Israel’s president defends ongoing war: ‘If it weren’t for us, Europe would be next’

Israeli President Isaac Herzog warned Tuesday of the existential threat the world faces from Iran-backed Jihadist groups as he defended the country’s response to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.

“This war is a war that is not only between Israel and Hamas. It’s a war that is intended, really, truly, to save Western civilization, to save the values of Western civilization,” Herzog told MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera in an interview.

“We are attacked by Jihadist network, an empire of evil, emulating from Tehran with its forks in Lebanon with Hezbollah, with Hamas in Gaza, with the Houthis in Yemen. This empire is in Iraq, and this empire wants to conquer the entire Middle East,” he said. “And if it weren’t for us, Europe would be next, and the United States follows.”

In the interview, Herzog underscored the difficult decision Israel faces as it seeks to take out Hamas and retrieve the hostages held captive in Gaza, while acknowledging militants are deeply infiltrated among civilians in the territory, which has resulted in the mass death and displacement of those civilians.

“We didn’t want this war. God forbid. We went through hell. But we have to defend our people and enable everybody to go back to the region and live in peace. That’s what we are doing for the sake of the entire world,” he said. “But at the end, it’s a very, very cruel and complicated and mind-boggling decision.”

Israel has stirred growing anger around the world with its ongoing attacks targeting Hamas, which have killed some 16,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health figures. Much of the population of more than 2 million has fled to the south at the urging of Israel, but now the war is also shifting south, heightening concerns about civilians.

Herzog said that some 150 hostages — taken during the Oct. 7 attack, in which Hamas fighters killed some 1,200 people in Israel — were still “in a city of terror,” referring to Hamas’ vast tunnel network underneath the strip.

“We have to get to them. And, unfortunately, there are civilians there. So, we’re taking all the necessary precautions,” he added.

Herzog pointed to precautions like dropping millions of leaflets in Arabic, sending texts and making calls to every household — but he did not have a direct answer when pressed repeatedly about where civilians are supposed to go, barring the designated safe zones.

“I mean, it’s very easy to judge Israel, and if it happened in your neighborhood or in your city, you may think otherwise,” he added.

Herzog also mentioned the horrific and gruesome testimony of sexual violence recounted by witnesses at the United Nations on Monday, making the case that the war is also to defend women and liberal values.

“And may I add the horrific testimonies, we heard yesterday in the United Nations when what happened to women in Israel, who are mutilated, raped, molested, attacked, shocked, burned and abducted, is the real battle we are holding,” he said.

“Because we are here to defend the values of liberal societies, of LGBTQ, which Hamas fights endlessly, of women and children and free people, who all they want is peace, and they are times – and time again attacked and attacked and attacked.”