i believe that other parts in the coalition do not share the same view as smotrich and ben—gvir. coalition because of many internal problems, let's say. he's indicted and many other problems. so, here he is not... i don't believe that he is adopting their view. maybe you're just refusing to accept reality. some time ago, you said, "there is a struggle over the soul of israel. "the nation is in danger of breaking in two." seems to me, if it breaks in two, you might be on the losing side. do you believe so? i will never lose — never. we will never lose. i think that though we are as being a liberal, we are, as being a liberal, as we live in a democracy, i believe that the majority, the vast majority — more than 80% of israelis — believe in democracy and believe in liberalism. so, i don't see it as a real threat, but it's a potential threat that we have to deal with. tamir pardo, we've run out of time. i thank you very much indeed forjoining me on hardtalk. thank you. thank you very much. hello. tuesday brought no shortage of heavy downpours to many parts of the uk. but over the nex

the finance minister bezalel smotrich and itamar ben gvir, the minister for national security.hat he'd been working up a plan against the two israeli ministers, as part of the last conservative government until the general election intervened. but he said he didn't agree with the labour government's restrictions on arms sales to israel. i think there are perhaps other things we can do to put pressure on on netanyahu and say, look, of course we respect your right to self—defence, but we do want you to act within the law. and in fact, before i left office, we were i was working up sanctions on these two ministers. minister smotrich and ben—gvir, who when you look at what they say, they have said things like encouraging people to stop aid convoys getting into gaza. they've encouraged extreme settlers in the west bank with the appalling things they've been carrying out. and so actually saying to netanyahu, yes, we support your right to self—defence. no, we're not going to end the sale of arms. but actually, when ministers in your government who are extremists and behave in this way

there was on social media comment by the national security minister, the far right itamar ben gvir, thatian assets. but people point out that israel is fighting on two once, in gaza and against hezbollah, in lebanon as well, —— two fronts. but there is confidence in the military and its ability to respond, particularly when it comes to its air defence capabilities. meanwhile, the situation in gaza continues to get worse, with the un top humanitarian official saying that the entire population of northern gaza is "at risk of dying". we population of northern gaza is "at risk of dying".— population of northern gaza is "at risk of dying". we have had stron: "at risk of dying". we have had strong condemnation _ "at risk of dying". we have had strong condemnation of - "at risk of dying". we have had strong condemnation of the - strong condemnation of the israeli's ongoing military offensive in the far north of the gaza strip, particularly affected has been one of the few hospitals that are still functioning in gaza, and what we have been hearing is that the israeli raid that began a day ago is

there was, on social media, comment by the national security minister, the far right itamar ben gvir,ge iranian strategic assets. but people point out that israel is fighting on two fronts — in gaza and against hezbollah, in lebanon as well, but there are others who place confidence in the military and its ability to respond, particularly when it comes to its air defence capabilities. meanwhile, the situation in gaza continues to get worse, with the un top humanitarian official saying that the entire population of northern gaza is "at risk of dying". we have had very strong condemnation of israel's ongoing military offensive in the far north of the gaza strip, particularly affected has been one of the few hospitals that are still functioning in gaza, the kamal adwan hospital, and what we have been hearing is that the israeli raid that began a day ago is now over there, but that many of the male medics who worked at the hospital have remained in israeli detention, some patients detained, as well, and there is footage which we cannot verify, which does show a lot of damage to the buildi

and there he empowered the far right, essentially the ben—gvir ideology, the smotrich ideology. occupied west bank over to them. he practically said that, go ahead, annexe it. in fact, we don't consider settlements to be a violation of international law, as the un says. do you remember all that? and then they had to walk a lot of it back. and so, you know, moved the embassy tojerusalem from tel aviv. basically did a whole load of things that previous american administrations refused to do pending a final settlement of the palestinian—israeli conflict, because many of those areas are what the world and palestinians have set aside for their state. christiane, to to take it back to what impact this might have on the american election. i'm really interested to hear from you what you think the impact is on american voters. i've noticed going around talking to people that donald trump's talking points that america shouldn't be involved in foreign wars and shouldn't be the world's policeman, funding other crises as well, is coming through a lot, and notjust from big trump supporters. i

generation knows that what the current course that we've been on of just enabling the government of ben-gvir, the government of netanyahu that was being protested by the israeli people leading up to october 7th, just acting like, well they're not, they're not, they're not, they're not against his policy of of prosecuting this war to the end. so that's wrong. they were against certain other things he did. and as a politician, that's a whole different discussion. but as far as what he's doing now and finishing a war that he didn't start, if you concede that israel does have a right to exist mentioned israel wanted a two state solution from the beginning they gave gaza back. it wasn't theirs. they weren't running it. what did they do when they had their own state gaza was a palestinian state they just used it to attack israel that's the that's why it's well, let's let's just have a cease fire. the best time ever to ever have a cease fire is right after israel gets attacked well, i think what's important to realize to what, frankly, bill sinwar is dead thankfully, we are all thankful for that ul

netanyahu, because of political reasons, because he's so rely on the most extreme political in israel, ben gvir and smotrich will continue the war without bringing the hostages back home. this is, this is very, very sensitive and if you're missing the point, it's not coming back anymore. and we saw what happened in the north. we killed nasrallah, which was great enemy. and it was very important, but we didn't use the minute. and then, you know, it become so in gaza, right now we are in a very good position. we need to take an offensive political solution. what israel wants from gaza. what do we agree to do in order to achieve it? how we are going to work with qatar, with egypt, with the united states in order to change the reality in gaza, to bring the hostages back home, and to bring somebody else to control gaza, not hamas this will be a victory. >> major general. thank you for coming and joining us. i really appreciate it. and up next, we'll check in here from the ground in tel aviv, but also back in the u.s. fox news tonight is disputing a claim that donald trump made about networks status

i mean, they have called again and again, people like ben—gvir smotrich, for israel to go for the maximalisther it be hamas, hezbollah or iran. and i think they sensed that there might be an opportunity this time to really go after some of the targets that mr netanyahu himself has wanted to — the iranian nuclear programme, for example, and to really inflict the kind of damage on the iranian authorities, on the iranian leadership, that it would find hard to come back from. again, as lyse was saying, i mean, the one reaction that i�*ve seen, and i think it gives an indication of where the more right wing, even far—right elements might go, is from the opposition leader, yair lapid, who is seen as a moderate and who has said that the operation should have gone further, that it should have hit economic targets. it should have really hit iran where it hurts. it hasn�*t made iran pay enough for what it did on october the 1st. and within that, also back in april, its missile, drone and rocket attack on israel then and its use, its manipulation of its proxies in the region, whether it be hezbollah, h

it's i'm our ben, ben gvir, who is one of the most influential figures in the netanyahu coalition, hard very hard line he's welcomed the action is praised the military for doing this. but he said it is a, an opening blow to what he described in a statement to cnn as the steps towards destroying the iranian threat and so you he sees it very much as yes. okay. we did this, we took out these military targets. we targeted their aerial capabilities, that missile production capabilities, but that's just the first step. and this should district continue, whether it will or not in the immediate future, i think is still well up in the air. >> well, it may be that part of the intention of this militarily was to take out, for instance, surface to air missile installations, which israel could then take advantage can a job if it were decide to carry out further strikes inside iran. one measure of israel's current level of concern regarding potential iranian retaliation is that there has been no increase in security for the population of israel. how do you read that? >> yeah, it's interesting, isn't

ear has described the attack as a first blow, suggesting there should be more action taken —— ben gvir have had these comments from the supreme leader, and interestingly in his english—language feed on twitter it doesn't actually have the line as far as i can see saying the attack should neither be downplayed nor exaggerated. it essentially says that iran will show its mettle and that israel has made a miscalculation, so it doesn't commit iran to any immediate action, it doesn't say what type of action will do. it is not the kind of a very, very strong or ferocious revenge that iranians leaders have vowed in similar incidents back when the political leader of hamas was killed in tehran several months ago. the announcements were much stronger leading to the sense that there would be a major riposte, which we saw on october one.— riposte, which we saw on october one. sebastian, 'ust finall , october one. sebastian, 'ust finally. to i october one. sebastian, 'ust finally, to lebanon, �* october one. sebastian, just. finally, to lebanon, continued air strikes?— air strikes? continued air s