miri_eisen.jpgROI120 modertor Miri Eisen was on CNN’s Larry King Live last night. While we don’t have the video, thanks to ROI120 participant Michael Findling, we do have a transcript of the conversation. Michael’s sister works for CNN and he tells us that “the re-action in the news room was this was one educated, well-spoken lady, Miri does Israel and the Jews proud!” Without further ado, ladies and gents, the transcript:

KING: We’re back on LARRY KING LIVE. Let’s go to Tel Aviv and Miri Eisin. She is the Israeli government spokesperson, retired colonel with the Israeli military intelligence. What’s your reaction to what Mr. Mousawi of the Hezbollah just had to say?

MIRI EISIN, ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON: I find it very interesting that the editor of Al-Manar TV talks only about things which have nothing to do with what’s happening. Almost seven days ago already Hezbollah crossed the border, an internationally recognized border, into Israeli territory, kidnapped two soldiers and at the same time, and this he failed to mention, opened fire with rockets on all of the northern villages of Israel. And they have been for the last six days firing hundreds. We’re already almost reaching the 1,000 mark of rockets on Israeli villages. Israeli citizens are under attack and Israel has said very clearly we’re not willing to be hostages to Hezbollah, a terrorist organization in Lebanon anymore.

KING: They say if you release your prisoners, they’ll release their prisoners and violence stops. So, what if it asked it simply why not do that just to stop killing?

EISIN: Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. They’re trying to hold both the Lebanese government, the Lebanese people, and certainly all of northern Israel as hostages for their demands. But what is Hezbollah it’s calling for the destruction of Israel. Even today in all of this fighting the Israeli prime minister called for peace. What Israel wants is peace. We want peace on our northern border. We want peace with the Palestinians and we haven’t heard any such words from Hezbollah. In this war that the Hezbollah initiated against us at the beginning of last week what they’ve done is they have tried to change the rules completely. They think that they can have acts of terror against Israel and that Israel won’t respond. We’ve said clearly this year, this week we’re not willing to sit here any longer and let Hezbollah do whatever they want. We’ve said clearly first of all return the captives. They crossed the border, kidnapped them, and took them into Lebanon. And I’d say ask the Al Manar editor who exactly are these Lebanese hostages that he’s talking about? We’re talking about Lebanese terrorists who crossed into Israel, did acts of terror in the late ’70s and ’80s, were put on trial in Israeli prisons and have been sitting in Israeli prisons ever since.

KING: Thank you Miri.

Cross posted on ROI120 Blog

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Founder and Publisher of Jewlicious, David Abitbol lives in Jerusalem with his wife, newborn daughter and toddler son. Blogging as "ck" he's been blocked on twitter by the right and the left, so he's doing something right.

48 Comments

  • Hey! Just checking up on you guys.

    I saw Miri Eisen on the news, she is impressive.

  • Weronika! How the hell are you? She’s even more impresive live! Are you still in LA or back in Toronto?

  • also thought dan gillerman did a great job on charlie rose…

  • I agree. I thought Gillerman was excellent on Rose, and days earlier speaking to the UN (on CSPAN).

    What annoys me the most is the whole “prisoner exchange” issue. “Our prisoners for yours”. ??? Our prisoners were caught – yours were kidnapped. We have criminals, you have hostages!

    I’m tired of this whole moral equivalence thing.

  • Yes, but to say that means we’re just part of the ‘leftist media picking on Palestine and Lebenon’… *sighs sadly and goes back to what he knows best, food*

  • Miri is magnificent. But!!!! Twice now, back-to-back, on Larry King Live, Miri did not mention the 8 soldiers killed in the Hezbollah raid, only the 2 kidnappings. I’ve been documenting all this in graver, greater detail, against the backdrop of broader anti-Israeli sentiment in the media and the pitfalls, even for the spokesperson for Israel.

    I want to send some of these pieces to Miri. Her website is not fully functional yet. If you have an e-mail address for her, please forward to me.

    Thanks.

  • Well, if they look at the reality of recent events and Israeli policies they would learn that even after Israel completely evacuates a country like Lebanon or a territory like Gaza, they are still attacked over and over again.

    Is that what you meant, David?

  • themiddle,
    after Israel evacuates? The two Israeli soldiers were captured in Lebanon according to some. Debatable, I agree. But water pumping stations where bombed in the south of Lebanon. You do know what water is used for right?

    What about the West Bank? I don’t think you are being honest to yourself when you say “Israel” and “completely evacuates” in the same sentence. Unless you are talking about Israeli evacuating Palestinians from their own West Bank…

  • David, the two soldiers were captured inside Israeli territory. Period. You see, when Israel left Lebanon in 2000, they had the UN come and certify that they had left every last inch of Lebanon and the UN signed off on it. Even the so-called disputed area of the Shabaa Farms was considered by the UN and deemed to be Syrian territory. When Hizbullah attacked and killed three soldiers while kidnapping two, they entered Israeli territory to do so. This was an unprovoked violation of an internationally recognized border. Not only that, but they also launched another attack simultaneously to divert attention from this attack and that one came close to civilians and hit civilian areas inside Israel and not on the Lebanese side. There is no equivocation about any of this and if you’re reading some other sources elsewhere, I’m afraid they are merely seeking to establish some fog here. Don’t worry about it, the pro-Palestinians do it expertly all the time, so why wouldn’t you see it with Hizbullah?

    Second, I haven’t read about water pumping stations being bombed but if they were used by Hizbullah for their activities, they are fair game. To be clear about this, Hizbullah has shown a strategic purpose in using civilians, civilian buildings and UN buildings as cover for this war. They do it knowing that Israel will be more reluctant to hit them, and if they do hit them they will be vilified for it. While I might feel sorry for the civilians in the crossfire, I don’t understand how you propose to fight Hizbullah if these are their tactics.

    They were entirely out of Gaza, I notice you didn’t challenge that. They were attacked from Gaza however, just as they were from Lebanon.

    As for the West Bank, they have not evacuated presently and since 2002. However, the Israelis did evacuate the areas called Areas A under Oslo beginning in late 1998 and until March 2002. In that time, the Palestinians, through a number of their groups including Fatah, Hamas and others launched numerous shooting and bombing attacks on Israeli targets inside the Green Line (meaning Israel’s 1967 lines). It got to the point where in March of 2002, they killed 128 Israelis, virtually all of them civilians, and maimed and injured hundreds of others. Since the IDF returned to these Areas A, in which 98% of the West Bank Palestinian population lives, attempted attacks have remained at a high number, but their success ratio is less than 5%.

    Anything else you’d like to discuss about what happens when Israel leaves an area?

    Oh and as for your comment about “evacuating Palestinians,” you should be clear that according to the PA’s own numbers, the Palestinians inside the West Bank and Gaza total 3.9 million. Considering that in 1949 they numbered 600,000-750,000 it would seem foolish to try to discuss anything like what you’re proposing.

  • themiddel,
    you still don’t get the point. Regardless of your long winded post, Palestinians are living under dyer conditions partly because their land is currently occupied by a foreign power. Even if someone gave them an inch back, they are entitled to way more then that. Check-points and road-blocks turn everyday life into hell for these people. The only reason the road-blocks are there is to protect Israeli settlers. Towards whom do you think they will direct their anger and frustration? They are desperate and have been wronged. What do you expect?

    Gaza, challenged in this discussion or not is irrelevant. As long as part of the country, and a very large part to boot, is occupied… and as long as Israel is assaulting them in their way of living… they will remain desperate and angry.

    Commenting on the change of the population is really week themiddle, truly useless and pointless. Once you take control of your neighbor’s land, what is the next move?

  • Ah, I see. You say something false about Israeli policies but when I respond with facts, you complain about the facts and propose more false information. When I respond in factual detail again, you complain I’m long-winded and justify Palestinian violence even if Israel leaves land on which they live. You then bring up more false information about Gaza, since Israel was entirely and completely out of there and propose that my response to your cagey comment about Israel evacuating Palestinians from the West Bank is “weak.” I suppose because, once again, it’s based on facts.

    If the Lebanese were neighbors, they were apparently pretty lousy neighbors. Attacks have been launched from Lebanon on N. Israel in the past. If you know another way of stopping the attacks other than sending in the army, please propose them. Just be sure not to include a full-fledged, UN-sanctioned withdrawal from every inch of Lebanon because that was tried and the results are known to all.

    If by taking neighbors’ land you mean the Palestinians, you should note that Israel proposed a return of 100% of Gaza and 90% of the West Bank in the summer of 2000 and at the end of 2000/beg. of 2001, 100% of Gaza, 97% of the West Bank plus land in exchange for the remaining 3%, reparations, control over the Arab parts of east Jerusalem and over all the Christian and Muslim holy sites. You know what the Israelis got in reply to their offers? War.

    Sorry David, the problem you have is that Israel and the Palestinian plight are the result of Arab attacks on first the Jewish community and then Israel going back to 1920. In the end, the Arabs have been on the losing end for decades and yet they keep on attacking and complaining when they end up losing land. The fact is, and it is a simple one, that if the attacks and the threats stopped coming at Israel, Israel would not respond. Do you see them attacking Egypt or Jordan? No.

  • Interestingly, the Palestinians were neither particularly desperate nor particularly angry when the West Bank and Gaza were annexed by Jordan and Egypt, even though their economic situation was much worse then than now.

    Curiously, despite the foreign occupation, the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank felt no need to strike out violently against their occupiers, even though they were being denied statehood. The one incident of Palestinian anti-Jordanian violence was the assassination of King Abdullah in 1951, but it wasn’t because of occupation – it was because there was a rumor he would make peace with Israel.

    So, to sum up: when the West Bank and Gaza were wholly annexed by foreign countries, the Palestinians showed no interest in statehood. When Palestinians were offered statehood multiple times in the post-Oslo era, they launched a war rather than continuing to negotiate for more favorable terms.

    Hmm.

  • Miri Eisen and Dan Bilderman are the best. Great job. We love Israel…America!!!

  • Miri Eisen has presented Israel case the best. well done, Good job

  • Yeah, screw them for trying to defend their borders and their citizens and soldiers! Damn! We just can’t let this stand! Frickin’ frick!

  • Yo chris do you think its right to attack ambulances? use chemical weapons? attack hosptials? that’s what israel has done. name one time arabs have attacked israel without having israel attack arabs. you think all people in the dungeons of israel are people of attacked them? some are babies, some kids, some women and some are people who attacked because israel attacked them. israeli’s use to make arab hostages dig a hole and would shot them so i.e. they dug there own graves, besides miri said that olmert wanted peace give me on article where olmert said he wanted peace

  • it sounds fair to say that you’ev got a point. did you guys know that nasrallah didn’t want war and asked for a tradeoff but israel refused and attacked? I have a question for this chris kid. Dear, if you had a country and 8people died from your country and 2 captured, would you attack them without talking about it, attacking injured people, HOSPITALS?! attack their fuel? and use chemicals? thats horrible! Chris dear, go to sites and look at how many deaths there are for lebanon and israel, you think 50 israel deaths and 1000 lebanese daeths plus 1000 lebaense injuries plus 4 UN peacekeepers (killed purposly for some reason by israel) is worth 8 israelis and 2 hostages? i mean come on kid, israel is killing 100s of palestines a day and no one cares? why would it be big win only 8 israelis die? My foolish friend, go to google and type in George galloway savage sky news and watch the movie then talk but dont talk like an idiot as you have, hisibillah attacked israel because they’ve attacked lebanon. did you nkow in 1982 israel attacked a man for lebanon and israel waged war? doesnt make sense but that’s israel bye kid and learn some politics then talk

  • Nice website but why dont you show the 100s of pictures of the lebanese side? i mean because the israeli casualites are limited fuck jews and fuck israelis fuck all of you all fuck you all fuck you fuck you

  • Jimmy, Rebecca, re, do they breed stupidity into you folks or does it just happen spontaneously.

    (Spontaneously means randomly, if that word is too big for you. And randomly means by accident or by chance. Chance is something that happens in nature. It’s the essence of nature, you could say. Do you understand? Am I going too fast for the three of you?)

    So let’s go back to the begining. In the begining there were 2 soldiers and their outfit minding their business, patrolling their borders and doing their thing. Along comes Hezbullshit and kidnaps them from their own country (some fruitcakes dispute this fact, but let’s get past this so that we can continue with the lesson), this is an act of war, you simpletons. The Israeli’s have no idea what has happened to these soldiers that have been taken or why the others in their outfit were murdered for no apparent reason (other than ignorant hatred, which you seem to be a victim of yourself).

    So this brings us to the facilities you say were bombed by Israel. I’ve seen on the television news and on the internet that there have been some accidents, and that Israel has publically apologized for their bombing of several targets that weren’t meant to be bombed, but I’ve never, not once, heard anyone make such a stupid remark as ‘they bombed the UN on purpose’. Are you retarded or otherwise ill in some way? Perhaps you need to turn off Al-Jazeera for a few minutes and listen to reason for a change.

    That’s really all I have to say to the three of you.

  • Hey it’s chris again first off i dont like hisiballah either and second off dumbass, tell me this, where is my article? You didnt answer my question? Where are the artciles of the lies taht israel said? and tel lme this man, if israel is so good, then tell me one time they were attacked by arabs whereas they weren’t attacked by israel? and sir dumbass israel attacked 4 UN peacekeepers because they dont want peace, but Miri Eisen said olmert does, so wheres my article? and again you didnt justify the attacks on the hospitals? the chemical weapon usage? or the ambulance attacks? And finally Chrisshit, tell me why it is right for Israel to attack Palestinians each day killing 100s of children (because there is no army overthere) but its not ok for people to attack the israeli army when they were attacked by them. and again why didnt you answer the part about 1982, israel attacks a lebanese man and israel calls war on lebanon, why didnt you comment on george galloway’s video with sky news? afraid? If there are any big words for you let me know ok? Because not only is my english better than your’s but im smarter too. Btw don’t forget that Israel apologized for Qana but nothing esle, why? Do you think Qana was the only attack on civilians, women and children? I dare you dumbshit to fine my more than 2 pictures that show the death of nonecivilan Lebanese citizens. And btw, if Israel wanted to give power to the Lebanese army to stop Hisiballah why did they attack 26 army soldiers? If you can answer all these questions, then talk but if you can’t shut the fuck up. Justify the ambulance attacks. Give me an answer for everything I said I dare you. Peace out , btw Al-Jazeera isn’t the only new station showing this information smartass, if you speak french like me, you can watch the french news and see this too, i speak 5 languages, how about you dumbass I am a doctor, i have a PhD in history, and i’m a medical doctor. I was first in my school of 1000, and first in college. So i dare you to prove any of my information not only faulse, but answer my questions.

  • i forgot about this chris, According to the Yediot Aharanot, Israeli newspaper, it said the Israeli’s are truly happy due to the progress in the United States halting the UN from doing anything to stop the war. However, the newspaper also said the Israeli’s are a bit upset because they have not completely annihilated Lebanon as the United States has wanted. Answer this? and dont talk unless you read the newspaper or learn Hebrew

  • i forgot more chris, if you know english then i guess that would mean you can watch larry King’s show. Did you see the one where the Israeli started saying that how could thes Hisiballah people attack a little kid on a bicycle, the Lebanese man said what about the 100s of kids who are dead from Israeli rockest. The israeli man yelled you killed a kid on the bike and the lebanese man said what about the 100s of kids dead, so you dumbass jews are saying that one israeli kid’s life is worth 100’s of lebanese lifes? I mean if you really believe a jewish life is worth more than a lebanese life then tell me from now so i can stop talking to you because not only will that prove your racist, but that no matter what i say, anything done to israel is wrong because they have speical blood, which goes along with there real special brains,

  • David R is right, themiddle talks a bunch of shit, did you know that israel took palestine over, after being kicked out frmo the rest of the world, they attacked palestins and when the arab countries tried to defend the country, america aided the terroists (israel) and attacked the arab countries, so its ok for israel to take over a country, and its ok for israel to bomb lebanon (and if anyone can find an article saying lebanon attacked israel first i will give them 10000 dollars)and its ok for israelis to still kill palestinss but its not ok for one israeli to die, then i guess you are a dumbass

  • I would have replied to the rest of your points but really there is not point to your points. What I mean to say is that you are too…how do I put it…

    You’re too engaged in your own rhetoric that you can’t look at it from any other angle.

    I mean, look at your posts, you’re such a hateful and ignorant person. Why should I even bother?

    And BTW, I’m not Jewish. I don’t have that pleasure just yet. Please don’t refer to me as “you dumbass Jews” It’s not only insulting but it shows that you have no idea who I am and that you are simply typing whatever hate you can come up with. So save your fingers and your keyboard the trouble and try typing about…I dunno, whatever you type about when you aren’t spewing forth vitriol.

  • So in other words you have nothing to say because you have no justification to my previous points, thank you for admitting you were wrong in an indirect way, at least you saved yourself from some shame and embarrasment. I will no longer look at this forum so feel free to type whatever you would like.
    Thank you for your time
    Jimmy

  • Bye Jimmy. Next time don’t use so many monikers, it’s confusing to our readers. Make sure also that you send money to the destroyed hospital in Nahariyah.

  • I’ve been reading these posts and it looks like it’s really getting heated up. I don’t know much about politics, next to nothing really. I just don’t understand why people should make contributions to the Nahariyah hospital, from what I’ve heard, 3 hospitals were hit in Lebanon and the destruction there is greater. But again I could be wrong, I’m not really much of a politician lol

  • Just have to say that I think Miri Eison is a very good spokesperson for Israel and find her remarks and comments to be excellent.

  • Could you please email me a good picture of Miri to use as a background for my PC. Everyone that I click on just get distorted. She is one intelligent lady besides being very cute.

  • [gratuitous negative comments about someone’s personal appearance are irrelevant to the conversation and have been deleted. –EDK]

  • go from 4:30 to 6:00 in the video and you will see israeli did attack the UN and look up the interview with jon snow and zri and you will see his lies, and you can also go for amy goodman interview and see again how the israelis lie

  • Tom/Jimmy/Jim/Etc., you are responsible for over a quarter of the comments in this discussion under different names concluding with the propaganda video with the underlay of the Arabic singer and encouragement to “turn to Islam.” I’m afraid you aren’t very convincing. Maybe you should suggest a video with Britney Spears as the underlaying music?

  • If videos of israeli officials isn’t convincing, interviews, newspaper articles aren’t convincing what will it take to convince you if words from actual israelis dont? i mean ignorance is one thing but stupidity is another but anyway i got a quesiton for you, i understand that it may not be convincing, so answer this, i have many websites but the site doesnt allow me to post it because it is censoring things that what convince you, how do you except me to convince you when the site deletes the sites i put. I put a site for people to see, 5 minutes later it was gone, i did it like 5 times with the same result, then i put israelrules.com and it kept it so what should i do

  • There not hate sites, the one I posted that you deleted had no words, only pictures, nothing else. If you really wanna debate this we’ll do it in a clean way. I ask a question, you answer. Yesterday, 2 Israeli soldiers were killed in Lebanan in Baalbak by Lebanese people because they entered Ballbak. Wasn’t it wrong for the Israeli’s to enter Lebanon specifically after the UN forbid anymore violence or entering of one’s border?

  • why don’t you just admit that you can’t debate because you have nothing. I finally got it! I did convince you but your too stubborn to admit it aren’t you? You read the points given from before to Mike and you can’t answer them, you can’t justify the hospital bombings, or any of that stuff. Why don’t you admit it? And if you think showing people picturse (without words at all) to people and showing them what’s really happening is hate spamming go ahead, just don’t kidding yourself. I really didn’t think there would be people that don’t admit it when evidence is given to them that the country there supporting has lied and killed innocent people only. You’ve read all the points from Jimmy, and you can’t answer one of them, that’s why you’re not gonna debate, its not that your not interested its that you can’t and your too stubborn to admit it. I got many jewish friends, a shit load, and they all don’t agree with what’s going on and they live here in America just like I do. Dude, later, If you’re not gonna change your mind on something after evidence is given, after videos showing Israeli’s lying, no matter how much I give you, you won’t admit to it because you want to say what’s in your mind and nothing else. Whatever

  • well i think miri is great.. she seems to know what she wants and how to get her point across pretty well. thank!!!!!!!!!!

  • Miri Eisen is a children killer dike, may she burn in gay hell. I hate that bitch watch the utube video posted from on eof the posters above, she is the devil.

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