Israel BRACES for full-scale war as Trump mulls escalation

Now to the major escalation in the Middle East as we await President Trump's top military leaders on the Hill. You'll see and hear from them in a matter of hours. Meanwhile, Israeli forces on high alert as the president considers the possibility of a return to full scale war against Iran. That would include the Israelis also. Dr. Michael Leiter, Israeli ambassador to the US, sir, thank you for your time for being here today, doctor. Good morning, Bill. Yeah, there's a number of things to talk about. I want to talk about Lebanon. I want to talk about Iran. I want to talk about Benjamin Netanyahu here in New York, first of all, on Lebanon. There was a pilot program being considered where Lebanese soldiers would move into towns in southern Lebanon and relieve the Israeli soldiers and they would be left to defend unless Hezbollah came to go to battle with them. Wall Street Journal, the US puts one's unthinkable ideas on the table to try and disarm Hezbollah. Doctor, do you think this is a good idea? Well, actually, I'm heading up the negotiations on behalf of Israel with the Lebanese. And it was an idea that we've advanced from the very beginning of the negotiations. We want to withdraw from Lebanon as soon as we can. We're there not because we have territorial ambitions, but we're there in order to protect our northern border so that Hezbollah will not come storming across the border as Hamas did on October 7th and slaughter our civilians or fire missiles into our towns and villages. And the moment that Hezbollah is dismantled, and only when Hezbollah is dismantled, will we be able to withdraw. And the idea of the pilot zone is to create a situation where the Lebanese armed forces can gradually strengthen themselves, have vetted units that have no Hezbollah operatives in them, and can actually take hold of area so that we can withdraw and have Lebanese sovereignty established soundly without Hezbollah either compromising their sovereignty or compromising our security. Yeah, just a quick follow up on that. Are the Lebanese soldiers capable of defeating Hezbollah if it comes to that? Well, the Lebanese army needs support. It needs support from us, from all its friends. It needs a vetting because some of the units have been infiltrated by Hezbollah operatives. It needs better training, it needs more financing. But if they are committed to actually dismantling Hezbollah, this can't be any more of this mamby-pamby, we'll accept them to a certain extent, we've lived with them, so let's continue trying to finesse this. This cannot be finessed with Hezbollah. Hezbollah is the long arm of Iran. Iran needs this proxy and the front line against Israel. So they've basically occupied Lebanon, they've deprived Lebanon of their sovereignty. Lebanon wants them out, we want them out, and if we support Lebanese armed forces enough and guarantee that the president now has the support he needs in order to really rid the country of this Hezbollah domination, then yes, it can work. Maybe get a handshake from the Lebanese government to the Abraham Accords and that would be historic as we await that possibility. Benjamin Netanyahu plans to come to New York in late September, I said. The mayor here has other plans. Roll this and listen. He's the subject of this arrest warrant for alleged crimes against humanity, for war crimes, and he's the architect of the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza as Israel's prime minister. I believe that when someone is charged with an international criminal court warrant, it's something that should be taken seriously. So the president yesterday afternoon said under no terms will he be arrested. Just your reaction on what we heard from the mayor. Well, I think Mr. Mamdani was elected to remove New York's garbage, not to heap his own garbage on the Jews. This has a long history. It goes back a long way and it's called anti-Semitism. Whenever you have your own problems, you just blame the Jews for it. And this Mr. Mamdani's case, he's talking about he's talking about crimes against humanity. He represents an ideology that has more crimes against humanity in the 20th century than any other ideology. Communism is responsible for 100 million people murdered. He's trying to bring that communism to the United States. He should just concentrate on his own problems in New York and not try to elevate himself in his own stature by taking on the leader, one of the leaders of the free world, who has been very much a Churchillian leader of Israel during wartime and has been a great partner with the United States in fighting Iran and its proxies. Michael Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Thank you for your time, doctor. Thank you, Bill. Good morning.