President ial candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks to supporters at a rally in New Hampshire. The final major event before the Granite State first in the nation primary. Watch live and 19 eastern o cspan, cspan now oideo app ort cspan. Org. Israeli president isaac herzog discussed the war with hamas and global secc forum annl meeting in davos, switzerland. This is about 40 minutes. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] good morning. President herzog, its the fit time in davos at very critical time for israel and across the middle east. Looking at new efforts in israel, allow me first to command your lifelong commitment to driving positive change for your country. You have successfully bridged and connected the gaps among diverse groups in Israeli Society by identifying always Common Ground and shared also bt and out, very outspoken about your commitment to creating a lasting peace with the same timp has been instrumental in advancing your countries notably, you make history as the first ever israeli state visit to the United Arab Emirates in january 22, just one year ago. Mr. President , the atrocities by hamas on october 7 shook the world to the interested to hearu how your country sees the conflict Going Forward and what updates there are on the release of hostages. Top of our mind is also what steps are being taken to maximize the protection of civilians and the delivery of humanitarian aid. Mr. President , thank you again for being those tough times with us and we look very much forward after your speech we will have a conversation with my colleague, borge brende, the president of the economic forum. And you. Thank you. [applause] thank you very much, professor klaus schwab. Here be, before the atrocities of seventh of october, the terror attack that really hit israel very, very badly. So maybe lets start, mr. You so is, who is of the feelings doubt among israelis . Lets start there. World was shn seventh of october. I can say that we were celebrating a jewish holiday, the feast of the we were awakened into a huge shock, which didnt, we didnt comprehend fully, and we havent overhead and yet asn. It was 6 30 in the morning. Sirens all of a sudden blew up in the silence of the morning of the holiday, or people are on vacation. Little did we imagine that we would see such terrible horrors, that we will see something that humanity hasnt seen for generations, that we will see something that is hit the jewish people and the state the highess been killed since the holocaust. And these are the facts, meaning weve seen atrocities, barbarism, sadism,ape, op families. In one of the houses that was burned, there are barbed wires around a whole block of ash. This is a fight people family. ■c and most of all the hostages, this is today celebrating one year to his birth exactly year ago he parents, parents, his mother and his father and his brother. And his whereabouts are unknown. We kw he was kidnapped by hamas. We know that the barbaric terrorists have taken him and his mother and his brother and his father was in a differentpl. We know that theyre going through hell, and we dont knw their whereabouts, and the enemy who supposedly advocates that he, as a cause in life is basically advocating jihadism, celebrating and glorifying terror, celebrating and glorifying the abduction of kir, and from herhi world stage i called upon the entire universe to work endlessly to free tonight and all the hostages that are there, about 100 fixax 100 fix by n. Thank you very much, mr. President. That you for sharing this. Also as professor schwab said in his introduction to you, i have you always have been someone that is said that we need peace in the middle east, and that the war is still ongoing in gaza. How do you see an end of this war and also thats probably related to the situation for the hostages. There are 100 hostages, probably less. As we have 136 hostages who six hostages go either including four on the 2014 war, including muslims, including women, foreign nationals, young girls, older women, Holocaust Survivors connected to the holocaust. So you have from oneyearolds the 85yearold. People of peace, many them are ad of peace, a major advocate of peace, he would work in gaza. These communities were burned and ruined and brought advocated endlessly working for peace with the palestinians. So if we look at, on a birdseye view of the war that we are seeing, its not only between israel and hamas. I will deal with israel and hamas, the issue is, and the world has to face it pointblank, with no, its and butts, there is an empire of evil emanating in tehran, spending billions of dollars in arms and money and peoples wellbeing to derail the entire stability of the world and the region. They attacked the United States forces two nights ago, openly. They have proxies all over the region quietly lurking to undermine any Peace Process the, that is exactly what we are seeing, and have to be faced by very strong coalition. Hamas is one major element of this jihadist isis tech culture who ssi to launch a war against the wellbeing of the only nation state of the jewish people, butchering and murdering jews and muslims alike in the most barbari we have to uproot them and enable a Better Future for the palestinians who are our neighbors. We dont shy away from the fact that the palestinians are neighbors. Rage is really not about his mental or her mental state, nobody in his right mind is willing out to think about what would be the solution of the peaceants to know, can we be promised real safety in the future . Every is really wants to know that you will not be attacked in the same way from south east. You have up in the north on depth to its neck by iran financed by iran and firing ongoing and killing civilians and killing soldiers, and going to war with israel. And then there is the world tends to focus and time goes on but the truth is thatefightinge universe, for the free world. I always say if israel was not there, europe will be next. Because these barbaric jihadists ut of the region and want to get all of europe out of its place as well. And United States is next, too. So this war is something of an essential elemen of humankind. Mr. President , the war in gaza has now gone on for 100 days. I think israel is not immune either to the International Criticism of the humanitarian organizations in gaza. So there are 2 Million People now living under very, very tough conditions, and many of them didnt support hamas. So what is your message to those that are also now suffering because they didnt even support hamas . So i have a message to allt o the palestinians. I have been advocating and calling for peace with our neighbors for years. I said it in my speech in a in a joint session of cons the 19th of july just before the war, hair is the main impediment to moving towards peace. You cannot accept terror directly or in justify. It has to be totally stopped and out of the question. And the problem is that there are societies, there are people when they support hamas they support terror, sime terror against lgbtq or against any other human being or against anyone who is jewish, israeli, or the like. This has to be a car message to the world. Terror is unacceptable. Now, we therefore went to war because we see a war machine of a humongous structure right in gaza, huge cities of terror underneath, tunnels that are higher than the size of the new york subway system. That means billions of dollars that had they gone to life abovt beautiful region in the world, and moved to peace. But instead they opted to go to tear. It was taken over by hamas in a coup detat in■c■ 2007 azy to the last iota, and from then on he became a platform of terror for iran and all its proxies. From then on we had thousands of missiles on our head. From then on we reached this barbaric moment on this october 7, and now we go in according to our right of selfdefense and in every house. You pull up in a bedroom, you pull up the bed, you find a missile. A missile, hundreds of i do where you go they can press a button and chuck missiles on israel like we had this week. We pulled out from the center. We have missiles. So we have to understand if we have the right to defend ourselves, its an go catch the terrorists, clean up the houses and bring back their citizens. That is what were trying to do. Im not shy away from t gaza. And you want to know something . We care. We care. We eight is pain for us that our neighbors are suffering so much. But how else c we defend ourselves if our enemies decided to entrench in an infrastructure of terror of unbelievable size and scope . Its a very complicated battle. Everywhere we go, in shops, living rooms, and bedrooms, in schools, in, schools you see we have even isis flags in schools and symbols. I presented to mein kampf in living rooms. And a recent brochure that we found in directed by hamas, how to run summer camps. Summer camps for children. You have to instill in them the values of jihadism and resistance which means terror. So lets agree, if the world wants to keep the order false world war ii and a decent men it has to fight terror and support finding care. And look at the houthis. Because the houthi issue is number one priority. ■p because it raises the cost of living for every family in the universe. A little tribe of 50,000 people amassed with weapons of an d pi norway has such weapons, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, drones. What the hell is going on here . What is at this . White is where unraveling a huge a system of evil to unite e know is difficult what we are with israel to get the things done and im very, i welcome very much the fact that the and Coalition Fighting the houthis. Because its an issue that makes clear that terror cannot be acceptable anymore. So, mr. President , some people would say that it was a mistake in 2005 when tehran pulled out of gaza and also open up for elections, andas came to power. But then of course this also has led to less momentum also for a twostate solution because hamas has been there. If youkndsight, should that a bn handled differently . I owe you an answer also on the dominican be sure. Will come back. Okay. Because i would to relate. I will say that when we look, and meditation is towards the future, we have tried many, many alternatives in our dealings with the palestinians. We tried agreements and we trie. I think now is the time that your demand also must be presented to the palestinians to show that they really mean adn g and reforms in the Palestinian Authority. And we cannot go back to the same good old ritual of fighting hamas and god for bid returning to another round of battle. We have to offer a future of two israelis and palestinians, and the future that we can l forward to the world like our agreements in the regional come in the region agreements like the Abraham Accords, project to real prosperity and a real bright future. So, mr. President , what would you say to those that say that israel left hamas then when the selection and accepted them . There, i understand a lot of the criticism about that, clearly. And on the other hand, because its becoming out a Major Political debate issue, i would not want to allude intot is clear that we have to support those who extend their hand for peace and are willing to go with us to a brighter future. We cannot accept a vision we cannot, however, lets take the Palestinian Authority for that matter, okay . Because hamas is out of the question. We have to make sure that tnot e and hate jews and israelis. They cannot be that way and, therefore, they must be faced with that as well but otherwise of course we have indigo sheet with those who have always been potential partners in, for that. So how do you see the end game of this war in gaza . I know its hard, but ward needs also to end. Do you see then that p. A. And plo taking over responsibility of gaza, or do you see still israeli idf forces being an gaza, or is it too early. Was first of all you have a war right now. Israel has pulled a substantial part of its forces in the northern region, and our focus is focused mostly in the southern. Where we assume that some of hamas leadership is a bea we should see a horizon of a coalition of nations who are willing to commit to rebuilding, enables safety and wellbeing of israel. Number two, enables safety and wellbeing of the palestinians, and brings a future, a different future to gaza. You need strong western forces. You need strong regional forces. Adventure there will also be a dialogue with palestinians from gaza and palestinians,an author. How is that cooked into a formula that makes sense is exactly the issue thats being discussed right now all over the world in very, very intimate discussions. We all understand the has to be a vision, and i think part of it should be also going back to the normalization pross of israel and its neighbors in the region. I think its part of the package, that requires to support israels efforts to undermine the capabilities of hamas, and it is come back to the humanitarian situation, problems getting you manage and support to the crossings, the border close. You want to elaborate on that . I think theres immediate need, urgent need for food, water, medicines and, of course, you also want to make sure that this comes to the and its so we are committed from day one to upgrading and assisting the humanitarian supplies to gaza as much as possible. First, lets remind our dear audience here that from day one israel according to the rules of ternationa identified safe zones so that the citizens who are im involved can move there so that we can go in and uproot the terror infrastructure that w noe quantities. However, there are dire situations the need to be met naturally under warne we have committed to the entry of convoys of trucks carrying humanitarian aid. I myself went to the nhtsa on a crossing with anita to see how we are screening these trucks. Today we can screen up to 400 trucks a day. That means about 20,000 tons of goods unfortunately, it has to go to ruffle which is another passage we opened up despite the risk of order. And fortunately, support the International Community did not manage to meet the ability to get to 400 trucks a day. Usually there are rent 200 trucks a day. There was a last week three or 15. Were doing our best, our best to enable entry of huge quantities of humanitarian needs to gaza. Its also about six field hospitals, two marine floating hospitals that weve enabled, water supply which weve enabled including desalinization project been extremely helpful in theas humanitarian situation as well. Now the big problem apart from that is how to deliver the food, gaza strip without being shot up in one of the main routes for humanitarian roots underneath. Unraveled huge sums of two efforts of that was stopped and need alternative route and we are working on a closely with the United Nations and all the other agencies closely. I would also goe in and all of the other hostages are not even getting any help at all in any way former mentor. Now we are praying that the medications that is being supplied with france and qatar and International Agencies and others in gaza will reach them . But thats only the beginning. Israelis are asking themselves hoome the hostages are not getting anything . So im giving you an interesting information that two days ago close reading with representatives of the red cross in israel, in the region who came to a meeting with the families of hostages and hostages who have returned back, to discuss the dire medical situation of the hostages, real dire medical our hostages. That meeting was very emotional, was very interesting. We went into indepth discussion about the mechanism of how the red cross operates and how it can help under the limitations of this war zone and its ability to have a dialogue with all parties concerned. I hope it the ability to help the hostages. It doesnt depend on us. We have a very cruel, sadistic enemy who a decision to try to torture the Israeli National psyche as well as the hostages themselves. Thank you, mr. President. I think the future of the hostages and key element also it is. In ending the gaza war. Either way its an important common. Clearly, the solution of the release of the hostages is a key element in this crisis here people must not forget it. Mr. President , we have known each other for decades and a no, you always have been also a man that has been advocating for peace. And you even have been advocating for a twostate solution when that was not the key topic in israel. Today, we saw this terror attack on the seventh of october hitting israel very hard, andt a terrible situation. But then reflecting on the situation where the last decade there has been no momentum for the thinking because the argument has been, you know, we got the abrahams the courts come things also look better with the neighbors. Do you think Abraham Accords 50 think one estimate the impact of not having a political process for twostate solution and there is no new momentum for atts premature and you said that yourself and to do for the respect that. Because of the war. But there needs to be a path also for peace in the future, and the path that you were on su in this work of course the polarization in israel made also israel more vulnerable because it wasnt ready for this. The focus of maybe somewhere else. I know theres a lot of speed the israeli political system is always very interesting, i would say, full of debates and arguments on so many topics of the day and various agendas. I would not cant in any way directly or indirectly that this terror attack is connected to any political process. Hamas has always objected to any political process with the palestinians. I i think it comes from sheer jihadist ideology that wants to eradicate jews in israel. Its under their its under their belief, and perhaps at times we may have been even naive enough to think that hamas maintain itself or it hasnt. u parallel to that and separate from that altogether, there are many questions that israelis are asking themselves. Withdrawals . Didnt prove itself . These are legitimate questions. Is it true, is it really true that the paradigm is necesi sary only withdrawal or political things like that . When you pull out you get terror. Thats what they saw. We pulled out of gaza. We got terror. If the paradigm thats clear. We got 10,000 missiles on our