LiveWire

Ilana Dayan is the host of the long-running Israeli TV investigative news program, Uvda (Fact). She served in the IDF during the Lebanon War, and she holds a Ph.D. in law from Yale University.

Several days ago, Dayan met with Obama in the WH for a lengthy interview, which was played on Israeli TV.

She asks Obama some tough questions, and gives him a tutorial on Israel’s concerns.

:55
Dayan: Here’s what you said just a few years ago:…’I believe that PM Netanyahu wants peace, I think he’s willing to take risks for peace. Would you repeat these very same words today?

POTUS: “Well, you know, I think it’s always difficult to put, uh, yourself in someone else’s shoes, and…(clichés, b.s., word salad, blah blah…)

2:42:
But you see, Mr. President, when Israelis hear of a ‘historic compromise’ in this office, said Bill Clinton, 17 years ago, when he applied pressure on the same PM Netanyahu to hand over the Golan Heights to Hafez el Assad, so many Israelis are terrified today at the mere thought of us having now ISIL or Al Qaeda or a bunch of other unfriendly groups, taking a swim in the Sea of Galilee. That’s the essence of Israel’s fears.

POTUS.: Well, I wanna be clear, though…Blah blah

8:45
Dayan: Mr. President, there is a remarkably sincere observation you made once. You said ‘nothing comes to my desk that is perfectly solvable,’and you said ‘any given decision I make, I’ll wind up with a 30-40 percent chance that it isn’t going to work.’ I’m afraid Israelis cannot afford even a three to four percent chance that you are wrong Mr. President, because if you are, the bomb will hit Tel Aviv first.”

POTUS: Let’s back up on this. We have imposed the most effective sanctions on Iran over the course of the last five years which has caused them to lose a decade of growth. At the time, people were skeptical… Then we were able to force Iran to the negotiation table because of the effective sanctions. And I said that in exchange for some modest relief, in sanctions, they are going to have to freeze its nuclear program, roll back on its stockpiles, the very stockpiles that Prime Minster Netanyahu went before the negotiations with a picture of the bomb, said that was proof of how dangerous this was….

11:35
(Asks about Obama’s relationship with Netanyahu)

Dayan: Can we skip the part where you tell me there’s nothing personal between you two?

POTUS: blah blah…

11:56
Dayan: Remember the meeting four years ago at the WH, where he took the time to speak about some chapters in Jewish history? I could see your jaws lock.

POTUS: Oh, no, I think…I was probably, uh, just hungry and waiting for lunch…