Benjamin Netanyahu Sits Down for Exclusive TBN Interview Jan. 21

JERUSALEM (January 21, 2020) — In his first official interview with the U.S. media since the death of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat down for an extended interview in Jerusalem with Matthew Crouch, president of the TBN Networks, to talk about Israel’s role as the Middle East’s sole democracy, its determination to aggressively defend itself against Iran and others intent on its destruction, and the important commitment of President Trump and America’s conservative and Christian community to stand in solidarity with Israel and the Jewish people.

Calling the surgical drone strike that killed Soleimani a “tremendous achievement,” Netanyahu noted that the Iranian general’s goal was always to “conquer the entire Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, and ultimately to destroy Israel....” He emphasized that Soleimani was “an engine of destruction and conquest and subjugation, and his removal helps roll back the forces of tyranny [in the Middle East].”

This year Israel will host the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp and the end of the Holocaust that saw the deaths of at least six million Jews at the hands of Hitler and the Nazis. Netanyahu recalled that throughout the horrific years of the Holocaust no nation or people took a stand to defend Europe’s helpless Jewish population. And while Israel has been a strong and independent nation for over seventy years, “the attempts to destroy the Jewish people have not disappeared,” he said. “Iran openly declares every day that it wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.”

Today Israel is one of the most prosperous and progressive nations on earth, “ranked the eighth power in the world,” noted the prime minister, an achievement that is due, he said, to “our spirit, our brains, and our hearts.” He added that Israel and the Jewish people now have the capacity to defend themselves, and declared that “the Jews will never, ever again be defenseless in the face of those who want to destroy them.”

Netanyahu described how the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has launched an aggressive attack on the nation of Israel and its right to exist. “They’ve decided to declare war on the Bible,” he said, explaining that the international legal body has ruled that “if Jews live in the land of Judea, of Israel, we are committing a war crime.... The war crime charge applies only to Jews living in the Jewish land. This is so outrageous, and defiant of history and of the truth, and of our common values and traditions.”

Host Matt Crouch observed that efforts by Iran and others to destroy Israel amount to “an attack against the biblical narrative concerning Israel.... Countries that are trying to change that narrative are not fighting against you, Mr. Prime Minister, or against Israel. They are fighting against God — that’s what we believe — and that is why we are in support of Israel.” For his part, Netanyahu emphasized that his country has “no better friends in the world” than the U.S. Christian community that stands in prayer and unity with Israel and the Jewish people.

Check out the short clip above, and tune in Tuesday, January 21st, at 8 p.m. Eastern / 7 p.m. Central, for Matt Crouch’s entire interview with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of a TBN exclusive presentation on Israel from Jerusalem with special guests Mike Huckabee, along with Israel and Middle East experts Erick Stakelbeck and Samuel Smadja. Find out where TBN is airing near you with our channel finder, watch TBN on our livestream HERE, or download our all-new app to view TBN on your Apple or  Android devices.