Interview of the President by Yonit Levi, Channel 2 News

Business Wire, Jan 6, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Office of the Press Secretary

Map Room

January 4, 2008

4:05 P.M. EST

Q Mr. President, firstly, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us.

THE PRESIDENT: Welcome to Washington.

Q Thank you very much. You're just about to come to the Middle East. And in Annapolis you said that the parties will make every effort to reach an agreement, until the end of 2008. And I -- you know, I don't want to sound skeptic, but I'm an Israeli and it's in our nature.

THE PRESIDENT: Right. (Laughter.)

Q Why do you believe that you can reach peace in 12 months, when it hasn't been attainable in the seven years of your presidency -- and long before that?

THE PRESIDENT: I think we can reach a vision of what a Palestinian state would look like. But I have made it abundantly clear that the existence of a state will be subject to the obligations in the road map. And so the goal is to have something other than just verbs -- words. In other words, here's what a state will look like. And what's important for that is that the Palestinians need to have something to hope for, something to be for. There needs -- Abbas, who has agreed that Israel has the right to exist, must be able to say to his people: be for me, support me, and this is what can happen; if you follow the way of the terrorists and the killers, this will never happen.

And so I'm optimistic that we can have the outlines of a state defined. In other words, negotiations on borders and right of return and these different issues can be settled. I'm optimistic because I believe Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas want to achieve that objective. I know I'm willing to help. But I believe we can get that done, and I think it's in Israel's interest to get it done.

One reason why it was impossible to get a two-state solution moving forward previous to this is, one, when we first came into office there was an intifada. Secondly, a lot of people didn't necessarily agree with the two-state solution as being in Israel's interest. Ariel Sharon changed that point of view. Prime Minister Olmert campaigned on that. And so we have a good chance.

I do want to emphasize, however, that the state won't come into being just because we defined a state. It will come into being subject to the road map, and that's important for the Israeli people to understand.

Q So there won't necessarily be a complete, ratified signed agreement by the end of your --

THE PRESIDENT: There will be an agreement on what a state would look like, in my judgment. I think it'll happen. I also believe that the leaders know me, and I know them, and that there's a -- you know, they say, well, are you going to have a time table? One time table is the departure of President George W. Bush from the White House -- not that that I'm any great, heroic figure, but they know me and they're comfortable with me and I am a known quantity. And therefore the question is will they decide to make the efforts necessary to get the deal done while I'm President, as opposed to maybe the next person won't agree with a two-state, or maybe the next person will take a while to get moving.

So there's a -- I am not going to try to force the issue because of my own time table. On the other hand, I do believe Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas want to see this done. And therefore I'm optimistic it will get done by 2008.

Q So I am moving on to Iran, and I think the question on every Israeli's mind -- and you're the best man to answer it -- is, is Iran an immediate threat to the existence of Israel?

THE PRESIDENT: First of all, if I were an Israeli, I would take the words of the Iranian President seriously. And as President of the United States, I take him seriously. And I've spoken very bluntly about what that would mean, what an attack on Israel would mean if Iran were to do that.

Q You said World War III, if I --

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I did. I said that we will defend our ally -- no ands, ifs or buts. And so -- now, I am -- one of the concerns I'm sure amongst the Israeli population is whether this intelligence estimate that came out, what does it mean. It means to me that Iran was a threat and Iran is a threat. In other words, just because they had a military covert program that it suspended doesn't mean, one, they could restart it. And two, doesn't mean that their capacity to enrich couldn't -- you know, so-called civilian program -- couldn't be transferred to a military. So I see it as a threat.

Whether there's an imminent attack coming, I don't think so. The Iranians, I'm confident, know there would be a significant retaliation. The key, however, is to make sure that they don't end up with a weapon. And one of the things I will talk to the Prime Minister about again is our strategy to solve this issue diplomatically.

Q You say "diplomatically," but is a military strike still an option --

THE PRESIDENT: Well, the U.S. always maintains a military option. I have told the American people that I believe we can solve this issue diplomatically. Diplomacy works best when all options are on the table. And we're making some progress. The Russians and the Chinese, as well as the other members of the U.N. Security Council supported two Security Council resolutions -- which some might say aren't very effective; I think they are.