[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 1 (Monday, January 14, 2008)]
[Pages 17-20]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Interview With Yonit Levi of Channel 2 News

January 4, 2008

Middle East Peace Process

    Ms. Levi. Mr. President, firstly, thank you so much for taking the 
time to talk to us.
    The President. Welcome to Washington.
    Ms. Levi. Thank you very much. You're just about to come to the 
Middle East. And in Annapolis, you said that the parties will make every 
effort to reach an agreement, until the end of 2008. And I--you know, I 
don't want to sound skeptic, but I'm an Israeli, and it's in our nature.
    The President. Right. [Laughter]
    Ms. Levi. Why do you believe that you can reach peace in 12 months, 
when it hasn't been attainable in the 7 years of your Presidency and 
long before that?
    The President. Yes. I think we can reach a vision of what a 
Palestinian state would look like. But I have made it abundantly clear 
that the existence of a state will be subject to the obligations in the 
roadmap. And so the goal is to have a--something other than just verbs, 
words. In other words, that the state--here's what a state will look 
like. And what's important for that is that the Palestinians need to 
have something to hope for, something to be for. There needs--Abbas, who 
has agreed that Israel has the right to exist, must be able to say to 
his people: ``Be for me; support me, and this is what can happen. If you 
follow the way of the terrorists and the killers, this will never 
happen.''
    And so I'm optimistic that we can have the outlines of a state 
defined. And in other words, negotiations on borders and right of return 
and these different issues can be settled. I'm optimistic because I 
believe Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas want to achieve that 
objective. I know I'm willing to help. But I believe we can get that 
done, and I think it's in Israel's interest to get it done.
    One reason why it was impossible to get a two-state solution moving 
forward previous to this is, one, when we first came into office, there 
was an intifada. Secondly, a lot of people didn't necessarily agree with 
the two-state solution as being in Israel's interest. Ariel Sharon 
changed that point of view. Prime Minister Olmert campaigned on that. 
And so we have a good chance.
    I do want to emphasize, however, that the state won't come into 
being just because we defined a state. It will come into being subject 
to the roadmap, and that's important for the Israeli people to 
understand.
    Ms. Levi. So there won't necessarily be a complete, ratified, signed 
agreement by the end of 2008.
    The President. There will be an agreement on what a state would look 
like, in my judgment. I think it'll happen. I also believe that the 
leaders know me, and I know them, and that there's a--you know, they 
say, ``Well, are you going to have a timetable?'' One timetable is the 
departure of President George W. Bush from the White House--not that 
that I'm any great, heroic figure, but they know me, and they're 
comfortable with me, and I am a known quantity. And therefore, the 
question is, will they decide to make the efforts necessary to get the 
deal done while I'm President, as opposed to maybe the next person won't 
agree with a two-state, or maybe the next person will take awhile to get 
moving?
    And so there's a--I am not going to try to force the issue because 
of my own timetable. On the other hand, I do believe Prime Minister 
Olmert and President Abbas want to see this done. And therefore, I'm 
optimistic it will get done by 2008.

Iran

    Ms. Levi. So I am moving on to Iran, and I think the question on 
every Israeli's mind--and you're the best man to answer it--is, is Iran 
an immediate threat to the existence of Israel?
    The President. Yes. First of all, if I were an Israeli, I would take 
the words of the Iranian President seriously. And as President of the 
United States, I take him seriously. And I've spoken very bluntly about 
what that

[[Page 18]]

would mean, what an attack on Israel would mean if Iran were to do that.
    Ms. Levi. You said world war III, if I----
    The President. Well, I did. And I said that we will defend our ally, 
no ands, ifs, or buts. And so--now, I am--one of the concerns I'm sure 
amongst the Israeli population is whether this intelligence estimate 
that came out-- what does it mean. It means to me that Iran was a 
threat, and Iran is a threat. In other words, just because they had a 
weapons--a military covert program that it suspended doesn't mean, one, 
they could restart it, and two, doesn't mean that their capacity to 
enrich couldn't--in a so-called civilian program--couldn't be 
transferred to a military. So I see it as a threat.
    Whether there's an imminent attack coming, I don't think so. The 
Iranians, I'm confident, know that there would be a significant 
retaliation. The key, however, is to make sure that they don't end up 
with a weapon. And one of the things I will talk to the Prime Minister 
about again is our strategy to solve this issue diplomatically.

U.S. Foreign Policy

    Ms. Levi. You say ``diplomatically,'' but is a military strike still 
an option until the end of your Presidency?
    The President. Well, the U.S. always maintained a military option. I 
have told the American people that I believe we can solve this issue 
diplomatically. Diplomacy works best when all options are on the table. 
And we're making some progress. The Russians and the Chinese as well as 
the other members of the U.N. Security Council supported two Security 
Council resolutions, which some might say aren't very effective. I think 
they are.
    I think they're effective in the sense that it creates a sense of 
isolation amongst the Iranians. And I constantly speak to the Iranian 
people when I say, you can do better than a Government which is causing 
you to be isolated; your economy can do better than it's doing. Because 
of your Government's decision not to be honest with the world, not to be 
transparent, not to listen to the IAEA, there will be continued economic 
sanctions, some of them unilaterally, some of them bilaterally. The 
sanctions on their financial institutions, for example, can be very 
effective.
    And so the United States--we've spent a lot of time on this issue, 
keeping the pressure on the Iranians.

2008 Presidential Election

    Ms. Levi. So we're looking to something a lot nicer, the upcoming 
U.S. elections. And I seem to recall you liked to be on the campaign 
trail. You were there twice, and you won. Are you a little bit, you 
know, envious of the candidates?
    The President. It's an interesting question. I know exactly what 
they're going through. Laura and I--well, Laura and I were talking about 
what it was like the day before, like, the Iowa caucuses. You know, I've 
been through three Iowa caucuses: one, when my dad beat Ronald Reagan in 
1980 and then lost; two, that when my dad came in third in Iowa in 1988 
and won; and, of course, our own caucus, which then--you know, we win 
Iowa, go immediately to New Hampshire, lose, and eventually win.
    And so there's a--it's just the beginning of a long process. And 
it's an important process for an American politicians because it does 
two things: One, it lets the electorate see how people handle stress; 
and equally importantly, it lets the candidate, the running--person 
running determine whether or not they have the inner fortitude necessary 
to be the President of the United States. Because if things were okay 
and everything is, you know, smooth, the job is kind of--it's 
interesting. And it's always interesting, don't get me wrong, but when 
times are tough is when you're really tested, when you have to make the 
tough decisions of war and peace. And it requires an inner fortitude 
that I think that you begin to develop when you're out there in those 
primaries.
    So this is the beginning of a fairly long process, although it's 
been--to answer your question, I don't wish for things that are 
impossible to wish for. And so I'm an observer, but with a pretty 
intimate knowledge of the sentiments that these candidates are going 
through.

[[Page 19]]

President's Legacy

    Ms. Levi. I imagine so. You are, you know, reaching the end of your 
Presidency in a year, and it's sort of the season to summarize. Can you 
tell me what your--you consider as your biggest achievement, and what, 
if anything, do you regret?
    The President. Yes. First of all, I'm going to get a lot done next 
year.
    Ms. Levi. Of course.
    The President. I really am. You know, there's this great myth about 
how the President, because there's an election or because it's the last 
year of his Presidency, not much is going to get done. Quite the 
contrary. We'll get a lot done.
    I would think that--first of all, I don't believe there's such a 
thing as an accurate short-term history. I'm still--I read a lot of 
history these days. I like to read a lot about Abraham Lincoln, for 
example. And if they're still analyzing the 16th--the history of the 
16th President, see, then I--the 43d guy just doesn't need to worry 
about it. I'll be long gone. But I do believe that----
    Ms. Levi. Isn't that kind of sad, that you won't be appreciated 
enough until after you're gone?
    The President. No, what really matters in life is, do you have a set 
of principles, and are you willing to live your life based upon those 
principles? That's what matters most to me. My priorities are really my 
faith and my family. And we're blessed with a lot of friends. And I 
just--I'm not the kind of person that's--I don't spend a lot of time 
looking in the mirror, I guess is the best way to say it. But I do 
believe that--I can predict that the historians will say that George W. 
Bush recognized the threats of the 21st century, clearly defined them, 
and had great faith in the capacity of liberty to transform hopelessness 
to hope and laid the foundation for peace by making some awfully 
difficult decisions.

President's Future

    Ms. Levi. And finally, can I ask you, when you do leave the White 
House--you're still fairly young, you know--what's next for you after 
you're the leader of the free world?
    The President. Yes, you know, I don't know. I do know where I'm 
going to live, and that's in Texas.
    Ms. Levi. Texas.
    The President. I tell my friends from Texas, I left the State with a 
set of principles, and I'm returning with the same set of principles. 
And I didn't compromise my beliefs in order to be the popular guy or the 
hip guy or the guy that every--you know, the cultural elite likes. But I 
don't know. I'm going to build a library with a freedom institute 
attached to it.
    And it's not just freedom from tyranny; it's freedom from disease. 
One of the great initiatives of my administration has been the HIV/AIDS 
initiative on the continent of Africa. Laura and I are very much 
involved in an initiative to end malaria. And thanks to the taxpayers of 
our country, we've dedicated about $1.6 billion to help save babies' 
lives. It's the tyranny of hunger, the tyranny of ignorance. I mean, 
there's all kinds of ways that I think I can help others realize the 
great blessings of life.
    But I haven't gotten there yet. I've got too much to do. I mean, 
I've been thinking about this trip to the Middle East today, and I'm 
excited to go; I really am. You know, my first trip to Israel, and only 
trip to Israel, was in 1998. And I remember being in a hotel room and 
opened the curtain over the Old City, and the sun was just coming up, 
and it just glowed. It was golden. And I told Laura, I said, I can't 
believe what I'm looking at. And after she got her contacts on--
[laughter]--she came and looked.
    And, you know, one of the great ironies of that trip was that I was 
on a helicopter tour of the West Bank with Ariel Sharon. You know, life 
works in funny ways. I had just finished a reelection campaign in Texas, 
and there was a lot of pressure and a lot of talk about me running for 
President. But I don't think either of us would have guessed that both 
of us would have been serving in our respective offices at a defining 
moment in history. And that defining moment is the willingness of free 
nations to confront the ideology of hate, those who use murder to 
achieve political objectives. And yet there we were.

[[Page 20]]

    I'm saddened by the fact that he's in the state he's in. But 
nevertheless, it was--the beginning of a relationship started in a 
helicopter flying over the West Bank in 1998, and I'm glad--I'm really 
glad to be coming back. And I'm looking forward to being with my friend 
Prime Minister Olmert and other leaders.
    Ms. Levi. Mr. President, thank you so much again for taking the time 
to talk to us. Thank you so much.
    The President. You bet. Thank you.
    Ms. Levi. And have a safe trip, and best of luck. We're all keeping 
our fingers crossed for you.
    The President. We'll be fine.
    Ms. Levi. Thank you.

Note: The interview was taped at 4:05 p.m. in the Map Room at the White 
House for later broadcast. In his remarks, the President referred to 
President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) of the Palestinian Authority; Prime 
Minister Ehud Olmert and former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel; 
and President Mahmud Ahmadi-nejad of Iran. The transcript was released 
by the Office of the Press Secretary on January 6. Portions of this 
interview could not be verified because the tape was incomplete.