On Oct. 27, Israelis head to the polls in the first election following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 that left 1,200 people dead, 251 taken hostage into the Gaza Strip and prompted a seven-front war against the Jewish state. Three years later, Israel has achieved stunning military accomplishments against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, militias in Syria, and, most notably, against the head of the terror proxy snake: Iran.
These pivotal elections, like the five consecutive elections between April 2019 and November 2022, are again a referendum on the continued governance of Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu is presenting Israelis with a stark electoral choice: Renew his mandate to capitalize on Trump’s bold endorsement this past week or risk surrendering the strategic gains of a multi-pronged war.
Netanyahu argues that the campaign remains unfinished. Even after the blows that Israel and the United States have delivered together and apart, Tehran, he warns, could restart its nuclear program. He therefore frames Trump’s endorsement as a promise to finish what was started, contingent on his remaining in the top job.
In a wide-ranging pre-election interview with JNS, Netanyahu casts his partnership with Trump as the foundation for an ambitious agenda: to bring down Iran’s regime, further weakening its regional proxies; expand the Abraham Accords normalization agreements with Muslim-majority countries in the region; and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state anywhere within Israel’s current borders.
While the most urgent issues concern the military battlefield, Israel finds itself in a complex diplomatic position. Netanyahu relates to sanctions, restrictions on arms supplies and hostile international opinion with strategies for greater domestic weapons production, alternative partnerships and retaliation against outside pressure.
The prime minister also relates to domestic politics, including the possibility of reintroducing legislation to reform the judiciary, and building on decades of economic gains, even during war.
Next week, Israelis will once again decide if Netanyahu’s experience and statesmanship qualify him to remain Israel’s leader during these uncertain times.
JNS: This week, you’ve just received a very powerful endorsement from U.S. President Donald Trump, much of it focused on Iran and tackling the regime. Do you see an imminent return to military conflict, and do you believe that ultimately the regime could be collapsed only through military conflict?
Netanyahu: Look, we’ve battered them. We hammered them. They’re beaten. They’re crippled. They’re fighting for their last breath. So, the answer is yes, I think it can be brought down, and that changes history. Because as long as they’re there, battered as they are, they’ll try to regroup, reconstitute themselves, build again that atomic bomb program that we stopped just less than a year ago. We prevented them from launching atomic bombs on Israel. That’s important to understand.
Now comes my dear friend, Donald Trump. We have a historic friendship. People liken it to [Franklin Delano] Roosevelt and [Winston] Churchill. Now, I’m not comparing me or Trump to either leader, but I’m saying that the partnership is unmatched. We’ve never had an Israeli prime minister and an American president work so closely together because we both believe we have to remove this threat once and for all. It’s like cancer, you know, you take out a lump of cancer, which we did by knocking out their nuclear program. But cancer can come back.
So the only way that we can make sure that Israel is safe—that we guarantee the future for our country, for our children, for our grandchildren—is by removing this regime. And President Trump basically called the Israeli public the other day and said, “Here, listen. I’m committed to doing it, but I’ll only do it with this prime minister.” He said there’s no one else. So if you’re concerned, as I’m sure you are, about the future of our country, then vote for me. Vote for Machal. Vote for Likud, because it is that partnership with America that can change history and give us a brilliant future and, by the way, give us more peace treaties.
Because the stronger we are—and once we remove this regime—it’ll be very easy to knock out the remainder of Hezbollah and Hamas. Without the Iranian scaffolding, they collapse. So, we can have a brilliant future and brilliant peace treaties, but it depends on whether you listen to President Trump or not. If you do, we’ll finish the job. That’s what he said, “Let’s finish the job” and “I can only do it,” he said, “with Bibi.”
So this vote is basically either Bibi or Tibi [Arab Knesset member Ahmad Tibi]. Because our opposition cannot form a government without Ahmad Tibi and Mansour Abbas, the Muslim Brotherhood. If you think about that, then the decision is very simple.
“We’ve changed the country from socialism to a free-market robust economy.”
JNS: Your policies seem to have changed throughout the years regarding Palestinian statehood. Back in 2009, you said in the Bar-Ilan speech that under certain conditions, there could potentially be a demilitarized Palestinian state. In 2020, you stood next to Trump and unrolled the “Deal of the Century,” which you said “offers a potential pathway” to a future state. In this election, you’ve said that the choice is either “Yamin or Falestin,” the right wing or a Palestinian state. Has your position changed on Palestinian statehood?
Netanyahu: No, but I have to tell you that I maneuvered, I think, fairly deftly, and the left accuses me—and on this they’re right—that I prevented a Palestinian state. Because three American presidents wanted one: [Bill] Clinton, [Barack] Obama and [Joe] Biden. And I said, “No. It’s not going to happen.” But I had to maneuver, I think, very carefully.
When Trump said what he said, he put conditions from here to Singapore. Those 12 steps that the Palestinians—you know, they’d have to democratize, they’d have to become—I was going to say Sweden, but Sweden has become a bit Islamist lately. I mean, they’d have to become a model democracy, right? And all these other things. It’s not going to happen. He knew that. I know that.
So I’ve been opposed to a Palestinian state. I’ve been able to prevent it because I’ve been around, and all my opponents until very recently accuse me, correctly, of preventing a Palestinian state, which I’ll continue to do because a Palestinian state is a mortal danger to the State of Israel.
It’ll be simply a frontal position for Iran. Gadi Eisenkot, my chief opponent, has said that he can live with a nuclear Iran. I can’t live with a nuclear Iran. As long as I’m prime minister of Israel, there won’t be a nuclear Iran. Iran will never have atomic bombs.
But what I’m saying now and what President Trump has said now about our partnership goes further than that. He said there won’t be an ayatollah regime, period. That’s the choice.
And there’s so much dust, smoke, attempts to obfuscate the real choice here. This is the choice: You go with President Trump, who endorses me, or you go with Ahmad Tibi and Mansour Abbas, who endorse Eisenkot. That’s not a tough choice. But that is the choice.
JNS: Israel is facing diplomatic threats in addition to military threats. Just recently, the United Kingdom decided to impose sanctions on individuals and organizations that promote building in Judea and Samaria. Even the Biden administration tried to impose sanctions on individuals who support building in Judea and Samaria. How do we fight sanctions—this new type of economic warfare that the State of Israel is facing?
Netanyahu: First of all, we had an embargo. Biden came [to Israel] in the beginning [of the war after Oct. 7] and supported us. I appreciated it. But very quickly, [he] succumbed to the Islamist leftist coalition that plagues the West. And he imposed an embargo on us.
He said, “You stop. You don’t go into Rafah. You don’t complete the conquest of the Gaza Strip.” And I said, “No, Joe. We have to do it.” He said, “Bibi, I’m serious. I’m going to slap sanctions on you.” I said, “Joe, we’ve known each other for 40 years. You’re the president of the United States, and I’m the prime minister of the one and only Jewish state. You do what you have to do, and I’ll do what I have to do.” So he asked, “Well, how will you fight?” And I said, “Joe, we’ll fight with our fingernails.”
As much as I appreciate America, we’re not a vassal state, and we’ll do what we have to do.
Sometimes, I’ve even had differences with my good friend, my incredible friend Donald Trump. We’re not going to allow a Palestinian state, and no embargo can change that.
As far as sanctions are concerned, I’ve allotted about 400 billion shekels [nearly $130 billion], in addition to the defense budget, to ensure that we have our own arms industry, so that we can’t be blackmailed. And not only that, I want it underground on an industrial scale.
And guess what? Countries are coming to us. Not only the Arab countries in the Middle East, who are now coming to us because we turned the tables on everyone. Israel became, during my three-year tenure, we came from the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust to being the most powerful country in the Middle East by far, and even a global power in certain aspects. That brings the Arabs—a lot of the countries—to us, both in the Middle East and beyond.
And some of them—well, small countries like India or countries in Europe, big countries—they say, “We want to join up with you.” Because it’s called peace through strength. And guess what? Strength brings alliances. It brings peace. Weakness, retreat, you know, bowing your head before this pressure does the opposite.
So the way you overcome sanctions is being very strong, creating alternative supply routes, alternative partners and one other thing: by striking back.
Yes, Britain declared that it would have these sanctions. They haven’t yet affected them, but they declared them. What did we do in response? They were absolutely shocked. We shut down their consulate in Jerusalem, so they know we mean business.
You know, the days when Jews can be intimidated or led to the slaughter, and then receive all the vilifications that come with appeasement, those days are over. I speak up for the Jewish people. I do that in the United Nations. I do that in the U.S. Congress. I do that in every meeting I have with the leaders, and that’s a choice people have to see.
Do you think Gadi Eisenkot will do this? Do you think he can? He submitted to the leftist pressure inside Israel and said, “Let’s leave Gaza.” He was in the government and he said, “We’ll leave Gaza. We’ll let [Hamas senior leader Yahya] Sinwar go to Qatar.” I think I bombed the place where he was supposed to have his luxury villa.
But beyond that, we killed Sinwar, we killed [Hamas leader Mohammed] Deif, we killed [Hamas leader Ismail] Haniyeh. Remember the beepers? We knocked out so many of the Hezbollah leadership. We knocked out [Hezbollah senior leader Hassan] Nasrallah. Eisenkot said, “Oh, we can have a deal with Nasrallah, too.” No. We don’t have a deal with these creatures. We get rid of them.
And then he said, again, an amazing statement: “We can live with a nuclear Iran, and it was a mistake to knock out [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei.”
No, it wasn’t. And no, we can’t live with a nuclear Iran.
That’s what I committed my life’s purpose to, my adult life. That’s basically what I warned against, worked against and finally did. In [Operations] “Rising Lion” and “Roaring Lion,” we took out their nuclear program. But we have to complete the job and bring down the Iranian regime.
This is what this election is about. Who will do it? Only us. And when I say us, it’s definitely the Likud party, me. And I ask you to vote for me.
[In his endorsement,] President Trump said, “I will join you if you elect me.” That’s what he said, and he meant it. And I mean it. And we’ll do it. He cuts to the chase.
“We can’t live with a nuclear Iran.”
JNS: You’ve talked about Israel’s tremendous wins on the military battlefield on seven fronts, but you’ve also referenced the eighth front in this war: the global narrative battlefield. Israel understands that it must have a qualitative military edge to defeat its enemies on the physical battlefield. Yet it appears that Israel’s enemies have the qualitative military edge on the information battlefield. What can Israel do to gain that qualitative edge, and how can Israel ultimately win the war of narratives?
Netanyahu: Well, I think that three countries basically—maybe now a fourth and fifth—have discovered the use of bots. OK? What do the bots do? They can flood the social network with bots that poison the minds of young Americans and young Europeans against Israel. And they’ve done it fairly successfully, I have to say.
Now, you can lament it, you can say, “Wow, it’s horrible,” and so on, which it is. Or you can fight. Now, if you fight on this battlefield, if you’re faced with drones, fight with drones. If you’re faced with aircraft or missiles, fight with Iron Dome and fight with attack aircraft.
So I’ve instructed the AI center that I formed, a national center, just as I formed before that a cyber center, and Israel became the second cyber power in the world. Tiny Israel receives more investments in cyber startups and foreign investments than any country in the world except America.
And we are a cyber power. We have to be an AI power. Part of that power is fighting this battle on the social networks. We intend to do that, and we intend to win here, too. It’s possible. We have the brains, and we have the resolve because we’re not going to let them rule the day.
And [we must] create alternative alliances, too. Keep America, always. And we’ll have to resist pressures, because in two years, I doubt there will ever be a friend like Donald Trump in the White House, ever. But, first of all, use the two years that we have to finish the job, to expand the Abraham Accords beyond anybody’s imagination. At the same time, be prepared for a change and be able to resist the pressure. I think I’ve shown the capacity to do that. But I also want to build supporting systems to fight the battle for public opinion, too.
I don’t give up on America. I was going to say I don’t give up on Europe, but given what we see in France and Britain, you know, they’ve succumbed. They’re appeasers. They’re weak. And they not only succumb to the lies, but they also propagate them.
Macron called me on the day of Oct. 7, and he said, “Bibi, my friend, we’ll work towards a diplomatic solution.” And I said, “No, Emmanuel, you won’t. There is no diplomatic solution with these monsters, Hamas. And if we don’t destroy Hamas here, you will soon see Hamas on the streets of Paris.” That’s exactly what we’re seeing today.
And you can see the Red-Green Alliance taking out countries much bigger than Israel: France, Britain. And if this Red-Green Alliance that we have now—the left in Israel, joining with Mahmoud Abbas and Mansour Abbas and Ahmad Tibi—because Gadi Eisenkot and [Avigdor] Lieberman and Yair Golan, they don’t have a government without the support of these Arab parties that are opposed to our existence.
If that Red-Green Alliance wins in Israel, too, our future is in doubt. So when I talk about it, I’m not talking spin; it’s a fact. They cannot fight. They will not fight, and they’ll succumb to all the pressures that may come from America in two years. They’ll just get out of Judea and Samaria. They’ll build a Palestinian state. They won’t take out Iran. So it’ll be a Palestinian state governed by Iran right next to where you live. And it’s coming to a theater near you, unless you do something about it.
They’ll have the interior ministry, and they’ll permit hundreds of thousands of unifications of Palestinian families, and they’ll change the balance in Israel. And if you want to make sure that you have a free country—a Jewish state with room for the minorities, with rights for everyone—then we have to make sure that they don’t govern.
We have to make sure that we have a real democracy, and not one that will censor the social networks, shut down Channel 14, shut down [Radio] Galey Israel, shut you [JNS] down, too. You’re not subservient.
That’s not my position, and it never was. I want a marketplace of ideas because I think once people are exposed to the truth, they choose wisely. And the truth right now, and that’s [the voters’] choice: either the unity or the alliance between President Trump and me, or the alliance between Gadi Eisenkot and the Islamist parties.
JNS: In your last term, you advanced a package of judicial reforms. Ultimately, there were large protests, and you pulled back the judicial reform package. In a next term, would you advance another judicial reform package? Do you still believe in the need for such reform, and what might you do differently?
Netanyahu: Well, look, I think the essence of modern democracy is the balance between the three branches of government. That’s basically the idea that was produced in the American Revolution, and it’s the model for all modern democracies.
That balance was derailed completely in Israel during the last 25 years because a new doctrine came in.
It’s actually very old. It comes from Plato. He said when he saw Socrates take the cup of poison, he said, “What’s this thing democracy? The Athenian Assembly in a special committee said to Socrates, ‘You know, you’re poisoning the youth, so drink this cup of poison.’”
And 28-year-old Plato said, “This is absurd, this idea of democracy. You know, what we need is, you know, an ideal state governed by the philosopher.” And who was the philosopher? Plato. “So we have people who are raised above the people. They know what the people need.”
And this was actually the model of the totalitarian state, the Politburo, and so on. This was the idea. It was a horrible idea.
And George Washington threw it to the dogs. He just threw it away, and he said that no one is raised above the law, and no one is raised above the people. Democracy is the rule of the people. It’s ‘we the people,’ not ‘we the judges.’
In Israel, [judicial reform] was completely derailed, and we have to bring it back. We don’t have to crush the judiciary, but we have to make sure it doesn’t crush the legislative branch, the Knesset or the executive branch of government.
So we had a big fight on this and, you know, in the last year, I think we sort of recovered and did this efficiently. They said, you know, to these people, they say, “You’re going to appoint people? Who the hell are you? You’re just elected. Does it give you the power to appoint the head of the Mossad?” Yes, it does.
And we had to fight, and we won, and I brought in an incredible Mossad head, Roman Gofman. We got it through.
And we said, “OK, we’ll appoint also a new head for the Shabak, the Shin Bet.” And they said, “No, you can’t do that.” David Zini. And we did. We got that. And so it goes on.
So I think we’ve learned a few things on how to do this, and yes, I want to correct this imbalance. I don’t want to destroy any [institutional] arm; I just want to have the balance that paradoxically Israel enjoyed for the first few decades of its life. We have to bring it back; otherwise, we’ll have judicial dictatorship. No, we need real democracy.
JNS: Bill Clinton famously said in 1992 before an election, “It’s the economy, stupid.” You have led an economic revolution in this country. You have opened up the free market. But still there are many people who live in this country and see the rising cost of living. Many people find it hard to buy a home. And many people find it hard to pay their bills at the end of the month. What’s the next stage of the financial revolution in Israel, and how do you make living in Israel more affordable?
Netanyahu: Well, first of all, you touch on real things. People are concerned with this, and rightly so, because housing prices rose 20% during the Bennett-Lapid government.
As much as I appreciate America, we’re not a vassal state, and we’ll do what we have to do.
And they said to me, “No, you can’t bring it down.” I said, “Of course we can.” So we built hundreds of thousands of homes and apartments, hundreds of thousands. And as you increase the supply, you reduce the price. And for the first time in many years, housing prices went down.
Inflation is judged by inflation. We inherited from the Bennett-Lapid government an inflation rate of 5.3%. It’s now down to 1.5%. It’s probably the lowest or close to the lowest in the Western world.
Now, you won’t hear about it in—what do they call them—mainstream [media]? They’re not mainstream; they’re politicized, Channel 11, 12, 13, and so on. They said that there’s no improvement [in the inflation rate].
There is vast improvement. But it’s not enough, and there’s one response to this: It’s called competition, competition, competition.
And for three years now, I’ve been trying to get another appointment, which I still haven’t got through because the deep state really is fighting this one, and that is to change the head of the Competition Authority. Except the person who’s there doesn’t believe in the competition that I believe in. So we’ll have to change that, too.
We put in laws. New things like what is good in Europe is also good here. When you buy cornflakes in Europe, it’s cheaper than the one made here by a local producer. Why? Because in Israel, there are special molecules in the air that say that you have to have only an Israeli-produced monopoly that produces cornflakes.
No, you don’t. Now, you can buy cornflakes from Europe and a thousand other products in Europe. What’s good for Europe is good for Israel. And we just passed what’s good for America is good for Israel. Competition, competition, competition.
I revolutionized the Israeli economy from a socialist economy. And before I did that, by the way, there were no high-rises in Tel Aviv. Now, it all looks like forests. But not only in Tel Aviv. You see it in Dimona. You see it in the Negev. You see it in Rishon Letzion. You see it in Yokneam. You see it in Afula.
The whole country is responding to the reforms that we made. And after three years of war, the International Monetary Fund just said that Israel’s economy is the fastest-growing economy in the OECD.
The Economist—that really doesn’t like me—is the most important economic publication in the world, and they said that Israel is one of the three most dynamic economies in the world. That’s after three years of war. So we must be doing something right.
And I say to all those who are listening to us: If you want to continue this trend, if you want to change, the change you want has to be a good change. And we’ve changed the country from socialism to a free-market robust economy.
We’ve brought NVIDIA here; we’re bringing the biggest companies in the world. They’re coming here because they see what I’m seeing. They see what we’re doing. I know how to do this. I’ve done it, and we’re doing it now.
So, don’t buy the spins. Yes, there are problems. Yes, we can solve them. I think Israel has a brilliant future both by assuring our security, assuring the expansion of peace and definitely by assuring the expansion of free markets, and the growth of our economy and jobs and investments.
JNS: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, thank you so much for being with us.
Netanyahu: Thank you.
