The following is a script from “Benjamin Netanyahu,” which aired on 60 Minutes, Dec. 11, 2016. Lesley Stahl is the correspondent. Shachar Bar-On and Alexandra Poolos, producers.
On our recent trip to Jerusalem, we found a surprisingly optimistic Benjamin Netanyahu, who has served the longest stretch as prime minister in Israel’s history. He told us his country has never felt as secure or less isolated. But it’s been a tumultuous eight years between Israel and the U.S. over the Iran nuclear deal and the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. So part of his optimism relates to the election in the U.S. Netanyahu and his followers on the Israeli right, are greeting the idea of President Donald Trump with a resounding l’chaim.
Benjamin Netanyahu: I know Donald Trump. I know him very well. And I think his attitude, his support for Israel is clear. He feels very warmly about the Jewish state, about the Jewish people and about Jewish people. There’s no question about that.
Lesley Stahl: With Trump, do you think that Israel will not be as at odds with the United States as you have been under the Obama administration?
Benjamin Netanyahu: Yeah, we had differences of opinion with– I had differences of opinion with President Obama and most well-known, of course, is Iran.
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