Piers Morgan Calls For Two-State Solution And Asks Israeli Spokesperson Mark Regev How War Will End

Summary

In a compelling segment from 'Piers Morgan UnSensitive,' the debate intensifies over Israel's future and the possibility of a two-state solution with Palestine. The dialogue highlights Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's firm stance against a Palestinian state, insisting on Israeli control over territories west of the Jordan River. Amidst growing tensions, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak calls for Netanyahu's resignation, fearing prolonged conflict. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev defends Israel's actions, emphasizing security and the destruction of Hamas as key objectives. The segment underscores the deep divisions and complex dynamics at play in one of the world's most intractable conflicts.

Takeaways

• 🌍 Piers Morgan discusses the necessity of a two-state solution for lasting peace in Israel, emphasizing rights for Palestinians equal to Israelis.
• 🔊 Benjamin Netanyahu's rhetoric suggests a move away from a two-state solution, focusing instead on full Israeli security control over territories west of the Jordan River.
• 📞 Following a conversation with President Biden, Netanyahu insists on Israeli security control, contradicting the possibility of a Palestinian state.
• 💬 Netanyahu's stance receives support from hardliners in his party, who view discussions of a Palestinian state as rewarding violence.
• ✊ Protests and demands for Netanyahu's resignation intensify amid criticisms of his approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
• 🕊️ The script references former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's plea for Netanyahu to resign for the future stability of Israel.
• 🛡️ Israeli government spokesman defends Israel's right to self-defense and security, highlighting efforts for peace based on reality.
• 🤝 Mention of Israel's peace agreements with Arab countries as a positive step towards regional peace, potentially influencing Palestinian views.
• 💥 Discussion on the impact of the war on Gaza, including civilian casualties and the destruction of infrastructure.
• 🚫 Critique of Netanyahu's leadership and policy directions, with calls for a new approach to achieve a sustainable and peaceful resolution.

Q & A

What is the main point of disagreement between Netanyahu and Biden regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict?

Netanyahu believes Israel must have full security control over all territory west of the Jordan River, which precludes a Palestinian state. Biden believes a two-state solution is still possible.

How does Netanyahu justify rejecting a two-state solution?

Netanyahu says Israel must have complete security control over the territory for its own protection, given the threats in the region. He believes this clashes with Palestinian sovereignty.

What criticism does the Israeli opposition have of Netanyahu's stance?

They say Netanyahu is pandering to hardliners to cling to power and has prevented discussion of long-term strategy. They warn Israel will sink in the Gaza quagmire without defined political goals.

How does the spokesman defend the high number of Palestinian casualties?

He claims Israel does not deliberately target civilians, and civilian deaths are unavoidable in war. He accuses Hamas of using human shields and inflating civilian death tolls.

What are Israel's war aims according to the spokesman?

To destroy Hamas' military capabilities, bring back hostages, remove Hamas from political power in Gaza, and destroy the Hamas-ruled Gaza enclave.

How does the spokesman explain Netanyahu's low approval ratings?

He says Israelis overwhelmingly support the war aims despite political divisions. Fighting Hamas unites left and right.

Why doesn't Netanyahu give interviews to non-American media?

The spokesman claims he is focused on winning the war. But Netanyahu has found time for American media interviews.

What solution does the host propose for the conflict?

He believes a two-state solution with equal rights and an end to oppression is needed for lasting peace, though he condemns Hamas' actions.

What accusations does the host level against Israel?

He accuses Israel of rhetoric and actions of an occupying power in Gaza, contributing to radicalization.

How does the spokesman defend Netanyahu's leadership?

He claims Netanyahu is focused on achieving decisive military victory over Hamas and has the support of a united Israeli society.

Outlines

00:00

📺 Piers Morgan interviews Israeli spokesman on Gaza conflict

Piers Morgan interviews Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli government, about the conflict in Gaza. They discuss Israel's stance against a two-state solution, Netanyahu's rhetoric against Palestinians, Israel's right to self-defense and Netanyahu's refusal to compromise on security control over Palestinian territories.

05:01

🤔 Discussion on number of Hamas militants killed in airstrikes

Regev claims Israel has killed 9,000 Hamas militants but is evasive about civilian casualties. Morgan challenges the accuracy of these numbers and presses Regev on how Israel can be so precise about Hamas deaths but not civilian deaths. Regev defends Israel's efforts to avoid civilian casualties.

10:01

😤 Criticism of Netanyahu's leadership and path to resolving conflict

Morgan cites criticism of Netanyahu by former Israeli PM Ehud Barak for having no clear political goals and leading Israel into an abyss. Morgan questions why Netanyahu hasn't resigned despite low approval ratings.

Keywords

💡two-state solution

A two-state solution refers to the proposal that Israel and Palestine become two independent states, living side-by-side in peace. This is seen as the basis for a lasting peace between Israel and Palestinians. However, Netanyahu has abandoned this idea, instead claiming that Israel must control all territory west of the Jordan river. This clashes with Palestinian hopes for an independent state.

💡security control

Netanyahu insists that Israel must maintain full security control over all territory west of the Jordan River. This includes the West Bank, which Palestinians hope will be part of their future state. Netanyahu argues this is necessary for Israel's security. However, it precludes Palestinian sovereignty.

💡Hamas

Hamas is a Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza and is considered a terrorist organization by Israel. Hamas and Israel have engaged in violent conflict, including rocket attacks from Hamas against Israel and Israeli bombing of Gaza. Israel seeks to destroy Hamas' military capabilities.

💡civilian casualties

There is dispute over the number of Palestinian civilians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza. Israel claims to avoid civilian targets, but there have been many civilian deaths. Netanyahu argues these are due to Hamas using human shields, but there are accusations Israel has not taken enough care.

💡hostages

Hamas is holding Israeli hostages captured during the conflict. Israel seeks to secure the release of these hostages held in Gaza. However, many are still being held, causing protests from families in Israel.

💡Gaza Strip

The Gaza Strip is Palestinian territory under Hamas control. It has faced severe Israeli bombing during the conflict. Israel seeks to destroy Hamas' infrastructure and political rule there, but this has caused massive damage and civilian deaths.

💡war aims

Israel's war aims include destroying Hamas' military capabilities, securing the release of hostages, and removing Hamas from political control in Gaza. However, critics argue Israel lacks defined political goals for ending the conflict.

💡approval ratings

Netanyahu's domestic approval ratings have fallen to around 30% - very low for an incumbent leader. There are calls for him to resign. However, his party still supports the war aims against Hamas.

💡Labor Party

The opposition Labor Party in Israel has criticized Netanyahu's government over economic issues but does not oppose the war against Hamas itself. This shows some political unity over the war aims.

💡peace agreements

Netanyahu argues that Israel's recent peace deals with Arab states like the UAE show Palestinians should also make peace. However, the conflict with Hamas has continued despite these deals.

Highlights

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Transcripts

well good evening from London good to be

back in our Capital City Welcome to

Piers Morgan un sensitive there could be

no meaningful and Lasting peace in

Israel without a two-state solution that

is surely a fundamental fact it means

both sides of Mis intractable conflict

recognize another's right to exist it

means that Palestinians have the same

rights as Israelis enshrined in law it

daes the Flames of burning resentment

which rage across the Middle East and so

much of the Muslim world and in doing so

it would ultimately make Israel a safer

place place but prime minister Benjamin

netan has abandoned all pretense of a

two-state solution with increasingly

asendur rhetoric he's made it crystal

clear that he sees only one state from

The River To The

Sea I clarify that in any arrangement in

the foreseeable future with an accord or

without an accord the state of Israel

must have security control over the

entire territory west of the Jordan

River that's a necessary condition it

clashes with the principle of

sovereignty this weekend Netanyahu

doubled down again President Biden spoke

to him for the first time in a month

emerging optimistically from the phone

call to say a two-state solution is

still possible even with Netanyahu in

charge but then Netanyahu responded by

posting this I will not compromise on

full Israeli security control over all

the territory west of Jordan and this is

contrary to a Palestinian State and the

hardliners in his own party are backing

him to the hilt they say that even

discussing a Palestinian state is

rewarding violence and putting a price

on terror but that is the text but

rhetoric of an occupying power it's

precisely the dynamic that has

radicalized Palestinians against Israel

there is no moral defense of Hamas and

no justification for its barbaric attack

on October the 7th I've made that

repeatedly clear but there's also no

defense of calling Palestinians Human

animals for claiming there are no

innocent civilians in Gaza over for

saying the common goal of all Israelis

is to erase Gaza from the face of the

Earth all genuine comments made by

supporters of Netanyahu since the War

Began Leto looks increasingly like he's

clinging to power and pandering to the

hardliners in his cabinet to keep his

job former Israel Israeli Prime Minister

ehu Barak today told Netanyahu in the

name of God go warning that Israel will

sink in the Gaz of mud for years to come

if he continues to lead the country

protesters today storm the Israeli

Parliament to demand netanyahu's

government does more to secure the

return of their loved ones still held

captive by the very people he vowed to

eradicate yes Israel must defend itself

every country has that right and Duty

he's right about that but he must also

recognize that the war cannot go on

forever Hamas is both a proponent and a

product of Oppression without freedom

and rights more radicalization will

surely follow one of Israel's most

distinguished leaders once wrote that an

open-ended allout war in Gaza would be

Hollow and self-defeating the Hamas

leaders would come out from their holes

and declare Victory among the ruins he

said who was it that wrote those words

Benjamin

Netanyahu well joining me first to

discuss this is Israeli government

spokesman Mark reg Mark regev good to

see you uh and a belated happy New Year

we haven't spoken this year A lot has

happened since we last spoke I have a

simple question following Benjamin

netanyahu's rhetoric in the last few

days which is what gives Israel the

right to believe that it should exercise

this kind of control over Palestinians

rights to have their own

State the right of self-defense the

right of my country to live in security

the fact that we have to base peace on

realities and not some sort of pip tream

and the reality will always be for the

foreseeable future that Israel lives in

a tough neighborhood and any peace

understandings reached that don't take

that into account and aren't built

solidly on security and an infrastr

structure of security no such peace can

survive right but but is this open-ended

then is this forever is Israel's

position now a totally implacable there

will never be a two-state solution

because Benjamin netanyahu's words

certainly suggest

that so you've seen and you know that

over the last half decade we've seen

peace break out between Israel and a

series of Arab countries the UAE Bahrain

Morocco uh you've seen talk of a peace

agreement with Saudi Arabia which the

Saudis despite the current fighting have

still said is is on the table now we

believe as Israel moves and is accepted

more and more by the Arab world and this

is ultimately a very very positive

process that that will also affect

Palestinian opinion and the sort of

extremism that Kamas represents will be

destroyed in this war will be

discredited and that will give room for

moderates and we want to see the

Palestinians join the circle of Peace

but a peace that is based on reality not

on pipe trims how many Hamas terrorists

do you think you've

killed so there are a couple of hundred

that we killed on our side of the border

on that first terrible day of October

7th and in the the following days

immediately after that Massacre uh we

had to take them out we those people who

invaded our country and so forth and

since the operation in gas started we

think over 9,000 of kamasa military

Fighters their armed terrorists we've

we've taken out and and killed right so

less than a quarter of hamas's believed

force of 36,000 or so uh depending on

which numbers you believe but my point

being the amount of Devastation both in

terms of uh human life that's been taken

including civilian life of women and

children over 10,000 children is believe

may now have been killed if you

extrapolate this to where to the end of

Hamas which is what your mission

statement is to eradicate a mass these

numbers are going to get to catastrophic

levels and leave nothing left in Gaza

are

they I disagree first of all the numbers

are Hamas numbers and and have to be

taken with a grain of salt fromus would

have you believe that you know the

over with respect so so are your numbers

you don't know you've killed 9,000 Hamas

terrorists can I tell you when we've

made a mistake with numbers we we've

corrected ourselves you don't know

you've killed and a half thousand do you

you can't that is that is that that that

is the intelligence information that we

have we think that's an accurate number

it could be more it could be less but

that's I mean people are always asking

us for our numbers if we don't provide

them people say what are you hiding well

how how many you know okay just to push

you on that if you can be that precise

about the number of Hamas terrorists you

must also know how many civilians you've

killed so how many civilians do you

believe you've killed no but it's a

little more complicated if if a Hamas

fighter is wearing civilian clothes is

he civilian if he's a 17-year-old man

with an AK-47 a 17-year old boy I should

say with an AK-47 is he a child or is he

a combatant in other words Kamas plays

with the numbers they want you to

believe that they're all children

they're all women uh no Israel does not

Target innocent civilians Israel does

not Target gaza's civilian population we

target Hamas now have there been a a a

civilian caught up in the crossfire

between the Israel Defense Forces and

the Kamas of course they have there

hasn't been a war in history without

unfortunately people being caught up in

the crossfire without civilian

casualties but are we making in Israel

an effort to avoid that of course we are

for us every civilian death that's a

tragedy but for Hamas who deliberately

uses Gaza civilians as human Shields

it's not a tragedy it's their strategy

they deliberately embed themselves under

School under hospitals in civilian

neighborhoods even under let me let me

how does this war end it's only today

you dozens of family members of hostages

held by Hamas still well over a hundred

being held storming into a finance

committee meeting in the knesset

Jerusalem shouting you won't sit here

while they are dying there so nearly

half of those hostages have still not

been uh brought back you've only killed

by your own figures you've killed a

quarter of Hamas terrorist so three

quarters are still there your mission

statement is to eradicate Hamas um the

infrastructure of Northern Gaza has been

pretty much obliterated similar thing is

now happening in the South again I just

ask you what does what does Victory look

like how do you know when you've won

this war how does the world

know so in in the northern part of the

Gaza STP we've already destroyed hamas's

ability to organize in uh to operate in

large scale military formations we've

destroyed their battalion I we've

destroyed their brigades you still have

the Odd Squad or two that can cause

problems but as an organized military

force Kamas does not exist in the

northern Kaur strip in the coming weeks

we will achieve the same uh victory in

the center and the South and then we'll

move into a campaign of counterterrorism

of counterinsurgency because ultimately

Kamas will be defeated as a military

machine and Gaza will be free of Hamas

as a ruling power and I've said this

before we simply cannot live next to

this Terror Enclave just as you wouldn't

want to live next to some sort of Isis

caliphate on your border we refuse to

live next to this Hamas Terror State on

ours ehu Barak who ran Israel says for

around three months now prime minister

Benjamin has prevented discussion of the

day after in the inner cabinet this is

unconscionable the IDF cannot optimize

the probability of winning when there is

no defined political goal the absence of

a realistic goal will end up mid and the

Gaza Quagmire fighting simultaneously in

Lebanon and in the West Bank eroding the

American backing endangering the Abraham

Accords and the peace agreements with

Egypt and with Jordan this kind of

conduct drags Israel security into the

abyss and he says this when prime

minister netanyahu's approval ratings

are languishing in the early 30s which

is similar to President Biden's in

America and is believed to be the lowest

number of any incumbent president who's

ever had to run for reelection so these

are bad numbers you know have former

Prime min mins of the country demanding

the Netanyahu resign um I suppose the

obvious question is why hasn't he I mean

would it not be easier for everybody if

he stepped aside now and let somebody

new come in and try to guide this to a

conclusion which can actually

work you know it's interesting because

I'm familiar with the polls that you

site and others but the truth is as

following if you ask Israelis do you

support the war aims is articulated by

the Israeli government which is to have

hamas's military machine destroyed to

bring all the hostages home and and to

destroy this this Kamas ruled Enclave on

our South to destroy their political

rule you get overwhelming support from

left to right to center 80 90% of

Israelis I heard today the leaders of

the Israeli labor party they they

proposed no confidence in the government

over economic issues but they don't

propose no confidence on the the waging

of the war and the war aims on on the

contrary Israeli Society is United that

Hamas must be destroyed as a political

and military force and you can

understand why because when Kamas

crossed the border on October 7th and

started killing us they didn't ask us if

we supported netan or we opposed him if

we're left or right if we're religious

or secular if we supported judicial

reform or opposed judicial Kamas just

killed everyone they found and I think

for Israelis we have our passionate

debates in this country just as you have

in Britain and people have democracies

around the world of course we have our

passionate political debate Ates But

ultimately I think October 7th was a

moment when Israelis understood you know

we have enemies and there are people

young soldiers now fighting in Gaza

against Kamas some of them are leftwing

some of them are right-wing they're of

different political opinions but we

understand as a country we have to get

this done Kamas must be destroyed it

must be removed from power we must do

everything that we can to get the

hostages home you always get sent out Mr

regev to defend Israel and you do so

every time and I give you credit for

that uh Benjamin Netanyahu despite

repeated requests from this program to

do another interview I interviewed him

in March um nothing hasn't given a

single interview to a non-american uh

television network is it not time that

he answers some tough questions

himself well he's answering tough

questions every week to the Israeli

media which you know is just as tough as

the British Media or or the American

Media he's been doing these regular

press conferences and asking answering

Jour journalist questions but I'll

ultimately I mean he he's focused today

on winning the war and he's I see him go

in and out of War cabinet meetings and

that this is the big picture because

ultimately it's important that people

understand what Israel is doing and why

we're doing it no I understand that but

he has most important thing is to win

yeah but he's given is to win he's found

time to give interviews to American

Media I think he should give one to

European media I would just like to once

again given that you do come on every

time that we ask you and I give you

credit again for doing that if you could

just pass on that request and I think

you should

I promise to pass on the request sir

thank

you