian casualties in gaza . Pres. Herzog i reject that. I know what the world is saying. I see the onslaught of campaign, on tiktok, other sites, digital platforms. I say that information coming out of gaza usually is incorrect to say the least. It does not say there are no tragedies. It is a dire situation in gaza, its extremely painful. I am very much aware of it. But what else can we do . We tried any possible venue not to go to war. But on the seventh of october, the most brutal, treacherous, sadistic, and barbaric attack was launched on us, our recognized International Boundary since 1949. And the most peaceloving people in israel where the biggest supporters of peace with gaza and the palestinians. They were terrorized andchopped, Families Together burned, raped, abducted. What is more, this is a tragedy that has befallen my people. I go out an icy agony in every corner of my country. In order to protect those citizens, in front of an empire of people which emanated in front of our eyes, which operates not only in gaza, it operates in lebanon and now blocks the major trade route going to europe and the red sea, which means we have to go to war, unfortunately, send our sons and daughters to fight there in order to get the mob out of the city and clean the place up, so that we can all live in peace. Mary president herzog, what does israel intend to do with gaza once your troops are fully in control on the ground there . Pres. Herzog there could be many alternatives. It is everyones discussion, in the Atlantic Council in institutions, and the like. There are many ideas thrown around in rooms, predominantly in many important rooms in washington, in israel, and the entire region, in europe, and it is being tested. That is the Main Objective of the visit of the National Security advisor Jake Sullivan over the weekend. I personally would differentiate between the military side and civilian side. Why . I think we have to be reasonable about who exactly is going to send the boots on the ground from outside to take over gaza. It is a complicated question. As long as there is no answer to that, only israel can make sure that terror will not emanate again and again and again from that area. That is a military question which has to be taken into account. Until you have a full solution, and a full solution will have to be discussed in no way that any force that comes in, works in a forceful manner. Not sitting idly by like we see on the border of lebanon, enabling them to do whatever they want. That is one issue. Then there is the civilian issue. How do you reconstruct gaza . How do you rebuild gaza . How do you make it into a place where people can dwell and live in a dignified manner and have a future together with israelis . Let us remember, in the last two years, before this treacherous attack, israel opened up its borders and brought in well over 20,000 employees a day to break bread and work in israel. It turns out many of them gathered information on israeli employers, cities, towns, and the question is how do you create a real economy and future in gaza without hate . If the question is who runs gaza at the end of this, it sounds like the answer is we are working on it i think there is a lot of work being done, teams working on it. Many have come to the table. It will have to probably be an animal good nation of forces working together and coming forward with a solution. Including regional players. I think it is something that can create a vision for the future. We have to turn the direction into a different direction. We have been focused on gaza, as has much of the world. I want to throw you a question or two about the violence in the west bank. When i was there reporting, we visited a town and interviewed a palestinian farmer. He told us he was being blocked from his land, from his olive trees. He tried to show us. As we walked, my team and i were surveilled by a drone, about a dozen Israeli Soldiers pointed their guns at us and separated the farmer from us, detained him, handcuffed him, blindfolded him, and question him for hours. Why are they doing this . I would be very cautious in general about israeli activities on the ground. We have to understand what we went through as a nation. What we have gone through as a nation. I think that is missing. The discussion about the day after is a Major National trauma. Israelis who believed in things throughout their lives, israelis who are neighbors with palestinians, woke up one day and found the same palestinians they were working with or living with, sporting, coming with knives, hatchets, and guns, and killing and torturing them. It has impacted the entire situation on meeting points between israelis and palestinians until things calm down. Yet there is a major scar within the Major National psyche. They cant trust his or her neighbor. That is why it was such a major alert in the west bank. With respect to complaints about violence in the area, israeli authorities, the legal authorities have clamped down dramatically. Including issuing a legal tool not known in the u. S. Called administrators without due process on certain israelis. In order to lower the tension. But you should also be aware there is a lot of tension. It is mostly women and children there, and somebody gets close to them, they are getting on alert. That is part of the tension you have seen on the ground. I suppose the basic question is is israel doing enough to stop israeli settler violence . There is a major clampdown and the trajectory has been substantial. But i also would be very careful on generalizing israelis who live in the west bank. There are about half a million of them. 99 are not involved in any of this. Those involved are under investigation. I heard so many numbers. The fact of the matter is that the numbers are different. In just a minute, i will take audience questions. I know we have people weighing in with things to ask you. I would like to throw one Bigger Picture question. I read with interest a piece you wrote for the New York Times in which you said we in israel find ourselves at a Tipping Point for the middle east and for the world. And at the center of what is not left in the next to chesters struggle. It is not a battle between jews and muslims and not just between israel and hamas. Would you elaborate on that . Who is the struggle between . Between two civilizational powers set of values. One is the values we all adhere to. Meaning the free world, within the family of nations. Meaning the postworld war ii order of nations. That includes civil liberties, but in our country with us, not democratic. And the opposing force is a force of evil, which is a jihadis culture which believes in the total eradication of jews, christians, and moderate muslims from the face of the earth, which believes we all have to be wiped out from this region. And if we are out, europe is next, and the u. S. Definitely. The ostrichlike behavior by so many people who dont understand hamas is this concept and they support people who hang lgbtq, who burn churches, who do not have any accommodation to any other belief or religion, and has carried out these this horrific violence, atrocities on the seventh of october. And i will put a focus on something else, they are part of this empire that emanates from tehran that has its proxies in lebanon with hezbollah and syria, and iraq on the border with jordan. And most importantly, in yemen. They are affecting the pockets and costofliving of every family in the world. They are increasing the cost of living expenditure of every household in the world by the fact they are blocking a major trade route, which is the red sea. That is why im pleased why the announcement of the secretary of defense, general austin, for the fact he has announced they have amassed a coalition of relations nations to block this attack. I believe if it doesnt work, there will be a need for power projection to the who these. That seems a good good moment to open it up to audience questions. A bunch are coming in. Let me throw you the first. This has to do with have you gathered additional intel explaining how such a grave incursion managed to occur on the seventh of october in such an undetected way . We are a nation who has gone through major errors in the past, but we have the ability to regenerate, rejuvenate, and have soulsearching and fact searching all the way deep down. This is basically what were doing apart from focusing on the battlefront. There are many discussions and many inquiries. And there will be a Major National inquiry to find out exactly what happened. But a lot of stuff is coming out. It is a lesson to all of us who check our paradigms every so often. Locked into our paradigms. But we have to check them. We are forwardlooking people. We hope for peace. We are looking for the trajectory of the inclusion of israel in the region. We believe the engine of the inclusion of israel in the region is strong. But unfortunately, we were dormant to the fact that there are enemies and people who think otherwise, and most of what they think is simply barbaric and sadistic. There is no justification. You can argue with me on anything, on settlements, borders, anything you want.