Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted that the US has no greater ally than Israel and that Israel has no greater ally than the US during an interview with Fox News on Sunday.
He also claimed that he has an “excellent relationship” with US President Donald Trump, despite occasional disagreements between them.
“In 99% of cases we see eye to eye. But like in every family, and like in every close friendship, there are sometimes disagreements, and we discuss them openly,” Netanyahu told Fox.
He denied that the disagreements include having differing goals regarding Iran, telling Fox that the US and Israel “are set on the same goal.”
“We want to see Iran give up its nuclear weapons program. We want to see the nuclear enriched material removed. We want to see the enrichment sites for nuclear material dismantled,” Netanyahu stated.
Netanyahu claimed that after Israel’s Operation Roaring Lion and the US’s Operation Epic Fury, Trump believes that those shared goals can be achieved through negotiating with and putting pressure on Tehran.
He continued to assert that regardless of the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), as long as he serves as the Prime Minister, Iran will not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.
Netanyahu denies claim that Israel is in permanent state of war
When asked what he would say to critics who accuse Israel of being in a permanent state of war, Netanyahu denied the claim, drawing attention to the Abraham Accords and the recently signed Israel-Lebanon deal.
“With President Trump, we brought forth four peace deals. That's what we did with the Abraham Accords,” Netanyahu said, adding that he believes that the Lebanon deal has shown that there is potential for more peace deals to be signed in the future.
“Lebanon would like to free itself of Hezbollah terrorists who are, you know, making their lives miserable,” he continued. “They'd like to free Lebanon. I hope we can get more peace deals.”
Netanyahu discussed link between anti-Israel, anti-US sentiments
Netanyahu also touched upon his concern regarding the connection between anti-Israel movements and growing anti-America sentiments.
“The people who hate Israel end up hating America,” Netanyahu explained. “When they do the protests, they burn Israeli flags and very often right next to them they burn American flags.”
He described it as a “very toxic ideology,” stating that individuals who have fallen into those movements not only threaten the US and Israel’s strong allyship, but also threaten the values that both nations were built upon.
Netanyahu noted that during the funeral of former Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “they not only chanted death to America. They said kill Trump; they chanted death to Trump.”
He highlighted the importance of the US-Israel alliance, asserting that such chants would not be heard in Israel.
“I think that our alliance is not merely based on common interests, I think it's based on common values,” Netanyahu told Fox. “As long as we have that, our alliance will be fine.”