Exclusive – Jerusalem Deputy Mayor: Israel Doesn’t Need Any ‘Foreign Intervention’ in Our Internal Affairs

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Joshua Klein

Israel is a “very robust democracy” and does not need any kind of “foreign intervention in dealing with our own leaders,” according to Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, who hit back at the Biden administration’s reported efforts to undermine Israel’s democratically elected government and leader, as well as its current fight against Hamas, noting the strong time-tested alliance between the two countries and how the Jewish state serves as the west’s “first line of defense” against global “jihadi fundamentalism.” 

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News on Thursday, Hassan-Nahoum addressed recent reports that U.S. intelligence “expects” large protests “demanding” the ouster of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, citing his hardline policies and opposition to President Joe Biden’s Middle East plans, despite his current coalition’s strength and public support. 

In addition, the Biden administration is reportedly seeking ways to dismantle Netanyahu’s government amid conflicts, focusing on strategies that could lead to its collapse and early elections, and is even considering conditioning military aid on Israel’s actions.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) accused Netanyahu of having “lost his way” in a major Senate address in which the top Democrat attacked Israel’s government and called for new elections.

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“Unfortunately, it’s something that we’ve kind of seen before, haven’t we?” she said. “We also saw, in 2015, the Obama-Biden administration setting up an intervention, allegedly, by then President Barack Obama into the Israeli election that ‘Bibi’ won in 2015.”

“So I don’t think it’s anything new,” she added.

Noting that Israel is a “very robust democracy,” she argued that “we don’t need any kind of foreign intervention in dealing with our own leaders.” 

“I think the Israeli public is very good at that,” she stated.

Asked about how dangerous the aforementioned reports of Biden administration efforts to undermine Israel’s current fight against Hamas, Hassan-Nahoum said she was relatively “unconcerned” by them.

“The Pentagon and the Israeli Defense Ministry have really got an exceptionally close and long relationship,” she explained. “Whatever goes on militarily is something that is organic, that’s built in for many years.”

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Despite what it says, she noted, the U.S. government has been “incredibly supportive in this war.”

“In life, there’s rhetoric and there’s reality,” she stated, explaining that rhetoric is, “on one level, perhaps what different leaders have to do for their own political reasons,” whereas reality is “what’s actually going on and the help and support that we’re getting in the U.N. by the United States — voting to boycott all of the terribly biased resolutions that continue to come up.”

As an example of that dichotomy, Hassan-Nahoum, who is in charge of foreign relations, international economic development, and tourism, cited seemingly contradictory statements made by President Biden during an interview with MSNBC last week.

“First, he said there are red lines and then he said the U.S. will always stand with Israel. So there’s a red line, and there isn’t a red line,” she said.

The deputy mayor then addressed the necessity of toppling Hamas’s last stronghold in Rafah, which is key to the terror group’s demise.

“Ultimately, the reality is there are four Hamas battalions left in Rafah, in southern Gaza,” she said. “We know [Hamas head] Yahya Sinwar is there, and we know the hostages are there. If we’re actually going to win this war, we need to go into Rafah.”

While insisting Israel should use that fact as “leverage to try to get a deal and get our hostages out,” she explained that “there’s no doubt that we cannot live with a situation where Hamas remains in power.” 

“And for Hamas to lose their power, we have to go to Rafah,” she said. “And, ultimately, Israel has to make its own decisions because our obligation is to protect our citizens.”

Despite the domestic political reasons that lie beneath various Biden administration statements, she argued that even just rhetoric still “hardens Hamas’s negotiating position vis-a-vis Israel, when they believe that America could pressure Israel to not go into Rafah.”  

“Whereas, if they actually know that we’re coming into Rafah, then they [Hamas] are definitely going to be keener to actually make a deal [with Israel],” she said. “So it doesn’t help our negotiating position, that’s for sure.”

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While supporting Israel’s duty to remain sovereign, she then highlighted how the U.S. and Israel both have much to gain from their alliance.

“I think it’s important to be able to behave like a sovereign country and make our own decisions — absolutely, but we cannot live on an island,” she said. “America is still the largest power in the world, and is fortunately an impediment for the countries that hate us and want to see our destruction and delegitimize us in the international arena.”

According to Hassan-Nahoum, the U.S. fully understands that Israel is the world’s “first line of defense.” 

“As we saw on 9/11, nobody is immune from jihadi fundamentalism,” she said, “and the war that starts here, under the guise and auspices of Iran, does not end here.”

The deputy mayor concluded by discussing her recent visit to the annual AIPAC conference in Washington, DC, stating that she had “seen — from both sides of the aisle — lots of support and understanding.”

“So I left D.C. much more encouraged than I thought I would,” she added. “And that, again, is the difference between reality and mere rhetoric.”

Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.

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