On April 21, 2009, Neumann gave an interview in which he stated that Israel is an "illegitimate state" but also stated that Israel should not be destroyed. He quoted from his book The Case Against Israel in which he wrote that "The cure of destruction is worse than the disease of illegitimate existence. In practise, wiping out a powerful state like Israel or the U.S. would cause even more suffering than letting it survive."[1]