Transcript for July 30

MR. GILLERMAN: I, I think that this may be the case in some cases because, obviously, the initial reaction would be against Israel. But the first question I must ask Mr. Feldman, who has written this very articulate article, is what would he want us to do when our soldiers are kidnapped, when our towns and cities are shelled, when our children and women are specifically targeted? What would he want us to do? What would any country do? What would the United States do if Miami was bombed from Cuba, or if Chicago, which is your third largest city, would be bombed the way Haifa, our third largest city is, from Canada? Would you send them postcards? Would you send them flowers? Or would you react as any democracy would in order to protect your people and in order to retrieve your soldiers and in order to try and put an end to that threat?

And, quite frankly, I’m not sure that the Palestinians or the Hezbollah need any incentive to hate us. When you look at their curriculum, when look—when you look at the books their children read at school, when you look at the horrible incitement which is in there, you realize that these people are taught and born and raised and educated to hate us. I believe that no child is born wanting to be a suicide bomber. No mother gives birth to a child dreaming that one day he’ll become a shahid, but when that’s the way you raise the children—your children, that’s the way you teach them, this is what happens. So they don’t need much incentive to hate us. I don’t think they loved us before.

We have nothing against them. We have no fight with the Palestinian people; we have no quarrel with the Lebanese people. We want a prosperous, vibrant, entrepreneurial, prosperous Lebanon next to us. But in order for that to happen, they have to rid themself of that horrible monster which has grown within them and which, at the end of the day, has caused them so much pain and suffering over the years. Once Hezbollah is removed, we will make every effort, together with other countries, to rebuild Lebanon, to see it renewed and restructured. And hopefully one day we can live together so that their children can go to school without the fear of rockets and our children can go to school without the fear of Katyusha rockets.

MR. RUSSERT: The issue of restraint by Israel in light of what happened overnight, in light of what happened on Tuesday with the United Nations outposts, an Irish Army officer said that he warned Israel six times about the presence of U.N. observers at that outpost, and he suggested and so did the secretary-general of the United Nations, that Israel hitting that and killing the foreign U.N. observers was apparently deliberate. Was Israel warned six times by the Irish Army officer? And why did Israel proceed to still fire on that U.N. outpost?

MR. GILLERMAN: Next to that evidence or testimony by the Irish Army officer, there’s also an evidence by a Canadian officer who was sadly killed. But before he, he was killed, he sent an e-mail in which he said that there was bombing near them, but they were not being targeted, and the bombing was because there was Hezbollah activity right there, just as there was Hezbollah activity in Qana today.

We have a film which we will release very shortly which actually shows a missile which is being, being launched right from behind a three-story building there, very similar to the one that was hit. Israel never deliberately targets civilians, and Israel certainly did not deliberately target the U.N., the U.N. personnel.

I think that Kofi Annan’s—and I’ve said it before—Kofi Annan’s statement was unfortunate, hasty, irresponsible and appalling. I think he retracted it. I spoke to him only two days ago. He told me about his talk with the Israeli prime minister, and I think that after that, he realized that he made a mistake and he took it back. No. The answer is no.

MR. RUSSERT: He has, he has not publicly taken anything back so far.

MR. GILLERMAN: He, in a stakeout which he did two days ago at the U.N. and answered questions, he, he did not repeat that, and he actually said that he accepted the prime minister’s explanation and was waiting for the results of the investigation. We do not target U.N. personnel. We do not target civilians. It is our enemies who specifically target women and children, and when we do it, we apologize. I did not hear Hassan Nasrallah apologize for any dead Israeli, except for two Israeli/Arab children who were killed in Nazareth.

MR. RUSSERT: This...

MR. GILLERMAN: So it’s OK to kill Jews/it’s not OK to kill Muslims. We don’t accept that distinction.

MR. RUSSERT: This, as you know, this is day 19. Has this been a much more difficult, tougher military exercise than you had expected?

MR. GILLERMAN: It has been very difficult, and it has been very tough, but not tougher than we expected. (Clears throat) I’m sorry. We knew, and we’ve been warning the world over the last six years, that the Hezbollah was amassing a lethal arsenal of weapons supplied to them by Iran through Damascus. We warned that they were preparing and building bunkers and tunnels for the next, for the next fight. We knew this was happening. This is why we were insisting that the United Nations implement resolution 1559, which calls not only for the withdrawal of the Syrian forces from Lebanon, but also for the total disarming of Hezbollah.

And the reason that it’s taking so long, Tim—and that has to be very made, made very clear—is because we’re being very cautious. We’re being very careful. We do not want to hurt civilians, and exactly because of that—you know, we could have sent in our air power. We’ve used maybe 5 percent of our power. We could’ve sent in and totally erased those villages. We’re paying the price of our soldiers for the sensitivity, for the caution, and for the care which we are showing in order not to hurt civilians. And even in Qana, we’ve asked those people to leave. And we are very, very careful. And it is because we are careful, because we care, because we are sensitive that this is taking longer than it would under different circumstances.

MR. RUSSERT: Israeli ambassador Dan Gillerman, we thank you very much for the views of your government.

Now let’s get...

MR. GILLERMAN: Thank you very much.

MR. RUSSERT: Let’s get the view of Lebanon. Their special envoy, Ambassador Nouhad Mahmoud, is with us.

Mr. Ambassador, will Condoleezza Rice, the American secretary of state, be welcomed to Beirut anytime soon to resume negotiations?

MR. NOUHAD MAHMOUD: Well, we were expecting Condoleezza Rice today in Beirut, but, unfortunately, that happened. Sure, we are calling always for political solution and intervention and negotiation with, through the American is very important for us, because they are the, the main superpower who can have connection with both sides.

MR. RUSSERT: Do you expect her to come to Beirut? How soon?

MR. MAHMOUD: Maybe not today, but sure. Any cease-fire or any solution will need direct American intervention. And we were waiting for that today, and unfortunately you see what happened.

MR. RUSSERT: Maybe tomorrow or the next day?

MR. MAHMOUD: We hope so.

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