CNN news
anchor Betty Nguyen interview Mayor Michael Bloomberg, during "Operation Cast Lead" (Jan. 4th, 2009)
Transcript
NGUYEN:
Well, soon after hearing about the ground attack, the mayor of New York rushed
on to a jet and headed for Israel. Mayor
Michael Bloomberg arriving a little bit earlier today and he does join us live
now from Tel Aviv.
Mayor, thanks for being with us. First I want to ask you why did you decide to go to Israel?
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (D), NEW YORK: Because I have a great deal of sympathy for anybody that's a victim of terrorism and I feel terribly strongly that if the terrorists can win in one place, they will be emboldened and will attack us every place.
As you know, in New York City we were attacked by al Qaeda twice -- 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and the terrible tragedy in 2001 on September 11 when both the towers, with roughly 3,000 people, were brought down. We have to make sure that terrorists every place understand we're united to stop them from attacking innocent people and killing them.
NGUYEN: Mayor, you have said many times that Israel has the right to defend itself. But looking at this conflict, what do you say to those who criticize the effort and site the fact that they believe that this force is excessive?
BLOOMBERG: Well, let me just phrase it for you, something that will bring it home. If you're in your apartment and some emotionally disturbed person is banging on the door screaming "I'm going to come through this door and kill you," do you want us to respond with one police officer which is proportional or all the resources in our command? Just think about it in that context.
There's no such thing as proportional response to terrorism. This is not a game that we're playing by the Marquis of Queensbury rules. People's lives are at risk. And the fact of the matter is since the Israelis pulled out of Gaza in 2005, Hamas, rather than trying to build up Gaza has tried to destroy Israel for their own political purposes.
Hamas is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Iran, and they're trying to, every day, kill innocent civilians in the streets by sending rockets randomly overhead, just trying to kill as many people who happen to be in the way.
NGUYEN: You say people's lives are at risk, but aren't the people of Gaza, their lives, those Palestinians, at risk caught in the middle of this conflict?
BLOOMBERG: Absolutely, and if Hamas wants to continue to kill them, they're going to continue to lob rockets. But you know, it's the ultimate cowardness to launch your attack with humans as shield around you. It's one of the oldest sick things that terrorists do. They take civilians, they surround themselves with civilians, and then they reach over their heads to attack you, and if you defend yourself by attacking back, the civilians get in the way and they say, oh, look, you're killing civilians.
Keep in mind, there is no question what's happening here. Hamas keeps sending rockets over. They've been doing it. Israel just started their response a few days ago. Hamas has been doing this since 2005. I don't know how many days in a row you need to prove that it's one side starting all this. Finally, the other side responds and then you're going to say, oh (AUDIO GAP) first, come on.
Mayor, thanks for being with us. First I want to ask you why did you decide to go to Israel?
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (D), NEW YORK: Because I have a great deal of sympathy for anybody that's a victim of terrorism and I feel terribly strongly that if the terrorists can win in one place, they will be emboldened and will attack us every place.
As you know, in New York City we were attacked by al Qaeda twice -- 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and the terrible tragedy in 2001 on September 11 when both the towers, with roughly 3,000 people, were brought down. We have to make sure that terrorists every place understand we're united to stop them from attacking innocent people and killing them.
NGUYEN: Mayor, you have said many times that Israel has the right to defend itself. But looking at this conflict, what do you say to those who criticize the effort and site the fact that they believe that this force is excessive?
BLOOMBERG: Well, let me just phrase it for you, something that will bring it home. If you're in your apartment and some emotionally disturbed person is banging on the door screaming "I'm going to come through this door and kill you," do you want us to respond with one police officer which is proportional or all the resources in our command? Just think about it in that context.
There's no such thing as proportional response to terrorism. This is not a game that we're playing by the Marquis of Queensbury rules. People's lives are at risk. And the fact of the matter is since the Israelis pulled out of Gaza in 2005, Hamas, rather than trying to build up Gaza has tried to destroy Israel for their own political purposes.
Hamas is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Iran, and they're trying to, every day, kill innocent civilians in the streets by sending rockets randomly overhead, just trying to kill as many people who happen to be in the way.
NGUYEN: You say people's lives are at risk, but aren't the people of Gaza, their lives, those Palestinians, at risk caught in the middle of this conflict?
BLOOMBERG: Absolutely, and if Hamas wants to continue to kill them, they're going to continue to lob rockets. But you know, it's the ultimate cowardness to launch your attack with humans as shield around you. It's one of the oldest sick things that terrorists do. They take civilians, they surround themselves with civilians, and then they reach over their heads to attack you, and if you defend yourself by attacking back, the civilians get in the way and they say, oh, look, you're killing civilians.
Keep in mind, there is no question what's happening here. Hamas keeps sending rockets over. They've been doing it. Israel just started their response a few days ago. Hamas has been doing this since 2005. I don't know how many days in a row you need to prove that it's one side starting all this. Finally, the other side responds and then you're going to say, oh (AUDIO GAP) first, come on.
NGUYEN:
Well, let me touch on that. You said
Hamas has been doing this since 2005. Let's
talk about the timing of this latest conflict. There are those who criticize it saying that
Israel is doing this now before the Obama administration takes office because
they feel that Israel will get a thumbs up from the Bush administration.
BLOOMBERG: Wait a second. I think maybe you should, before you go saying things like that, check the facts. If you go and look, the number of rockets sent out of Gaza into Israel fell down to single digits per day during the cease-fire. Hamas broke the cease-fire two or three months ago and it's now 800 or 900 a day. That was done starting two or three months ago and it's not the Israelis that have picked the timing, it's Hamas who's picked the timing. Whether they're trying to do that to play domestic concerns in Egypt, in Palestine, in Gaza or in the West Bank, in the United States, I have no idea.
But there's just no question that they for a while didn't send any missiles out, then all of a sudden ratcheted it up two or three months ago to just a level that no government could possibly allow to go on. Governments have a responsibility to protect their citizens.
Do you really want something less? I don't. I can tell you, in New York City, we would not do anything but use all our resources to keep you safe and in America, we'd use all our resources to keep you safe. We wouldn't get involved in these ridiculous things like proportionalism. Proportionalism is for the theoreticians. The real world is governments have the responsibility to protect their citizens with everything that they have.
NGUYEN: So, how do you find an answer to this. Where do you find the source of lasting peace in that region? I know you're speaking with the Israeli prime minister a little bit later. What are some of the things that are on the table, some possible solutions?
BLOOMBERG: Look. I don't work for the State Department or for the military, for America or for Israel and it's up to them to find a peaceful solution. But the first ways you do it is you stop going and lobbing rockets and killing innocent people. Then you sit down and we're going to have a new secretary of state coming in and a new president coming in. Maybe that's a good opportunity to get a fresh look at dialogue, get people to think outside the box. Hopefully we'll be able to do that.
I have enormous confidence, as you know, in Senator Clinton's abilities and I think she's going to be easily confirmed by the Senate and be a great secretary of state. We all have an enormous hope that President Obama, an expectation, in fact, that he will be a president for change and that he will be a great president.
And when he was here, he could not have been more clear in what he said. He said, if my daughters were being threatened, I would do everything I could, with all my resources at my disposal, to protect them. I feel the same way about my two daughters that he feels about his two daughters. I hope you do about yours, if you have kids.
NGUYEN: All right, New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg, joining us live today. Thank you so much for your time.
BLOOMBERG: Wait a second. I think maybe you should, before you go saying things like that, check the facts. If you go and look, the number of rockets sent out of Gaza into Israel fell down to single digits per day during the cease-fire. Hamas broke the cease-fire two or three months ago and it's now 800 or 900 a day. That was done starting two or three months ago and it's not the Israelis that have picked the timing, it's Hamas who's picked the timing. Whether they're trying to do that to play domestic concerns in Egypt, in Palestine, in Gaza or in the West Bank, in the United States, I have no idea.
But there's just no question that they for a while didn't send any missiles out, then all of a sudden ratcheted it up two or three months ago to just a level that no government could possibly allow to go on. Governments have a responsibility to protect their citizens.
Do you really want something less? I don't. I can tell you, in New York City, we would not do anything but use all our resources to keep you safe and in America, we'd use all our resources to keep you safe. We wouldn't get involved in these ridiculous things like proportionalism. Proportionalism is for the theoreticians. The real world is governments have the responsibility to protect their citizens with everything that they have.
NGUYEN: So, how do you find an answer to this. Where do you find the source of lasting peace in that region? I know you're speaking with the Israeli prime minister a little bit later. What are some of the things that are on the table, some possible solutions?
BLOOMBERG: Look. I don't work for the State Department or for the military, for America or for Israel and it's up to them to find a peaceful solution. But the first ways you do it is you stop going and lobbing rockets and killing innocent people. Then you sit down and we're going to have a new secretary of state coming in and a new president coming in. Maybe that's a good opportunity to get a fresh look at dialogue, get people to think outside the box. Hopefully we'll be able to do that.
I have enormous confidence, as you know, in Senator Clinton's abilities and I think she's going to be easily confirmed by the Senate and be a great secretary of state. We all have an enormous hope that President Obama, an expectation, in fact, that he will be a president for change and that he will be a great president.
And when he was here, he could not have been more clear in what he said. He said, if my daughters were being threatened, I would do everything I could, with all my resources at my disposal, to protect them. I feel the same way about my two daughters that he feels about his two daughters. I hope you do about yours, if you have kids.
NGUYEN: All right, New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg, joining us live today. Thank you so much for your time.
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