While the world's focus has shifted to Ukraine, israel still keeping a close eye on iran in the negotiations in vienna joining us now to discuss what lessons israel can draw from the russia ukraine war is the code member of knesset and former mayor of jerusalem neil balcat thank you for joining us my honor and pleasure so i want to address the russian invasion of ukraine first i mean what do you think of the government's decision to stay relatively silent for the first week of the invasion,
Specially when the united states and the rest of the world have been condemning russia's actions pretty loud and clear well as a grandson of holocaust survivors that lost 30 members of their family in poland in auschwitz israel and me as a jew cannot stand on the sideline on such an aggressive attack against ukraine and we must be part of the big large coalition of the western world defending and helping ukraine against the russian aggression so that's my perspective my point of view that i believe that israeli government should follow,
And what about israel's coordination with russia in syria i mean how does that factor in your opinion well even before that with your permission there's another country in the world regime in iran that threatens to wipe out israel they're threatening to go to war against israel and by the way we're called the small one by iran and the western world is the large one, so we have another very aggressive regime that wants to go to war that is using terror to hit innocent people and my question to the world is do we want to favor after iran attacks israel or have we learned our lesson,
Put sanctions not take and lift sanctions but don’t put sanctions on iran to eliminate them for going to war that's the message the world said should send to iran and now i mean speaking of iran you're flying soon to the united states to meet with congressmen and senate members to address the jcpoa i mean what is your goal with this visit well basically to again to open up people's eyes and understand that iran is trying to target israel with a conventional war with 250 000 rockets around us,
We will never agree to such an aggressive attack we have to fight iran and make sure they understand that they will pay a heavy price not just with sanctions israel knows how to target and hit back but we need the world to align with us to prevent the next a war and attack from iran this is the message i have not just in the united states but to all of the world and we're going to join the forces with the western world align against the aggression of russia and we expect the world to do exactly the same against the aggression from iran and yet it seems that a deal is coming soon it's taking shape the deal may be in in two weeks but would any deal be acceptable or good for israel,
In your opinion you tell me i mean the iranians will tell you anything you want to know and tell you anything you want to hear when they teach their kids to commit suicide lying is a piece of cake it's not a problem and we learned that all regimes so far none of them stuck to any agreement their declared goal is to wipe out the state of israel i believe them as many people did not believe that russia will actually execute on what they said they will do hopefully the world will wake up and understand and believe the regime in iran that they indeed plan to attack israel both with the nuclear power they want the nuclear power in order to attack israel not for their own defense,
They intend to use their proxies to hit israel because they want to hit us hard the way unfortunately that has happened now right in front of our eyes in ukraine now drawing upon that and as you've just said i mean many analysts also believe that iran is feeling emboldened in vienna because of the west's lack of force against russia during the invasion i mean would you agree and what would you do different well what i would say is as long as iran plans to target israel the small satan and then the west the large satan as long as that's their declared strategy you have to put sanctions on them prevent them from having a bomb,
And make sure they understand that they cannot use their proxies for terror against israel or against the world and unfortunately the deal shaping doesn't even deal with the conventional threat around israel with 250 000 rockets it's not even on as part of the plan and they intend to use it the same way that russia did they mean what they say and they say what they mean and we must put the sanctions before the war with iran and hopefully the world understood for what happened right now that we must not wait we must not wait for an attack to happen to put sanctions now if a deal is actually signed with iran in vienna i mean how will this affect israel's foreign policy,
Its regional defense policy i mean are we looking at perhaps a war in the near future between israel and iran i hope the world is not as naive as it looks that now realizes that radical or very aggressive countries use their power and go to war we have one in ukraine and why do you think that iran seeing the situation is not planning and will execute their plans to hit and target israel they will do that we know we i believe them i believe the hezbollah in lebanon that they want to use all those 250 000 rockets and target israeli citizens innocent children and women in israeli cities and towns all over the country i believe them,
We don't believe that they intend to fulfill the agreement signed and by the way the conventional threat is not part of the deal and they intend to use those 250 000 rockets and have tens of thousands of israelis victims hurt the world doesn't understand that hopefully the world will open the eyes now we will join the coalition against the russian aggression we expect all the world to join us against the iranian threat absolutely and now i have just one final question i mean your trip to the united states is reminiscent of former prime minister benjamin netanyahu's trip to congress in 2015.
Is this perhaps your first step towards a future campaign for the prime minister's office no it's defending our country i fly to the states often i have many thank god i have many many friends in washington and we have a great relationship they listen and i believe that the goal i have right now is to give another perspective on this i'm part of the israeli opposition we have a different perspective than the current government but in these things we're all together we're it's the same threat so i'm gonna voice my perspective and i'm sure that it's gonna be received with open ears all right member of knesset neil balcott thank you so much for reading us today thank you very much.
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