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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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Speaker 2: Let's turn back to the Middle East now and how

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Speaker 2: Israel might respond to the Iranian drone and missile attack

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Speaker 2: over the weekend. The UN Secretary General is among those

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Speaker 2: who've called for restraint. Joining us now to discuss is

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Speaker 2: Israeli military spokesperson Peter Lerner. Peter Larner, thank you for

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Speaker 2: joining us on the program. What sort of response are

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Speaker 2: you preparing for?

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Speaker 3: Good morning. Indeed, the IDF has presented the government with

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Speaker 3: a spectrum of potential actions that could be taken. The

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Speaker 3: government is currently deliberating and considering the pros and cons

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Speaker 3: of each avenue. I think we need to be patient

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Speaker 3: and understand that the situation here is very fragile, and

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Speaker 3: that is why the IDF is continued to continuing to

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Speaker 3: maintain a defensive posture with our aerial defense on high alert. Thankfully,

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Speaker 3: we were able to alleviate some of the restrictions on

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Speaker 3: civilian population here in Israel today and have permitted that

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Speaker 3: school go back and kindergarten to get back into action.

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Speaker 3: There was a late night decision which may may imply

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Speaker 3: something with regard to your question, I think what is

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Speaker 3: actually more important at the stage is to acknowledge and

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Speaker 3: see how the unity of decent nations came around together

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Speaker 3: to defend from Iran's attack against Israel. I think that

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Speaker 3: is a positive development and we need to embrace that

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Speaker 3: and look forward and see how we can further deepen

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Speaker 3: those strategic relationships.

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Speaker 1: Yes, I'm sure that there is relief that the attack,

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Speaker 1: a relief in Israel that the attack by Iran was

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Speaker 1: repelled pretty comprehensively. But I want to ask you how

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Speaker 1: close Iran came actually to piercing Israeli air defenses on

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Speaker 1: Saturday night and what the system can withstand.

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Speaker 3: So they fired around three hundred and fifty different types

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Speaker 3: of weaponry missiles, one hundred and twenty ballistic missiles, one

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Speaker 3: hundred and seventy or so explosive drones, thirty cruise missiles.

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Speaker 3: The cruise missiles and the explosive drones. They didn't even

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Speaker 3: make it into Israel's airspace. Many of the ballistic missiles

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Speaker 3: made it into the airspace but were intercepted by our

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Speaker 3: Arrow two and three intercepting aerial defense systems, and a

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Speaker 3: handful of them actually impacted in Israel, mostly in the

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Speaker 3: area of the Nivatima air base which is in the

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Speaker 3: south of Israel in the Negev Desert. So while they

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Speaker 3: weren't very successful from our perspective, of course, there's a

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Speaker 3: clear threat, and we have to keep in mind that

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Speaker 3: each one of these ballistic missiles carries a warhead of

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Speaker 3: around one hundred, one hundred and twenty kilograms, which could

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Speaker 3: potentially cause a huge amount of damage. Luckily, where they

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Speaker 3: impacted did not cause damage. The base continue to be operational,

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Speaker 3: and even as the F thirty five are Deer aircraft

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Speaker 3: came back from defending the skies of Israel, they landed

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Speaker 3: in Navatim Base safe and sound. So how close did

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Speaker 3: they come? They threw at us quite a substantial amount

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Speaker 3: of munition. I think the alliance that came together in

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Speaker 3: order to repel that worked exceptionally. I don't want to

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Speaker 3: over be too hyperbolic on it, but I do think

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Speaker 3: it was a significant success. But with military men, we

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Speaker 3: tend to be very boots on the ground attitude. We

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Speaker 3: need to look forward to what happened and what can

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Speaker 3: happen in the future.

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Speaker 2: Well, I'd like to go back to the options that

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Speaker 2: you mentioned that have been presented to the Israeli government

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Speaker 2: as to what the IDF could do. What does the

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Speaker 2: most extreme of those options look like.

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Speaker 3: I don't want to elaborate on what could be or

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Speaker 3: could not be. The government has been presented, they will

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Speaker 3: make their decisions, they'll give their instructions, and we will

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Speaker 3: act accordingly. That's the right process, that's how it should

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Speaker 3: be done.

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Speaker 1: In terms of Iran, you know how much of it

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Speaker 1: was a display, as it were in Some of the

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Speaker 1: munitions that you talk about are slow moving, and his Blah,

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Speaker 1: for example, did not attack in a significant coordinated fashion,

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Speaker 1: even though some estimate their rocket capacity at seventy to

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Speaker 1: one hundred thousand.

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Speaker 3: No, actually we understand that the Hazbellah have almost two

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Speaker 3: hundred thousand rockets, included guided missiles. Indeed, they participated in

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Speaker 3: a very minute way. I think they launched actually one

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Speaker 3: one rocket towards Israel in the course of the attack,

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Speaker 3: but throughout the day preceding the attack, they had fired

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Speaker 3: over one hundred rockets since Israel, so they Iran did

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Speaker 3: not begin its aggression against Israel on Saturday Nights. Has

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Speaker 3: been meddling in the stability of this region for many

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Speaker 3: many years, and in the last six months even more

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Speaker 3: so with their attacks via the hutis, whether it's directed

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Speaker 3: against Israel or the shipping routes. With obviously, with financing, training,

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Speaker 3: equipping haw mass over the years, Hamas wouldn't have been

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Speaker 3: able to conduct the seventh of October attack without the

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Speaker 3: support of Iran and Hezballah, which is effectively a forward

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Speaker 3: division of Iran on Israel's northern border. So this what

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Speaker 3: happened on Saturday and Saturday night was just a step

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Speaker 3: from Iran being behind the scenes on the stage to

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Speaker 3: front and center on the stage. I would be very

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Speaker 3: cautious at concluding that the fact that they weren't successful

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Speaker 3: the means that it wasn't a dangerous feat. There were

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Speaker 3: something like sixty tons of explosive hurled at Israel on

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Speaker 3: Saturday night and early Sunday morning. The fact that our

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Speaker 3: aerial defense systems were effective and the fact that the

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Speaker 3: Alliance was able to intercept the vast majority of those

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Speaker 3: even before they were able to enter Israel's airspace, that

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Speaker 3: is a successful outcome, but it could have been quite

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Speaker 3: the opposite.

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Speaker 2: Could Israel have defended itself without the support of the

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Speaker 2: allies that you mentioned.

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Speaker 3: I think could we have absolutely and we've been defending

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Speaker 3: ourselves against On the first day of the seventh of October,

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Speaker 3: when Hamas invaded Israel, they did it under the cover

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Speaker 3: of something like three or four thousand rockets in just

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Speaker 3: one day. Of course, none of them were cruise missiles,

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Speaker 3: none of them were ballistic missiles, and the drone capability

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Speaker 3: was extremely limited compared to what Iran has. But the

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Speaker 3: aerial defense systems then withheld most of them, not at

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Speaker 3: the level of ninety nine percent that we experienced on

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Speaker 3: Saturday night. I think there's there there are absolute advantages

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Speaker 3: to the fact that a explosive drone can take It

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Speaker 3: can take something between seven and nine hours to get

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Speaker 3: from Iran to Israel, but the cruise, the ballistic missile

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Speaker 3: eleven twenty minutes something like that. So and that perhaps

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Speaker 3: even indicates why some of them were successful in impacting

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Speaker 3: in Israel. There's that we can and we you know,

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Speaker 3: we don't have an opportunity if if we wouldn't have

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Speaker 3: had an alliance, which we are very grateful or thankful

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Speaker 3: for the US umbrella under the United States Central Command,

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Speaker 3: together with the United Kingdom, together with the French and

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Speaker 3: the regional players. But you know, there is the option

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Speaker 3: in such a situation, if there is not an alliance

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Speaker 3: that we defend ourselves absolutely.

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Speaker 1: How good an ala has the UK been to Israel?

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Speaker 3: I think, you know, if people sitting at the same

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Speaker 3: table deciding to stand up against the tyranny of Iran

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Speaker 3: and their diabolical plan to attack a sovereign nation state,

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Speaker 3: I think that is a lot of credit. And the

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Speaker 3: malign activities of Iran is not new to anybody in

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Speaker 3: the UK, in government and of course in defense and

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Speaker 3: intelligence establishments. The fact that Iran has conducted this attack

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Speaker 3: on Israel is the game changer. And I was just

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Speaker 3: listening to what Lord Cameron said earlier today and he

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Speaker 3: identified it exactly. They failed in their attack, and they

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Speaker 3: failed in the fact that now everybody knows that they're

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Speaker 3: up to no good.

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Speaker 2: The US are still discussing an aid package for Israel.

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Speaker 2: How much do you need.

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Speaker 3: That that's really beyond my pay grade. I think that

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Speaker 3: is definitely something that we are grateful for, and the

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Speaker 3: government will negotiate exactly what needs, what Israel needs, and

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Speaker 3: how the US sees that