IHIP News: Dem Senator's BOYCOTT of Trump's State of the Union Has HIM in MELTDOWN! I've Had It Feb 24, 2026 IHIP News
We are joined by fighter and Senator Chris Murphy to prepare for Trump's State of the Union Address.
Transcript
Today I'm joined by Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who in my opinion is one of the biggest resistance leaders. And today we're going to talk about the incoming rambling dementia hour that is called the State of the Union. Senator, are you going or staying away? Hell no, I'm not going. I mean, he's made a mockery of the State of the Union. Like, listen, I I care about institutions. I want to preserve democratic institutions, but he has like lit this one on fire. And we don't need to be a backdrop for his histrionics. Uh it just legitimizes what's going to go on tonight. And that's a whole bunch of lying. That's a whole bunch of grandstanding. Um so I won't be there. I I'll be with a bunch of my colleagues, a bunch of guests who are going to tell the story of what's really going on in this country. will be down the hill from the capital outside in the freezing cold uh telling the real story of what's happening in the United States today. Good for you. I I saw recently that one of your colleagues on the other side of the aisle, Mike Lee, um tweeted something. Kylie popped this up and he tweets, "Cartel hitman wear masks. Leftists aren't complaining." and you duck dunked on him immediately and responded with, "Oh, dear Mike, I literally couldn't make our argument better than you do. The bad guys wear masks. The good guys don't." And of course, uh, Mike Lee um has already deleted his tweet because he got owned by you. But let me ask you this. Since we know that Christy Gnome, Donald Trump are making a mockery of our institutions, do you think ICE needs to be abolished? Oh, well, I mean, you are going to have to scrap what we have today and rebuild it. I mean, listen, I think we have to have some capacity to enforce our immigration laws, but um this version of ICE can't do it. So, tear it down, rebuild it with something that is humane, compassionate, enforces the laws, but doesn't terrorize immigrants, uh protesters, and the communities in which they live. So, listen, there's no doubt that the next president is going to have to tear down this version of ICE, this version of CBP, um, and rebuild it from, um, the ground up. So, this, um, homeland, they have such a massive budget. And a story that's really been bothering me is the billions of dollars that have been allocated to purchase warehouses. And in these warehouses, they want to concentrate human beings. One could call these concentration camps. And this to me, when you see what they're doing with the masks and you see where they're heading with these warehouses, I don't think that they should be given a scent. I don't think Congress or Senate should give them a scent. Zero daylight. What is your position on that? Well, I agree with you that until this agency is obeying the law, until they stop terrorizing our communities, our children, and migrants to this country, they should not get any taxpayer dollars. I I mean, I swore an oath of office, and my oath of office commands me to uphold the Constitution and the law. This is a lawless agency and so we should not fund an agency that is operating outside of the bounds of the law and outside of the bounds of morality. This is a black and white issue. Uh and the American people are with us on this. They have seen what ICE is doing. They know that just because maybe it's disappeared a little bit from the headlines doesn't mean that ICE doesn't continue to violate the law and the constitution. And so I think the people are with us. don't fund the Department of Homeland Security until they start complying with the law. And there's no doubt that those warehouses, by the way, are going to be used in an effort to violate the law. Who are they going to put in those warehouses? They are going to put legal immigrants to this country. And again, that it's really important that we understand what they're doing. They are not going after violent criminals. maybe 5% of the people that are housed in these detention centers are people with serious violent histories. They are not going after illegal immigrants I if that's even the appropriate term. They're going after people who are here showing up for their court appointments, applying for asylum, obeying the law. Those are the people that are going to be thrown in those warehouses, which is another reason uh on top of what are likely to be inhumane conditions in those warehouses that we should not provide ICE or DHS any additional money beyond what they already have to build them. Yeah. I mean, these are really paperwork issues and the way they are treating human beings. You saw um Liam Ramos. He had his little beanie on with the bunny ears. And there's thousands upon thousands upon thousands of kids like that in the United States right now. And a lot of them are hiding like they're hiding in their homes because they don't want to go out in public. And what I think has been so horrible about Trump 2.0 know is the delight in which Trump and his cult of personality enjoy this form of recreational cruelty. The way you hear Steven Miller when he gets on uh cable news, the way he talks about it, their social media where they use um showing people shackled up and they put ASMR like it relaxes them and then you have oh forget that oh Nancy Maze is her name. She says for fun when she gets home from work she likes to watch ICE raids. And so beyond Trump, okay, this guy's old. He's a dementia duck. Something's going to happen before we know it. But what he's incubating, Senator, is what really concerns me. What he is incubating in American culture right now. I worry that the Democrats are not putting up enough of a resistance to this because these oligarchs own all the algorithms. So, as we head into the State of the Union, which is awful, the state of the union is really bad. Let's you and I talk about the state of the resistance, which you and I are in. And so, the state of the resistance I feel is meh. I don't feel like it's that great right now. I feel like it could be better. I feel like MAGA doesn't hate our Democratic leaders enough. Remember how much they hated Nancy Pelosi? What do you What's your take on the state of the resistance? Well, we're not good enough. I I mean, I'll just be honest with you, we're not good enough. Um what I think um allows me to sleep at night is that um the president has not been successful in suppressing popular disscent. Um, we still have huge numbers of people showing up to protests. Um, record numbers for the last No King's Day. Um, when there are elections happening, voters are turning out in huge numbers and rejecting his candidates. Um, but there's another story when it comes to elites. Corporate elites are doing nothing to stop him. The media is folding left and right. Um, and while we have had good moments here inside the institution, we haven't had enough of them. I mean, frankly, every Democrat should be boycotting the State of the Union speech tonight. Um, there there should be no Democrats providing a backdrop for what he is going to do and say. Um, I don't frankly think that we should have funded the Department of Justice um or the Department of Defense uh so willingly without at least having an argument over putting constraints on DOJ's ability to lock up and pursue Democrats or DoD's ability to pursue illegal wars overseas. I'm glad that we're doing what we're doing right now. This is a strong moment, saying no funding for the Department of Homeland Security until they start behaving legally. But we could have drawn that line with DOJ or with DoD, not just with the Department of Homeland Security. So, um I think the my assessment is that the public um has not gone underground, has not been bullied into silence, that we have had moments where we have risen to the task. Um but there's still a lot more to do. I really appreciated um you said that you regretted your vote um for Marco Rubio and I really appreciated the honesty in that because I have uh kind of had a political evolution of sorts since Kla lost and I realized that I kind of bought into kind of the corporate idea of what the Democratic Party is supposed to be and I was a good MSNBC Democrat and I see so many of the Democratic leaders that I would die on a hill to vote for servicing corporations before they surface workingclass Americans. And I saw the way the Democratic establishment treated Zoron in who was who won his primary and how they treated him in New York. And it just step after step after step, I would say I've kind of been deprogrammed off of this corporate democratic yuck that the party seems to have. And the last time you were on my podcast, I remember you saying something where you said, you know, I used to think Bernie, I don't know what's going on with him, but I'm finding myself more and more in agreement with him. So it seems like you two have kind of evolved on some of these things. And I think political evolution and admitting our mistakes is important. It's growth. And so where are you now with corporate money, corporate dims, and affordability and the zoron donnies of it all? Yeah. I I just don't think that politics any longer is sort organized around traditional leftright dynamics. I I think the most important cleavage today is um are you for corporations and their continued consolidation of power or are you for workers, right? Do you wake up every day trying to think about how to make the market work better for corporations or do you wake up every day thinking about how to empower workers? Um and I think that the American public understands that the corruption of our economy is downstream of the corruption of our politics. that these corporations get everything they want from our economy because they get everything that they want from our government. And so if you don't get corporate influence out of our politics, then you have no hope at fixing and unrigging our economy. So I did used to take corporate pack money. I don't any longer. I I probably, you know, would have listed um cleaning up private anonymous corporate money in politics as a top 10 issue. Now I think it's a top two issue. Um, I don't think the Democratic Party regains its legitimacy in this country at large or with lower income voters unless we wake up every day trying to get corporations out of our politics so that we can pass the the big reforms necessary, the reforms that Bernie Sanders and Zoran talk about um to fix the big problems that regular workers out there are facing. You know, I've been really surprised at the capitulation by industry titans because in my world, like if you have you money and somebody like Donald Trump is trying to bully you, you'd be like, "Fuck you. You're only going to be here for four years. My company's going to be around longer than you're going to be president." 80-year-old dementia boy. I mean, that would be like the the big thing if you had that kind of money, but they all have capitulated. And it's so gross. It's so disgusting to see them treat their customer base, the American workers, with such disdain. All right, let's move on to the State of the Union tonight. So, you're going to watch it. Do you think you're going to have any sort of like shot games? Um, you know how you can take a shot if some if Trump says something like what what if we were to my viewers at home, to my listeners, what do you think that the word should be that we all take shots? Oh, it's a it's a it's a great question. I don't know. I won. Tre tremendous. Tremendous is maybe my best my my best guess. Um but I wouldn't recommend I mean that sounds like that sounds like a miserable way to spend your night to get like sloppy hangover drunk watching Donald Trump. Like if you're going to get that drunk and have to deal with a hangover, like I don't know, like do something better with your night than watching this charlatan. How many times do you think he's going to say that he won the 2020 election? I mean, over under like the overunder is maybe is maybe three, four. I mean, you know, I mean, to be serious, like he is getting ready to try to push through the Senate. um you know this this this bill the SAVE act that you know he thinks is a pretext for the federal government to take over state elections. It it really isn't. But like that is on his mind every single day. It also may be true that the reason we invaded Venezuela is so that we could capture the guy that Trump thinks rigged the voting machines in 2020 and under duress he can get Maduro to claim that that happened. Don't you think he's going to pardon Maduro and to get Maduro to say that? I mean, like I just think like you have to understand that this is the thing that motivates him to get up every morning like they're basically like two things that drive Donald Trump's day. Uh, one, covering up for himself and his friends their involvement in a child sex ring and two, proving that he never ever lost an election. like that's ba Owen building a ballroom, right? Those are probably the three things that he spends 75% of his day on. Um conspiracy theories relative to the election, covering up the Epstein scandal, and building the ballroom. Um and I wouldn't be surprised if he spends some time talking about uh one, two, or three of those things tonight. And what are your predictions? The Supreme Court's going to be there. They just gave him a big L on his tariffs. he's wound up like a cheap clock over that saying that the uh Supreme Court justices are under foreign influence and all of this stuff and um that's a pretty you know that's a pretty big claim for a sitting president to claim about the justices that the ones a couple of them that he appointed. Um I think he's going to I think he's going to go off on that. I don't think he can say on script. I don't think he has the ability to do it. What's your prediction on that? I mean it might be in the script. I mean, I think he's he's a I mean, he's a bull he's a bully and he really does believe um with evidence that bullying conservatives works, right? He has bullied um congressional Republicans. He has bullied Senate Republicans. He believes that he can bully Republicans on the Supreme Court. And here's my worry. I mean, my So, I listen, they got the decision right on the tariff case. It was black and white. it wasn't a a tough or hard call. Um but I worry that you know they're they're they are crossing him on tariffs in part because it's good for the corporate class um that helped elevate people like Gorsuch and Roberts and Coney Barrett so that they can give him a victory on something that strikes more deeply at the heart of American democracy like an attempt by Trump to take over elections in Minnesota or Georgia or Pennsylvania, they're all politicians, right? And so they're trying to, you know, preserve part of their legacy while staying in good graces with the Trump ecosystem. Um maybe I'm sort of too cynical about the way the Supreme Court makes decisions, but I don't think so. this tariff um case, you know, may be quickly followed by a decision on, for instance, the federalization of elections that could be really, really damaging to our ability to survive this fall. I think that's a really good point because I always think when I watch Trump and all of the people surrounding him, they are governing like they're never going to face accountability. And Trump is never going to face accountability for any of this because the Supreme Court gave him immunity. They are the architect of this lawlessness. It starts with the Supreme Court that handed down the presidential immunity. And so I have zero faith in this court. And I think that as I I your cynicism I think is what we need right now because we have to be cleareyed about who they are and who we're resisting. And you're exactly right. That's exactly what they're going to do. They're going to they're going to this was okay. We're going to be normal here and then they're going to us. You're exactly right. one for you, one for one for you. And um in the end, like they got elevated to the court because they're in with the Trump crowd. And Trump really does believe that if he um marginalizes them with that in crowd, um that it will affect their decision-m and you know, he's been right in terms of how that's impacted everybody from Mike Johnson to John Thun. and he's probably right about that when it comes to the Supreme Court. They're politicians. I mean, Gorsuch, Coney Barrett, they got to the court because they played the game. Um, and they're still playing the game. And right now, Trump runs the game. Uh, when it comes to the American right, um, I'm just not counting on any of them being heroes. I I completely agree with you. We have to come to the terms with that. I think we're if we ever get power again, we're going to have to term limits on justices. We're going to have to reform the Supreme Court. There needs to be an accountability oversight board. I mean, Clarence Thomas, his wife was involved in the coup. He has no business ruling on, you know, cases that have to do with January 6. And I also think, and I want to get your opinion on this, the president is running a pardon racket right now. You can pay a million dollars and you get pardoned. Don't you think we need to do away with the presidential pardons? Yeah, I do. I haven't sort of given a ton of thought to this yet, but that seems sort of patently obvious at this point. That that clause is now just rife for abuse. Um, and so, you know, there's probably some really good ideas out there on how to limit it. Um, maybe you don't have to get rid of it, but it's just a racket right now. Totally. Just a racket. And you know, I mean, given that the United Arab Emirates are like putting $180 million secretly in the president's pocket, a million dollars to, you know, one of Trump's lobbyist buddies, you know, looks quaint in comparison. So maybe we don't talk about the pardon corruption as much as we should, but increasingly the polls are starting to show that people are increasingly focused on the corruption. I think at the beginning they had kind of priced it in. They knew Trump was corrupt. They were willing to excuse it, but they're now sort of coming face to face with the sort of nuclearra level daily corruption. And folks are starting to say, "Yeah, I knew the guy was corrupt, but I didn't think he was this corrupt." And I think if we keep talking about it, just telling the truth about what he's doing, you know, this will be what, you know, gets that 39% approval rating down to 36. And man, when you're at 36, uh, you can't win the It is 36. New Washington Post, Washington Post poll came out yesterday and it's at 36. Is it 36? Yeah. I mean, that's that is the number at which like, you know, Democrats running for the Senate are winning Iowa and Alaska and Texas. And so keep we got to keep talking about corruptions. You know, I probably talk about it more than any of my colleagues. I'm going to actually go down to the floor in the next few weeks and give a long speech just going through the tick tock of what's happened in just the last few months. Um, but keep focusing on it. Just because the American public didn't respond to that narrative right off the bat doesn't mean that the cumulative impact of the corruption isn't going to start to change the way that they think about him. Yeah. I think I just think the um the Oval Office is it's operating as a crime syndicate. I just I think that he is operating using the federal government. All of our hard work, all of our 250 years, all of our good faith, our imperfect he is using it to enrich himself and his son's dumb and dumber right in front of our faces. And I just it every day, like every day, um that's what they're that's what they're doing. and they um and they decided early on. I mean, the first term they were involved in corruption, but it was I don't know kind of lower level, more peripheral corruption. This time, because he he knows he's probably not likely going to be in the Oval Office for more than a couple years, he's just going to make as much money as he can off of the office and people are starting to figure it out. I completely agree. I'm so happy that you're not going to the State of the Union. I like that you're not giving him an inch. I think that is the way to go because he's such I call him because I'm from the south a titty baby and that kind of getting no attention is the best way to deal yeah with him. Senator Murphy, thank you so much for all of your hard work. Um so many people look to you as a leader of the resistance and I know all of my listeners do. So we'll keep watching you. Awesome. Thanks for having me.
Tucker Confronts Mike Huckabee on America’s Toxic Relationship With Israel Tucker Carlson Premiered Feb 20, 2026 The Tucker Carlson Show
The Mike Huckabee interview, and the truth about America’s deeply unhealthy relationship with Israel
Why We Were Interrogated in Israel
We're about to play you an interview we did with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabe two days ago in Israel. In general, it's never worth talking about the backstory behind an interview. It's kind of not the point. It makes it about the interviewer, not the person being interviewed for one thing. For another, it's not that interesting most of the time. Um, and for another, it's kind of off the record. you know, the other person hasn't consented to you telling the story. So, in general, we don't do that. Who'd want to hear that? Let the interview speak for itself. But in this case, we want to tell you just a few things about how this interview came about because they are pretty interesting, revealing, and now weirdly relevant apparently. So, this interview with Mike Huckabe came about a couple of weeks ago um on Twitter. One of our producers showed me, he said something to the effect of, "You're talking to Middle Eastern Christians, Tucker Carlson. Maybe you should talk to me. Why don't you come do an interview?" And I paused for a minute. I thought in the past about trying to interview Mike Huckabe, whom I've known for over 30 years and worked adjacent to at Fox and I had mixed feelings about it. Um, mostly because it's hard if you're me to interview Mike Huckabe because of just the personal affect. to my cuckabe is jovial, comes off as friendly. He's a grandfather when annoyed. I can be nasty in interviews. And so it's it takes a lot of self-control to interview someone like Mike Huckabe. Not not cuz I hate him, but because it's hard to ask him tough questions and not come off as a jerk, which I often am. So, but I thought in this case, yeah, I should definitely do this. Um, for a bunch of different reasons. mainly the United States is moving toward a big war, a real war with Iran, a regime change war. Um, the biggest war we've had since the invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003. And Israel is driving that. We are doing this at the behest, at the demand of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. So, it seems like now is the time for more Americans to understand the dynamic between the US and Israel and to call attention to that. And for another, Huckabee's behavior in the last year in Jerusalem as the ambassador has been very very striking. He famously had a meeting with the most damaging spy in American history. Um, and why did he do that? He hadn't been asked uh by anybody up until two days ago, why did you do that? So, I I wanted to be able to ask him that. Um, and so we accepted and then began the usual negotiations about when and where the interview would take place. And we were constrained because we weren't expecting this. We wanted to do it quickly, but we had tons of travel. So, we threw them a date, them being the American embassy, uh, we can do it on this date. And they were very accommodating. And then the question became, well, where do we do it? And maybe a Christian holy site. We said, we've got to get in and out really quick. Got to be back to do a bunch of other interviews, but we've got this time frame. They said, "Well, why don't you do it at the US embassy or maybe we set that?" Great. US embassy. So, the US embassy is about an hour 55 minutes from the big airport in uh Israel, Bengarian. So, we said, "Okay, what about security?" Now, at this time, the Israeli government, the prime minister included, were attacking me in this show. Netanyahu suggested I was a Nazi, uh, for example. And so, we thought, you know, how about security? Obviously, um not because the Israeli government necessarily would do something bad, but because there are a lot of people in Israel who think because they've been told, you know, that I'm an anti-semite or a Nazi or want to kill Jews, this kind of crazy overstatement. Um all untrue, obviously. Uh but it would be good to have security. And I should say, uh having done interviews on six out of seven continents over 35 years, I'm not very security conscious at all. never really feel uncomfortable, but this seemed like a a prudent thing to do. So, we were told by the embassy spokesman, "No, we're not going to provide security." And so, we said, "Okay, I guess we'll get private security, but could we get someone from the embassy to ride in the car with us from the airport to the interview?" And we were told, "No, could we get what they call a control officer, just an American with us, an offic, you know, in an official capacity as a embassy employee with us?" No. quote, "For legal reasons, we can't do that." So, I thought, "Well, that's very strange." And then they said, "But instead, we're turning you over to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, MFA, and they're going to arrange everything in Israel." Well, this was within 24 hours of the Deputy Foreign Minister, Sharon Haskell, releasing a video calling me an anti-semite and an enemy of Israel. This was the person who the embassy was telling us was going to handle all of our travel. So it was at this point that I just called I called the spokesman from for the US embassy in Israel and I said okay I'm an American citizen responding to an invitation from the American ambassador to Israel and by the way I'm the son of US ambassador so I have some sense not an expert obviously but I have some sense of how this works and I think that the US ambassador has discretion to send somebody from his office to the airport to accompany someone in. I think that's right. And if it's not right, tell me what law you're talking about, what legal reason you're talking about that would prevent that. And now you're sending me over to a government official who's been calling me a Nazi. That's the person in charge of getting us to the embassy. Like, what is going on here? And the embassy spokesman, who's totally nice, said, "Well, this was the decision of someone called David Brownstein. He's the DCM, the number two guy in the embassy." And I said, "Well, put him on a text exchange. Like, what is going on here?" And so Branstein got on and didn't answer the question, but basically said, well, okay, let's just do the interview at the airport in the diplomatic reception area at the airport. Okay. I said, um, we're going to be flying in from Europe, uh, and we had to be in and out really quickly, so at great expense, we chartered a plane, which I never do cuz I'm cheap. Um, but we did. And so then I said to them, "Okay, I want to send you uh the flight information, tail number, flight number, route, um and I want you to pass that on to the Israeli military just so you know they don't mistake us for an Iranian drone or something." I mean, not to be paranoid, but again, this is probably the most violent country in the world, Israel. Is there a country in the world where a higher percentage of the population has held a gun or shot someone? I mean, I don't know the answer, but this is a country uh famously waging a sevenfront war with all of its neighbors, you know. So, this is also the country that bombed the USS Liberty knowing, we know this from NSA intercepts, that it was an American ship. So, don't, you know, just send the military our flight information and uh, you know, we can all just sort of know it's on the record and we can all calm down a little bit. No, they said the US embassy said, "No, this is your flight is not a a matter of concern to the Israeli military." I said, "Okay, now now you're making me uncomfortable. Isn't the airspace of Israel the purview of the Israeli military? Aren't they in charge of maintaining the integrity of their airspace? When you fly over the country of Israel or any country, its military keeps track of you because that's their job. So, why wouldn't you send our flight information to the Israeli military? You're making me nervous. I sent this exchange. I took a a screenshot of it and sent it to a bunch of people, including in the US government um because I'm not a paranoid person and I'm not a jumpy person. I said, "Is this weird behavior?" Yeah, it's really weird behavior. All of them said that. So, I got pretty aggressive and just said, "Look, you got to do this." Okay. and they to their credit got back to us and said yes we will we will do that but I just thought that was completely bizarre and menacing by the way now at the same time and I think this is relevant certainly it goes to motive I was attempting to set up a meeting as I have been for the past 3 months with the prime minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu who I've dealt with a lot in the past um and who denounced me as a Nazi uh in public a member of the woke reich And why was I trying to do that? Not an interview. I knew he wouldn't sit for an interview. Um but I wanted just to meet with him in person. One, to show that I'm willing to go to Israel. I don't hate Israel as a country. Um but two, just to to say directly to him, this is bad. This should be deescalated. This kind of rhetoric doesn't help anybody. Calling people calling me specifically a Nazi and an anti-semite when you know that I'm not. By the way, if I was, I would just admit it. I've said many times, I think anti-semitism is immoral. It's against my religion, just as hating any group on the basis of their bloodline is immoral.
So I really pushed hard for this meeting and I called a lot of people who know him and who are in regular contact with him. In fact, I went to go see some of those people directly. Please, can you help me get a sit down for 5 minutes with Benjamin Netanyahu and I probably called or met with six, seven, eight, maybe more people on this question. People in official capacities, people in the Israeli government. I know I know a number of people in the Israeli government, people in Israel, a friend of mine in California who knows him. I mean, I really really tried and I did so for two reasons. Um, one, because there was a threat to my family, uh, the Israeli government and Netanyahu himself tried to punish two members of my family. I won't be more specific, but actually punish two members of my family because he, as he has said in public many times, believes in blood guilt. Amalecch. You know, when someone commits a crime against you, you punish not just him, but his family, his bloodline. There's no idea that's less western than that, more anti-Christian than that. Christians reject that. Um Netanyahu doesn't. That's why he's talking about Amalcch. And he was going after my family, literally. Uh so I felt very threatened by that. But moreover, I think it's bad for my country to have people using that kind of language. Round them up, bring them to the camps, gas chambers, Nazis, anti-semitism. It scares the heck out of people. It makes people crazy and hysterical. And certainly in my case, none of that is true. I hate collective punishment. I hate attacking people on the basis of their bloodline. I hate anti-semitism and anti-white racism and all of this, any kind of racism, period. And I've said that a lot. So using that kind of language against someone who is not fundamentally your enemy who just in my case I want Christians in areas controlled by Israel to be treated with dignity to have rights and I don't want the US government involved in a war a regime change war with Iran. Those are my priorities and I've said them out loud. I have no secret agenda. So to attack me as a Nazi for saying that suggests a total unwillingness um to compromise. You know, anyone who doesn't agree with us 100% must be destroyed. His family must be attacked. My family um and must be written off as a Nazi. Well, when you do that, it makes people hysterical. It increases the temperature to a point that, you know, someone's going to get hurt if you keep talking that way. And it's just bad. It's bad for the United States. it's bad for the world. So, I wanted to deliver that message. Um, I finally wind up wound up talking to a guy called Yorum Hazonei who is an Israeli who famously organizes uh the American conserv national conservatism conferences. And I said to him, look, you're having a national conservatism conference in Jerusalem uh this summer. You asked me to speak at the first, I think the first national conserv conservatism conference in the United States and I did. Obviously, I believe in national conservatism, America first. I think every nation should put its own people first. That's why you have governments. Um, and I would like to speak at this one. And moreover, I would like you to ask your friend Benjamin Netanyahu to meet with me. And we had this sort of long back and forth. And it was, "No, you cannot speak at the National Conservatism Conference because you're an anti-semite." "No, I'm not." I said, "Yes, you are," he said. And I said, "Well, I really would like to speak to BB to kind of deescalate this." and he said, uh, it would not be in his political interest to meet with you. That's almost verbatim what he said. Uh, therefore, no. So then I realized, you know, you're dealing with people who are unreasonable, who are inflexible, who are in fact fanatical. Uh, and then add to that, of course, that my tax dollars are paying them. You know, it's all pretty distressing. So that was the backdrop um behind our very brief and highly intense trip to Israel. So we show up on Wednesday, fly in from Europe again at great expense. Um and show up at the diplomatic terminal of Bengurian airport where this interview is going to take place which is bizarre in itself. Filthy building. The windows are so dirty in the terminal you can't see out them barely. There's like exposed drywall. The whole thing is depressing and grim. There's litter outside. Like what is this? This is the diplomatic terminal in Israel. Um I thought that was very strange having been in a lot of diplomatic terminals. I've never seen a rattier one. We go in and Huckabe's there and of course he's totally friendly as he always is. um very very friendly guy and uh cheerful and we sort of chat and the whole place is filled with these guys in t-shirts, thuggish looking guys in t-shirts who are some kind of security. So we do the interview, you're about to watch it. Um it's very long at 2 and a half hoursish and I try my hardest to be friendly. Uh I think I kind of succeeded. You can judge for yourself. Um, but you I really got the sense and again you can decide as you watch it that uh Huckabee was not well able to answer any of the questions um but also not really in charge. You really got the feeling of a guy sort of trying his best to to repeat the talking points but very constrained like unable to say certain things not because those things might harm the interest of the US government. He was happy to attack, for example, the US military and say they're more brutal than the Israeli military. Okay. Um but unwilling to say certain things because they might reflect poorly on the Israeli government. And you sort of thinking about this for a second. You're like, "Wait, you're the US ambassador. You're our representative to a foreign country. Why is your red line criticism of that country? Shouldn't you be representing us?" And it was very obvious he was representing the Israelis. Obvious. And again, you can judge for yourself. But anyway, so we do this interview. It was cordial. And at the end, uh, we're set to fly out. We have a time. We have to get out. And the plane is sitting right outside. And we're ready to go. And for some reason, the Israelis still have our passports. There are five of us um there. And four of us are flying out on this plane. One's flying out commercial with our gear. So my business partner and I were standing there. We we've never left the airport, never went anywhere. But our two producers have spent the night in the night before in Tel Aviv, and they're called into rooms and given the third degree. Now, keep in mind, they're about to get on a plane and leave. In fact, we're late. We have to get out of there. We have a slot to get out. And security, whoever this is, won't won't let them go. So, I don't really know what's going on at this point. I'm like, "Where are our guys? We got to get out of here." So, one of them comes out and he says, "That was the weirdest experience of my life. They asked me questions about the interview. Who did you speak to?" Keep in mind, this was like 8 ft from where we did the interview. Well, the US ambassador Mike Huckabe, what did you talk about? Why did you ask those questions? Was it a hostile interview? Of course, everything in the diplomatic terminal is taped. Everything in Israel is taped. It's a police state. It's a surveillance state. Obviously, you go to Israel, they put software on your phone. Everybody knows this, okay? They're constantly spying on you more than probably any other country. And so they know the answers to these questions, but they're asking my producer like, "Where do you work? How many people work there? Do you go to the office? Where is the office? What are their names?" They're doing like an intel op and humiliation exercise on my producer. This isn't security. We're leaving right now. And they're holding his passport. The interrogator is holding the passport in his hand as he's asking these questions. So he's telling me this and I'm I said, "This is the most outrageous thing I've ever heard. Puckabe's gone by this point. You're an American citizen who's just had a conversation with the US ambassador and some thug is demanding details of that conversation and I hope you didn't answer." And he's like, "No, I I didn't. I don't know what to say." Meanwhile, our last guy, our the youngest man who was traveling with us, our last producer is still in a room being questioned. So, I pull over one of the guys and said, "I I we got to get out of here." So, I don't know what this is about. It's outrageous. And you know, there's nothing I can do about this point, but we got to go. And this woman comes up to me and says, "Look, let's just go. We're going to bring you to the plane and he'll come later." I said, "No, it's my producer. He's being interrogated. ask totally over-the-top, fully inappropriate questions that have nothing to do with security at all. You know, pull up your website, show us your text exchanges with other people on your staff, what what are your politics like? And again, what did you say to the US ambassador and what did he say back to you? Those are not relevant questions if you're trying to keep your country secure. Those are intel questions and they're over the top. And I said, I want this guy out now. Let's go. You know, we got to go. Oh, and they said, "No, no, just leave him here. We'll bring him to the plane later." Twice they told me that. Just leave your guy behind. No, I don't think so. So, I was enraged by this. Um, get on the plane, we get a text from a reporter who somehow knew that this had happened. I have no idea how. I had no interest in publicizing it, actually. Um, there was, you know, a a long trail that showed that the US embassy had been coordinating against us in a in a public relations battle before we even got there. You know, they were leaking that we we demanded to do it at the airport because we were afraid to go into Israel. We're cowards. Okay. We're cowards, right? Um, and so I just said to the reporter by text, you know, they pulled my guys into a room interrogating them. This is outrageous, etc., etc., etc. The interesting thing is I never heard from Huckabe or anybody to this moment from the US embassy about what security did to my producers. They didn't ask us and instead Huckabe went out and called me a liar. So, it raises again the question, who exactly is Huckabe working for? We're American citizens in a foreign country. He's our ambassador. He represents our country. We pay his salary, but he's taking the side of the foreign government without even calling to say, "Hey, what happened to you at the airport? Did you get hassled? Did your guys get hassled?" No. He just immediately repeats their lies. without even consulting us. So like what are we looking at here? We're looking at the reality which is if you're an American in Israel, you can be certain that your government will take the side of the Israeli government and not your side. And really, is that so different from the experience of Americans in the United States? Can you be sure that your government will take your side over the Israeli government? No, of course not. will always take the Israeli government's side over yours. And that's the core problem. Even if if you support a war with Iran, I think we really the most pressing issue for Americans is that we kill the Ayatollah or whatever, you still have a fair expectation that your government because it is yours, you pay for it. It exists to serve you and for no other reason. and you have an expectation that your government will take your side against a foreign government. But the daily lived reality, the obvious truth visible to every single American is that's the opposite of reality. In fact, if you criticize Israel in your country, your government will work to censor you. If there's a standoff between you and BB, you know whose side your government's going to take? BB's side. That is not sustainable. That is too humiliating. It's too clearly an inversion of the natural order. Your government exists for you, not for a foreign government. But that's not how we live in this country or in Israel. So that's what we learned. And one last thing, the Israelis apparently went may probably with the help of Mike Huckabe went to uh the surveillance tape inside the diplomatic terminal and pulled some clip and they're of course getting all their little bots online to promote it of me with my arm around somebody to show that actually I'm lying about what happened. That person was our driver who drove us from the plane to the terminal, a short drive. Very nice guy, good guy, Israeli guy. And um right when we arrived and he said, "Could I get a picture?" Of course. He's a nice man. So I just put my arm around him, took a picture. That's what that is. That was before the interview. It was before uh our producers were hassled by the thugs um and asked ridiculous questions. It was before any of this happened. So that's just uh another installment of the propaganda war. I thought we'd give you the backstory on that.
So, with that, here is our interview with Ambassador Mike Huckabe. I hope it's informative.
Ambassador, thank you very much for having us, Why Did Huckabee Meet With American Traitor Jonathan Pollard? for inviting me. I was grateful to be invited. Thank you. I I was grateful cuz I don't like all the the name calling. I've engaged in some of it. I want to apologize for that. I don't but I in general, I don't think people should be going immediately to motive calling each other Nazis or anti-semmites. I said I hate the Christian Zionists. I lost control of myself. Of course, I don't. I've apologized for that. I have problems with my anger. And so, I just want to apologize to you since you are a Christian Zionist. You and I have known each other for over 30 years. Over 30 years. That is totally true. Back when you were in Little Rock. So, yes, the newspaper. It's why I wanted us to have a conversation, talk to each other and not about each other. And I appreciate very much you're coming here to of course. And I'm only staying a couple hours unfortunately because I kind of shoehorned this in. But I hope that I'll be back soon and I hope that I can come back soon cuz I want to I actually like despite what you may hear, I actually like the country. I've been here a lot and there are a lot of things I love about it and um and I want to talk to people in it for like a week. Good. And get a better sense of it. Um so I want to ask you, everyone I've talked to in in preparation for this has said the same thing. Jonathan Pard like can exp I'm just gonna show the the name to you and have you explain. No, I'm glad you asked. You know, interestingly, there's been a lot of things about it. You're the first person who has asked me about it, which I find amazing. So, I'm glad you did. Really? Yeah. The very first. Well, it's better to like hear it. Sure. I met Jonathan Pard two times. Once I was making a speech in Jerusalem. This has been a few years ago. His wife was still alive at the time. And he was there. and someone introduced me to him and his wife. I said hello to them. That was it. Hi, nice to meet Esther, his wife. And that was it. I went and made my speech and I left. Um later his wife passed away uh here in Israel. And I sent him a note and just said, "I'm sorry to hear about your wife." I remember meeting her at the hotel and uh sorry to hear it. He then asked, "Could he come and see me?" He wanted to come and thank me for being kind to him. Um, he came to the embassy. I think we met for maybe 30 minutes. We had a nice, pleasant visit. The funny thing was the New York Times reported that it was a secret meeting. Tucker, if you've ever been to the US Embassy, you would know there's no such thing as a secret meeting at the US Embassy. There are cameras everywhere. You walk through Marines, you walk through security, you walk through the front office, and there's a dozen or more people that are going to check you out when you come. And before you get there, you're going to have to give us your passport information. You're going to have to be vetted and screened and all of this stuff. So, the idea that it was secret was ludicrous. The whole idea is, look, Jonathan Pard did something that was terribly wrong. Um, he sold secrets. He shouldn't have done it. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison and spent 30 actually was I think yeah I think he was sentenced to maybe more than 30 years but he spent 30 years in prison. Most people convicted of something similar uh which was one count I believe would have spent two to four but he spent 30. I don't have a problem with him spending 30 because I think what he did was despicable. I'm not defending anything about what he did, but even people like the former director of the CIA, um, a number of other senators on the Senate Foreign Relations of the Senate Intel Committee said that he should be allowed to leave and move to Israel if he wanted to. So, it to me was not as big a deal that I had this basically courtesy meeting. He wanted to thank me for being nice to him when his wife died. That's pretty much the you advocated for his release when you ran for I remember it in 2011 long before he had served 30 years. And I agree with you that there are a lot of people languishing in prison, you know, in our country and in this country, many countries, um, you know, for longer periods than they deserve. And I think it's a Christian impulse to to want to see them free. But this was the greatest traitor in modern American history who sold our battle plans sold our battle plans against the Soviet Union, our main enemy in the Cold War to the Israeli government, which according to our Reagan CIA director, Bill Casey, then gave them to the Soviet Union. So this was the most profound betrayal of the United States in my lifetime. Why advocate for that guy's release before he serves his full sentence? If that were the case in 2011, it would have been because I had a number of friends that uh suggested that he had more than served time and he didn't want to live in the US anymore. He wanted to live in Israel and uh but my association with him again I had never met him until I met him in Jerusalem at a hotel. That was the first time I had ever encountered him. I'm friends with a million bad people or I've talked to a million bad people. I'm sitting here with you. I mean, come on. I mean, Jesus hate with tax collectors. So I trust me I am do not judge people who are friends or know or enjoy the company of immoral people because it's not an endorsement of their immoral behavior. Pard is different I think once you become US ambassador the representative of the president of the United States in the United States of America in a foreign country and then you invite not only the most damaging betrayer in our lifetimes but also a guy who continues to advocate for betrayal. So he gave an interview, as I know you know, in 2021 to Israeli media in which he said, "I would encourage Jewish Americans with security clearances to spy for MSAD against their own country, the United States, because," and I'm pretty much quoting him, "All Jews should have dual loyalty." Mhm. That's a I mean, that's not repentance. That's not someone who feels bad about what he did. That's someone who's encouraging American Jews to betray their country. That's pretty heavy, don't you think? Oh, I do and I disagree with that wholeheartedly. I I think let's remember it was President Trump who probably facilitated his uh departure and uh I'm certainly supportive of President Trump. I think you are. And Per's not. He called him a madman after your meeting. That's why I say Per is is not for me the real issue. It was the fact that he did something that was despicable. I'm not denying that. Of course he did. And he paid dearly for it. 30 years in prison and he should have that. That's what he should have done. There's no no question about that. But why meet with him in the US embassy? Your colleagues said they were shocked. They said who were the colleagues that said they were shocked. Quoted on background in the New York Times. I think the meeting was in August. I this could all be fake. That's why I'm asking you. Well, the same New York Times said it was a secret meeting. And I'm telling you there's no such thing as a secret meeting in the US embassy. Do you see why the US ambassador hosting a convicted betrayer of his own country who's encouraging Americans to continue to betray their country would seem shocking? Well, I would say that it wasn't that I you make it sound like I'm hosting a meeting. I simply met with him. I meet with people all the time. Some of You just walk in without a No, they have to have an appointment. Of course they do. Oh, so it is hosting him then, I think. Well, I don't know if it was hosting, but it was certainly he was able to come to the US embassy to have a meeting at his request. I did, and frankly, I don't regret it. I I met with a lot of people over the course of the time I've been here, and we'll meet with a lot more. Um, that's it. So, if you spend the evening at my house, you are guaranteed to find yourself in a conversation about the Hallow app. We talked about it this morning. It is the best prayer app ever. This Lent, Hallow's Pray 40 Challenge invites users to step out of the noise of everyday life and dive into something much deeper. The parable of the prodigal son. It's a story about a man who leaves home, wastes everything, hits rock bottom, and then realizes something transformative. He can go back. And when he does go back, he's not punished. He's welcomed. He's celebrated. That story tells the truth that no matter how far you have gone, you can still turn around. You're responsible for your next choice. Even if you behaved in deeply unholy ways, and we all have, mercy still awaits you. This Easter, Hallow's Pray 40 challenge is the best way to stay in touch with the word of God, the good word. The challenge begins Wednesday, February 18th, and runs through Easter. Get three months free at hallow.com/tucker. It's the best. There have been um Americans in prison in Israel. Has Huckabee Advocated to Extradite Sex Offenders Who Flee From the US to Israel? There have also been and there continue to be dozens and dozens and dozens of sex offenders, accused sex offenders from the United States who fled to Israel, including one recently, an Israeli government official who was caught trying to molest a 15-year-old girl and fled to Israel and is not going back to the United States to stand charges for attempted molestation of a child. Have you advocated for the Israeli government to return him to the United States? I'm not familiar with that case. It has not come to us at the embassy. So, I'm not aware. Is this the person in Nevada? That is correct. Okay. County, I would imagine. So, yeah, I heard about it, but I heard about it through open source media. It was never something that was presented to us, but I would have no problem with uh him being extradited back to the US. You're the president's and our country's representative in the state of Israel. So, I think it would fall to you to advocate with your friend, the prime minister, to say, "Wait a second. We have a very close relationship. We're obviously the single largest source of outside funding for this country. How can you take an accused child molester and shield him from American justice? Send him back to the United States?" Have you ever had that conversation? No. Because the prime minister would not be the proper person. That may be right. pardon my ignorance but that would deal with an extradition. It would go through their uh court system and so the prime minister is separate very similar to what we have in the US where there is a separation of powers. So it would go through uh something other than the prime minister. Have you advocated to the courts to judges to anybody in the Israeli justice system? There has never been a request for me to engage in that. I I would be happy to do it if if the White House sent a message to me. I do work for the president. I serve it as pleasure. If anyone at the White House were to say to me, would you please go and make a case for it? But probably if that were to happen, it wouldn't come through the embassy as much as it would likely come from the Department of Justice at the US in DC. They would make the request. They might involve us, but they very likely would not. Does it seem strange to you that people accused of child molestation in the United States are allowed to have refuge in our within the borders of our closest ally? How? That doesn't make sense to me. Well, I would say that if you've molested an American child, shouldn't you be required to It's an allegation. Let's be clear. One of the things about our system of jurist prudence, you're innocent until you're proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. So if the charges are there, should he be extradited? I would say so. The charges are there. Yeah. Okay. So they should be, but that's a Justice Department decision and they're the ones who should be pursuing it. To my knowledge, they haven't. They certainly haven't engaged the US embassy over. Why would the Israeli government harbor fugitives from justice in the United States? I'm not sure that there dozens and dozens and dozens. In fact, there's an Israeli group that keeps track of them that is dedicated Jewish Israeli group dedicated to combating the molestation of children and keeps a long list and any you can look it up and I would I hope you're not saying that you think the Israelis support the molestation of children. Obviously, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that the Israeli government allows shields Yeah. accused child from justice in I'm not sure I could say that that's something that is provable. I don't know. But I am not aware that the Israeli government is shielding people. You obviously want to sleep well and fashionably Brooklyn bedding can help. Here at TCN, we take sleep time seriously. Try to get 8 hours. And a lot of the people here cannot help rave about their Brooklyn bedding mattress. The first thing you'll notice about your mattress is how stable they feel. That's because they're built to last for decades, not just years. It's American durability. 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And I'll give you a And I just want to make sure that I pronounce this this man's name correctly. It's Tom, I believe, Alexanderich. Um, I think that's right. And I've written it down, but of course my handwriting is so terrible I can't uh read it. But yes, he is an Israeli, I believe, cyber security official who was at a conference in Las Vegas last year and was caught up in a sting uh designed to catch people soliciting sex from children. He was one of a number of people arrested for this. He was arraigned and charged and then 2 days later he fled to Israel and did his first hearing by Zoom. He was allowed for some reason to leave for a foreign country having already been charged for a attempted molestation of a child and he remains here now and the is and there have been many news stories about this and I just wonder if you would ask the Israeli government to send to put him on a plane and send him back to face justice for attempting to molest an American child. It it doesn't seem complicated. No, I wouldn't mind doing that, but I want to find out if the Justice Department in the US has already sought to extradite him. Is there anything in process? I don't know. Why wouldn't they seek to extradite? I have no idea. That's a question for the Justice Department. I have many questions for Why Are There Still Classified Epstein Files? the Justice Department. Like, why are millions of Epstein files still classified? Why do you think that is? I have no idea. I haven't kept up with that. I've never met the man. I don't know him. You haven't kept up with the Epstein disclosure? I mean, only from a distance. I'm 6,000 miles but there's no question that he had extensive contact with CIA. I think you said it a turning point event. Everybody knows Jeffrey Epstein. I said everyone thinks and it turns out everyone was right that he did have I'm not sure everyone was right or everyone thinks. Okay, but you said that I was lying and I don't want to make this about I don't think I said you were lying, Tucker. I don't recall. I'm just saying why don't we release all the files and then we don't need to guess. I got no problem with that. Go ahead. it. Well, because you weighed in on it and said that this was not true when of course I said there was no evidence. Well, there's quite a bit of evidence, but you haven't apparently bothered to read any of the files. Is that what you're saying? I have not read the Epstein files. Apparently, you have Well, they're on the internet. But when you say that there's that everybody knows that Jeffrey Epstein was a massage, that everyone believes that. I don't think everybody does. I don't know. Oh, well, everyone knows that he had contact with, and by the way, not just Israeli intelligence, American intelligence, which is more much more distressing for me. I'm not Israeli. I'm American. I don't want my government having any contact with someone like Jeffrey Epste. So, the shame neither is on the United States, as far as I'm concerned, just to be totally clear about that. Everyone's very sensitive about the Israel connection, not at all sensitive about the US connection, which I find very revealing. We should care about what our government does first, I think. But since you weighed in on it and said there's no evidence, I'm surprised that since that evidence has been open to the public for a month, since you've already weighed in publicly on this question, that you've made no effort to evaluate that evidence. Why is that? I've just told you I was certainly not aware that there were some specific uh allegations. I knew about the former prime minister um but I don't know him. I'm not sure I ever met him in my many times. You know, I've been to Israel over a hundred times since 1973. The first time I came here was 1973, July. And uh that's almost 53 years of coming and going to this country. So, I know the country well. I know a lot of people here, but I don't know everything. And I don't know everybody, but I do know a lot of people. Of course. No. And I and I can see your love for it. And I I think that's great. I but I'm talking about the US government and its responsibility to you know there's a lot of complaint about conspiracy theories and everyone you know he's a hater everyone's assigning motive but there's a way to end these conversations very quickly with facts and I'm highly confused by have you brought this up to the president? Uh no I don't I don't work for him. I've said this many times. You don't work for him, but you you go to the White House and you see people there. You and JD Vance are very good friends. So, have you brought this up to them? Because I have brought this up in public. It's not on my portfolio, but apparently it's highly very strongly on your mind and I'm a significant concern for me. Should be for everybody. But if well there's an there is a charged child molester. But I'm saying if you are very involved in the details of this and you think it's the US government that's hiding and shielding somebody then bring it up to the people. But you don't I don't think that I know it because the justice department has said we have millions of documents we're not releasing. Why are they not releasing them? I I'm asking you as a US government official. Well, but a government official at the embassy in Jerusalem that has not one thing to do with the Justice Department and what they're investigating on any given day unless it involves and I don't want to argue or talk in circles, but you were the one who brought it up and said it's absolutely not true. I was only responding to what I heard you say. Okay. But now you know there's evidence and we can settle this debate. you haven't looked at the evidence and you're not pushing for the release of the total corpus of evidence and I'm confused because I want to believe that your goal is to get to the truth and the fastest way to do that is by releasing the evidence. Don't you think you suggest that I can release the evidence? I'm suggesting you could call for it right now. Well, I fine call for it. I would let's let's have it all open. I thought it was being all opened up for everything. Once it's open, I hope you'll read it because it's it's really interesting and then it puts to rest a lot of the the debate and it ends the name calling because we can say here it is right there and we don't have to call people names. We can just assess the documents. Let me ask you, would you bring it up? I hope you will bring it up to people at the White House. I've brought I've brought I'm bringing it up right now. I'm bringing it up now and I'm asking I just want to say this one last time as the US ambassador to Israel. I hope that you will make a formal request to the Israeli government to send every accused sex offender in this country back to the United States to face justice. And I don't understand why that hasn't been done. I I'm confused. Well, we'll try to clear up all the confusion that we have. Well, if someone's been accused of trying to molest a child, I think it's then then certainly and I'll check with the Justice Department because it is a DOJ issue and it would be handled through DOJ the US to the court systems in Israel. That's how it would be handled. But the first step is the Israeli government saying yes, we will allow you to extradite this person back. The person is being shielded by the government. That's why the person's here. That's why he fled here, so he wouldn't have to stand trial for trying to molest a child. I want to get to the as I said at the outset, Is the Israel of the Bible the Current Secular Government of Israel? I said something awful that I regret that my wife barked at me about. Um, I lashed out at Christian Zionists and evangelicals and I'm just want to say again that I'm sorry. Uh, I've always liked them because they're pro-life and they're also really nice people. So, for the third time, I'm sorry that I said that. I think part of my problem was I don't understand the theology and you are not a fake Baptist minister. You're an actual minister. You had a church for many years. You're an actual theologian. So, and I mean this with sincerity. I hear people say those who bless Israel will be blessed. I know it's a reference to Genesis. I don't understand the connection between that concept and modern Israel and the geopolitical world. And so I'm going to stand back and and let's first define because you know from my days as a debater in high school and college one of the things I knew you didn't start the debate till you defined the terms. Amen. Let's define the terms. Thank you. What is what is a Christian Zionist? What does that mean to you? What does it mean? I don't know. It's the people who call me a Nazi for asking what Israel means. I mean that's kind of my I don't even know. But here's the point. If you say a Christian Zionist is a person who has a brain virus and is guilty of heresy, that's a pretty big charge. I know. I shouldn't have made it. I shouldn't have made it. I made it out of anger and ignorance. And and I'm Christian, I think we can agree, is somebody who follows Jesus Christ. Exactly. Has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, believed in his death, burial, resurrection, has repented of one's sins, and they've accepted him as one savior. Was that fair? Christian. Define that Zionist. A Zionist simply means a person who believes that the Jewish people have a right to have a homeland where they have security and safety. Did you believe that the Jews have a right to live in Israel? Do you believe that Jews have a right to live in Israel? I that would be a Zionist. That's all a Zionist is. I have a million questions about what all of those terms mean. Yeah. But conceptually, I wish Israel no harm. I don't want to see I'm very You want them to have a a a place where they can live with safety. Let me So I I saw this recently in an extremely telling exchange between the lieutenant governor of Texas who I know and I've always liked and a woman I don't know, never met who's on the Religious Liberty Commission or something. And she said, "I'm a Catholic, but I'm not a Zionist." and they had this ferocious exchange and he kept saying and everyone on the panel seemed to keep saying you have to believe in Israel's right to exist which I've never kind of questioned just for the record but it did raise two questions I think are really important and I hope you'll answer them one is where does that right come from I would say it comes from essentially you could say it comes from the Bible I would say that it does but it comes also from a long iteration of historical precedents going to the Alford Declaration of 1917. It comes from the League of Nations 1927. It comes from the United Nations 1947. The Declaration of Independence of the Israel State in May of 1948. They were immediately attacked. They won the war. They were attacked again in 1956. They won the war. They were attacked again in 1967 by five countries. They won the war. They were attacked again in 1973 in the Yam Kipar war. They won the war. The point is, does Israel have a right to exist? They also had wars in 1982 in Lebanon. They've had two of those. They've had uh in I was there. Uh no, I'm very familiar with the modern history of the state. Okay. Pretty familiar, I think. And I've been a Zionist simply means somebody who believes that Israel has a right to exist. Now, the question is, do you believe Israel has a right to exist? I guess. I mean, I want Israel to exist. Well, no, but I want to know what that means. So, like, do other countries have a right to exist? Well, they do exist. Do they have a right to exist? You keep saying Israel has a right to exist. And I want to know what other countries have. They have a legal right because every international body in the last 100 years has said the Jewish people have a right to their indigenous home. But that's a legal right. Do they have a biblical right? I would say that yes, but you may say they don't. I don't know. I'm actually sincerely interested in finding out what you mean by a biblical right. But first to the legal right. Does any other country on the planet have the same right that Israel has to exist? Well, you could say does Jordan have a right to exist when it was Trans Jordan and the Brits came and divided up the Middle East and they gave some land to Jordanians and they gave some land to the Saudis and they gave some land uh to various Middle Eastern countries and it was all carved up and the French gave Lebanon its right to exist. Do they have a right to exist? Do they? Well, why not? Okay. So, that's my So, every country, does the US have a right to exist? I'm asking you. Okay. And I'm telling you, I think the US has a right to exist. Okay. We came here. We came there. We're in Israel now talking. But does the US have a right to exist? Does anyone question whether we have a right to exist? I don't. Yeah. But, but I of course I'm for America, you know. Good for you. But I So every current country on the map has the same right to exist that Israel has. Is that what you're saying? I think what we're saying is that when a country has established itself and it is following international law, it has been deemed by numerous bodies that it is indigenous to its homeland as Israel is. This is its homeland. It goes back 3,800 years to the time of Abraham. It's not that. Well, hold on. Now I'm getting the Jewish people just showed up here in 1948 and said we're going to we're going to have some Hold on. So those are two different tracks and I just want to make sure that we separate them so I understand each one separately. So you're saying there's the modern legal framework and so you said a country that abides by international law has a right to exist. I would say that that is a part would it be would the inverse be true that a country that does not abide by international law forfeits its right to exist? not necessarily if it has the capacity to stay and make its case known, but there have been Jewish people in this land, this very land for 3800 years.
Okay. So, but you're saying as the modern nation state with borders and a military and a kessid and just all the kind of trappings of a modern country, all of which I support, that country has every country on the planet has the same right as Israel to exist because it does exist. Is that what you're I'm just trying to understand the concept here. Well, I think what we're trying to get to is Christian Zionism. And you've taken this way off the road here. I know that I have. I don't mean to. Um, Christian Zionism is a separate thing, but I just keep hearing people say Zionism is the belief. That's the fundamental argument that's going on. Does Israel have a right to live in their indigenous ancient historical land, a land that has been affirmed throughout international organizations, a land that has direct ties to the Jewish people. I just want to know if this is a universal principle. I guess that's what I'm getting at because if it's not then it's meaningless to me because as a Christian I believe in universal principles. Something is right for everyone or it's wrong for everyone. I don't we don't believe in special cases. Question. If the Jews didn't have this land, would the Jews have a right to any land? I I don't know. I'm not attacking the Jews. I'm asking if this applies to every people and every nation. Does every nation have the same right to its own homeland, to its own physical land that you say Israel does? I feel like we're in a rabbit hole here. No, I think it's a very straightforward question. Does that right extend to other countries other than Israel? But the most important thing that is going on in our culture right now is whether or not the people that are yelling in the streets from the river to the sea, whether that that's a legitimate point of view to say that there should not be a Jewish homeland, there should not be a Jewish state. You'll never hear me say I just want to know. I know you haven't said it, but that's the argument. That's one of the arguments going on globally and the United States, excuse me, has a pretty narrow view, I would say, in our media culture, what's happening around the world. There are plenty of countries having this debate. Stonehenge is a lot older than the first temple in Israel, and it was built by the same people who live there now. It's the same people, and they are being pushed off their island and outnumbered by people from other places. And so in Great Britain, in Ireland, which is also a a country with a nation of people, a race if you will, that is being displaced, replaced. Who are they being replaced by? Immigrants, okay, from other places. I just wanted to clarify because I was one of the Well, just as a as a demographic matter, it's just like you can look at the numbers. It's not controversial. Just look at the numbers. They'll be a minority in their country and their people have been there longer than than Jews have been in Israel. And so they're having this debate, too. That's all I'm saying. And lots of places are having this debate. Sure. So, does that principle apply to everyone or is it specific just to Israel? I think it applies specifically to Israel. It applies to anyone who can prove that they have some connection to the land and connection to the history and connection to international law. But Israel, I think, does have bringing up international law. My So, if again, no, but but let me finish this because here's the here's the point. We're talking about Christian Zionism. The idea that as a Christian, I believe in both the Old and the New Testament. Why wouldn't I? I'm a person of the book. There are 80 million evangelical Christians in the United States. What makes us who we are is our adherence to the scripture. Our belief that the Bible, all of it, not part of it, but all of it is the word of the living God. Yeah. So if I believe in the Old and the New Testament, I do believe that there is a very specific call to the Jewish people that started with Abraham and he called them out of what is now modern day Iraq. Said, "Come where I send you." He came. This is the land. Genesis 12:3. He says, "I will bless those who bless you. Curse those who curse you." In Genesis 17, he looks out of the world. says look and this is where I'm giving you the land. I think since that time there have been people living in this land connected to that moment of history. So there is a historical connection that is not even broken. I you've said that and I want to ask you what that means a little more specifically if that's okay. But first let me just say that you could say the same thing of Britain who've been there in their land longer. Does anybody try to tell the Brits they the Brits they can't live there anymore? No. What's happening is But they are saying that to the Jews. Oh, okay. Okay. But I just wonder if you would extend extend the same sympathy or the same principle. You don't You seem like this is You think I'm trying to trap you? I'm not. I'm at all trying to trap you. I It'd be as simple as saying native Britain have I got no problem with the native Brits having their land. My point is I don't know that there is a biblical connection for the Brits, but I would say that's take that off the table and I think there's still a basis for the Jews having this little bitty strip of real estate and it is I'm not even arguing with you. I'm just trying to at all. I'm just trying to understand what it is that you're saying cuz it's it's not obvious to me and maybe it's an IQ problem but I'm having trouble understanding this. But let me just go back to just clarify one thing. You've brought up international at least twice, maybe three times. as a basis for Israel's legitimacy. If Israel was out of compliance with international law, whatever that is, would it be less legitimate? Depends on if the the law and the way it's applied is legitimate. There there are some applications of so-called international law that are not legitimate. Look at the ICC or the IC. I agree. Utterly ridiculous. One of the reasons I'm so grateful President Trump and Secretary Rubio are pushing hard trying to get rid of the ICC and the ICJ is because they have become rogue organizations that are no longer really about an equal application of law and justice. I don't know enough about it to say if that's true or not. I I um but I just I'm interested that you yourself appealed to international law as a basis of is Israel's what I'm looking at is the whole of the last 100 years. The Belffor declaration is not exactly international law by the way. It was a letter I think. It was maybe maybe not law but it was a declaration. It was a an assumption and a declaration that was done by Lord Balffor in the in Great Britain at that time. This land was under the British mandate and he said the Jews should have the land that was theirs from 3,800 years ago. It was simple as that. Right. And I'm not debating that. I'm just It was not not international law. It was a colonial power saying, "Okay, divide up the world under the League of Nations, under the United Nations." And then because of the victories that Israel had against those who tried to annihilate them and it wasn't just that they were trying to take a little piece of their land, they tried to annihilate them. Okay? And there is still to this day the shouts of from the river to the sea. And Tucker, that means only one thing. Not the shrinking of Israel, but the annihilation of Israel. I don't think I don't think you can say that you know what it means actually because you don't know what's in people's hearts. So why don't we just deal with the facts? Maybe some people mean it. It's in their mouths. I know it's in their minds. But I'm not Look, you'll never hear me say that. I What you will hear me say is I'm confused by what the definitions are. So let's go through this. You've appealed to Genesis. Genesis 15 says it's Abram. It's pre-Abraham. It's Abram receives from God the news that his descendants will inherit the land. And you tell me as the as the theologian if I'm getting this wrong, but from the Euphrates to the Nile, I think I think that's right. And that would include like basically the entire Middle East. That would be the Levant. So that would be Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon. It would also be big parts of Saudi Arabia and Iraq. It would be I mean not sure it would go that far. I mean it would be a big piece of land. But here's the It would be a lot of places that are now countries that but this particular area that we're talking about now, Israel is um is a land that God gave through Abraham to a people that he chose. It was a people, a place, and a purpose. We we can look at it that way. Christian Zionism, I want to go back because that's where we started on I'm not going to let you off on this because you have said it three times that God gave this land to this people and so it is entirely fair for me with respect to ask what land are you talking about because I just read Genesis 15 as I have many times and that land I think it says from the Nile to the Euphrates which is once again basically the entire Middle East. So God gave that land to his people the Jews or he didn't. You're saying he did. What does that mean? Does Israel have the right to that land? Because you're appealing to Genesis. Yeah. You're saying that's the original deed? It would be fine if they took it all. But I don't think that's what we're talking about here today. What would be fine? Well, it's exactly what we're talking about today. But but here's what I I don't think I think it would be fine if the state of Israel took over all. They don't want to take it over. They're not asking to take it over. But you're saying that the reason that Israel is legitimate, has this inherent right to exist is becau in part because God gave it to his people. And I am going to the same Bible that you're referring to and noticing that that is a huge piece of land. So if God gave them that land, then they have a right to take it now by your definition. Unless I'm missing something. I think you're missing something because they're not asking to go back to take all of that, but they are asking to at least take the land that they now occupy, they now live in, they now own legitimately, and it is a safe haven for them. Well, may I ask though as because you're appealing, you're explaining what Christian Zionism is and your theological beliefs and you think you just said it would be fine with you if the state of Israel took all of all of Syria, all of Lebanon. That's that's really not exactly what I'm trying to say. I'm asking, is that what you said? I thought that's what you just said. It was somewhat of a hyperbolic statement in that, you know, if that's what you feel like that we're talking about, but it isn't. We're talking about this land that Israel, the state of Israel, now lives in and wants to have peace in. They're not trying to take over Jordan. They're not trying to take over Syria. They're not trying to take over Iraq or anywhere else, but they do want to protect their people. No, they're not trying to take over Lebanon. But you're saying that as a religious man, as a Christian, a Christian Zionist, you agree with a lot of religious communities here in Israel, that the justification for this country is theological. It's a it's a contract between God and his people. And I'm telling you that that contract includes a tract of land that is much larger than the current nation state. may be a bigger Zionist than even the Jews are that live in I'm trying to understand the implications of your theology for geopolitics because you're saying that the present government of Israel has a moral right to take over what are now other people's countries. No, I didn't say that. Then what are you saying? I'm simply saying that the people who live in Israel um I think have a right to have security, have safety. They have a right to be able to live in this land that they have a connection to for 30 years. I told myself when I said a prayer that I would not get annoyed, but as someone who is, you know, the father of daughters, when I see child molesters hiding in Israel and escaping American justice, I think I have a right to safety in my country, too. So, you can understand that. I think most people feel they have a right to safety. I do think Israel has a right to safety and I I hope that for them and I'm sincere, but I'm an American and I have a right to safety in my country, too. You agree? And I think so, but I just want to get to this point. If Israel were to say, God gave us in Genesis 15, all of Lebanon, all of Syria, all the way up to Iraq, would that be legitimate in your view? I don't think in this particular day and time they're asking for it. Would it be legitimate? I'm not sure that it would be. Why? Because you just said that God because I think that there is a a an understanding that the people of Israel today. Now, if they end up getting attacked by all these places and they win that war and they take that land, then okay, that that's a whole another whole another discussion. But you and I started women. We started talking about something simple, Christian Zionism. But it turns out it's not because I don't the core of Christian Zionism, you said, and I'm quoting you, is the understanding, the belief, the theological understanding that Jews have a moral and legal, we went through the legal moral deriving from the biblical. the promises in our Bible which we share with the Jewish people, the first part of the Old Testament that it derives from God's promise to the Jews. And so I have two questions. What are the borders of that? And who are those people in 2026? And you're not the first person I've asked, but you're the most reasonable, most gentle, most theologically informed person. So I'm really hoping for an answer. The first question was the borders. I can't get an answer. Those borders are so I'm going to give up. But the second question is every bit as pressing which is who are the people? Who are the modern? Yes. Who are who are the descendants? So we know and I believe and I agree with you as a Christian that God promised this land from modern day Iraq to modern day Egypt to this people the Jews to Abram's actually not to the to Abram's descendants as it says in Genesis 15. Who are his descendants now? And how do we know who they are? I think they're the Jews. And we know who they are because they've always been a Jewish people. There has been an unbroken line of Jewish people. And they've lived in this land for 3,800 years. Sometimes not very many of them because they were chased out all over the world. They were hunted down. They were almost annihilated during the Holocaust. They came back. To this day, Tucker, they represent, you know, how many Jews there are in the whole world. Please. I understand. But first of all, the greatest genocide of Jews no one ever mentions was by the Romans where they were literally banned from Jerusalem for 500 years. Yeah, of course. And and it's all awful. And I'm opposed to all of that. I'm opposed to mass killing of anybody. Period. I'm hear you say that. I mean it. Yeah. And I hope that I believe that. My question is, and it's not a bumper sticker answer, it's a sincere answer. How do we know? Because what you're saying is that certain people have a title to a highly contested region. They own it in some deep sense. So I think it's fair to ask who are they and how do we know? So the current prime minister's ancestors weren't from here within recorded history there. He has no deed. BB Netanyahu on one side his family's from Poland. They're from Eastern Europe. So, how do we know that he has a connection to the people who God promised the land to, Abram's descendants? How do we know that? Well, if you take the genealogies that come not only from the Old, but the New Testament, you see that there is a historical connection through the entirety of the Old and the New Testament that details the Jewish connection to this land. Does that include family? How do we know that if his family scattered? But how do we know it's the same people? No. Wh why is that crazy? If if if you say to me if they speak the same language, if they worship the same God, if they follow the same Bible, if they follow the same cultures and traditions and they always pray next year in Jerusalem and they pray for the peace of Jerusalem and they pray facing toward Jerusalem, does that not give you a little bit of a clue as to who they are? Let's go through those things because I would like to have a rational. This is the conversation I've wanted. Bless you. Thank you for doing this. Um let's just go through those things. Okay. So, one of the things I admire most about Israel is they resurrected a dead language in 1948. Good for them. Well, they really didn't resurrect it. It It was existent. Okay. I'm not That's not That's a compliment. I'm not slightly No, no, no. But it is the first time in all of human history that a language has survived through this length of time. It's it's it's I would call it You might not, but I would call it a miracle. One of many, okay, that you can attribute to this. I think it's wonderful as someone who loves language. Netanyahu's parents did not speak Hebrew. Okay? They didn't live in this region. Netanyahu, the founders of this country were mostly secular. Some of them were avowed atheists. They were not praying for the peace of Jerusalem. They weren't praying at all because they didn't believe in God. There's no genealogy linking their families to the people of this land 3,000 years ago. They're none. So, how do we know since they didn't share a language? They didn't share a religion. They had no religion whatsoever. How do we know that they had a right to come here from Eastern Europe? And but they were scattered land. They were scattered to Eastern Europe. They were scattered all over the world. There were many in Ethiopia. They were in Russia. They were in Poland. They were throughout Asia. Jews were all over the place. But they were still Jews. They were still Jews. Okay. So, let me get to the nub of the question since again a lot is at stake. A lot of money is at stake. Land is very valuable. Uh, Israel has a lot of resources. By the way, if you're accused of a crime, you can hide here. That's pretty good passport to have. It's a good thing, right? So, who's entitled to it? I don't understand. And you're very discouraged in the United States from asking this question for some reason. It's a totally rational discourage. No, you're not discouraging. Others do. You're like the only person I have this conversation with. Everyone will be like, "Shut up, Nazi." It it's a foundational question. Are you speaking of an ethnic group or a religious group? Well, I think you're looking at for many people it is religious. There are people who may not have a deep religious connection to Judaism, but they're still Jews. Okay? So, it's it's an ethnic category. It is ethnic, but it is also religious. It is rooted in religion. You can't take it out of it. Now, that means then how can an atheist Well, I will tell you this. There are some people who say, "I'm Christian." They never go to church. They never pray. They never read their Bible. They don't tithe. But they're not entitled to citizenship on the basis of that. They still call themselves Christian even though they identify. Okay. Here's the difference. You're saying that people who have this identification have a deed to a huge chunk of land on the Mediterranean. Okay. So there's, you know, it's a it's a right. You keep telling me it's a right. And so it's totally fair to say if you come to my house and say, "I've got the title to your house." I get to ask, "May I see it? Where'd you get it?" And that's exactly what happened here. People from Europe, Eastern Europe, came here. In a lot of cases, atheists and kicked out a lot of people who lived here. Land. Well, they did not just throw people out. They bought a lot of land. There's no question about that. Buy a lot of land, but they also in 1948 kicked out a lot of people. And the war, it was a war. I agree. Yeah, I'm not look I'm not want to reitigate the history. I'm just saying it's a fact. Okay, including a lot of Christians. A lot of Christians uh wound up fleeing and they lost their homes and they've never been allowed back. And all of this was justified on the basis of this identity that forms that is the ticket to the right that you keep referring to. So my question Is Israel's Christian Population Declining? is very simple. I'm going to wait patiently for an answer. Does this right derive from religious affiliation or from genetics? And I would say it's both. But I would also say that when you said that Christians were kicked out, Tucker, Christianity is growing in Israel. Okay. But and and there is a big lie that goes out there. But but no, let me finish this because I I keep hearing that Christians are really not treated well in Israel. That's just simply that's a lie. Well, there are lots there are lots of different There were 34,000 Christians in Israel in 1948. There are 184,000 Christians here today. And by Israel, what are you counting? You talking about the land? What what what territory are you counting? You're counting Israel proper or are you counting the West Bank as well and Gaza? I mean, what what do you when you say Israel, those numbers apply to what land mass? It would be in Israel proper. Okay, there 184,000. Now, I'll tell you where Christians are not doing very well. They're not doing very well in the Muslim control countries. There's almost no Christians in Qatar, for example, except those who live in the Christian ghetto who are the service workers. I'm sorry. Look, I don't want to argue with you. There there are many more Christians in Qatar than there are in Israel. That's not true. What it actually is true and I refer you to Wikipedia, Mr. Ambassador. Wikipedia the I refer you to the government of Qar, the government of Israel. These are knowable facts. Like I'm and I'm in Jordan by the numbers are down. In Syria, the numbers are down. In Lebanon, the numbers are down. argue that about twice as many Christians, but they live in the enclave. They are not native Qataris. Okay, we're we're mixing so many different categories here. I'm just saying I get things wrong all the time. You've just gotten something wrong. And I think it's important to acknowledge it. There are many more Christians in Qar than there are in Israel. Fact. How many? Now, you caught me. I don't know. I could look at my phone, but I was just there. And there are many more like whatever. But I just want to get to the point that forms the basis of this whole conversation which is Who Has a Right to the Land of Israel? who has a right to the land. Yeah. And you said it's a mixture of religion and ethnicity because as I noted and you agree many of the founders maybe the majority of the founders of modern Israel did not believe in God at all. So they were not religious Jews. They weren't religious at all. They were atheists. They said they were atheists. I believe them. So that suggests it's ethnic. But it's also true, as you well know, because there was a famous court case about this, that ethnic Jews who convert to Christianity do not have the right of return that was settled by the Israeli Supreme Court. I'm very confused. So that would suggest it's not ethnicity because you invalidate your Jewishness by converting to Christianity. There are a number of Messianic Jews who live in Israel, who are here. I'm aware of significant number, but you're not contesting what I'm saying because it's a very famous court case. The right of return has to do with your mother, your grandmother. It has to do with family ties ethnic. There is a lot of sure ethnicity is a big part of the right of return to make aliyah to come to Israel to live here. Then if I if both of your parents are Jewish and you have an ethnic right to the land, you are one of Abram's descendants, but you convert to Christianity. How is it you don't have the right to return? I'm totally confused. But I know a number of people who have returned as Christians, but have Jewish history. Are you saying that Jews who convert to Christianity have a right, a legal right to return? Cuz I I know that they do. Whether when you say do they have a right to return do they prove it's a it's a legal category as in government by their family history their grandmother their mother and there are many aspects of that I've read it I think I know that people who are Christian and they came here made aliyah they had Jewish blood Jewish history they were Christian messianic but they came here and they were welcomed here and they were given full legal rights and a passport. So, so clearly that's not it's not true that you invalidate your right of return by converting to Christianity. That's just false. I'm not aware of that. I I know that there are a number of Christians here. I go to church with Christians every week here. Of course. But do you have a right to come and say I am an ethnic Jew even though I practice Christianity. Therefore, I have every bit as much right to move into a settlement in the West Bank or into East Jerusalem or anywhere I want, Galilee, anywhere because I'm returning to the land of my forefathers of a legal right in the state of Israel even though I've converted to Christianity. You're saying that's true. I'm saying I know people have done it. Now, can can I tell you what the law specifically is? I'm not sure because it's really a Christian. I'm not I don't have any Jewish roots, so therefore I cannot quote you the law. If you want me to do that, I'll look at Well, it really matters because you're saying, in fact, people in the United States are being called anti-semites. A lot of them, including me, because they somehow don't believe that Israel has a right to this land. Do you think Israel has a right to this land? No. You haven't defined what the land is, and you haven't defined who Israel is. So, I really don't know. No, it is the land they're living in now. The borders that they have, the borders are moving. The borders have moved in the last year. What do you mean the borders have moved in the last Well, they they are the 1967 borders. I'm including, you know, the the West East Jerusalem and Jude and Samaria. What are the borders of Judea and Samaria? Well, you basically take the Jordan River and it's west of the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea to the Lebanon border. And uh Israel did have control of the Sinai. They gave that to Egypt. They had control of it. They gave it away in 1979 in the peace agreement. Um, but okay. So, we whatever you call it, the land that was taken from Jordan in 1967, you call it Judea and Samaria. There's a significance to that that I don't fully understand. I'm against it. I know what it it's 80% of the Bible happened in Judea and Samaria. We've also established that the Bible gives Jews the right to occupy the land from the Nile to the Euphrates. So I'm very confused by why we've shrunk the land and why we're dis Israel has shrunk the land. They have made that decision. That's why they gave away now given away a lot of things. Abram's descendants are the ones who have the right to have this land. Correct? Yes. Okay. Why don't we do genetic testing on everybody in the land and find out who Abram's descendants are? It's really simple. We've cracked the human genome. We can do that. Why don't we do that? Would you be against doing that? I I have no idea what that would prove. I mean, maybe it would be What do you mean what it would? It would prove who Abram's descendants are and who has a a right to live here and who doesn't according to the theology that you yourself just explained. And so I'm very confused as to why we don't do that. If you believe the theology that you've just explained to me, would we do that all over the world and everybody? This is the only country in the world that you've said has this covenant with God that this people have a moral and legal right to the land. What about people who convert to Judaism? Would they have a right? Well, you've just you've just said to Judaism. So, you just told me they can make aliyah. They may not have you've just told me that it doesn't matter. You told me moments ago, trying to keep track, okay, that it doesn't matter whether or not you believe in God or whether or not you practice Torah Judaism or rabbitic Judaism, which is something else that I I don't even know if we should I don't even know what that means. But it doesn't matter whether you're quote a religious Jew or not. What matters is that you are part of the Jewish people to whom God gave this land that extends from the Nile to the Euphrates. And so if you believe that, wouldn't you want to know with a burning passion who those people are? And because of science, we can now know who those people are. So why aren't we finding out? I guess you could propose a DNA test for everybody who comes here, everybody who lives here. But the point I'm comfortable with secular nation states where it's none of this is done on the basis of blood. I'm uncomfortable with that. I'll just say that. But there are people who may not have bloodlines but who have converted to Judaism. Are they going to be able to live here? Are you going to kick them out? By your standards, they can't live here because you just said that they have a right to live here because God gave them the land because they're the descendants of Abram. They're the descendants of Abraham. But if they're the spiritual descendants of Abraham and they've now decided that they're converting to Judaism, then do they have a right to live in Israel? I well there's a whole legal literature in Israel on that question and my understanding is that certain types of modern Judaism qualify a person and other types don't. Is that your understanding? I don't believe that people converted and I could have this wrong but I know people who faced this personally know people. I don't believe people who've converted in a reform synagogue have the right of return. I I don't think that is because I know people who've married into Jewish families and they find out they don't have the right of return. So that is perplexing to me. Yeah. I know, you know, my experience is a little different than yours. I know people who have definite Jewish connections, uh, family relations, but now they're Christian. Some are not necessarily practicing Jews. They're not uh they're more secular Jews as you've discussed, but they come back here. Okay. I'm not against that. I'm just I'm just wondering since you have since you began this conversation by asking me did I think they had a right to come here. Yeah. My question was on what basis do they have the right? And you said because God granted it to them. Yeah. And also said because that there should be a land where Jews could live in peace and safety. I suppose and I asked you what a Jew was and you couldn't answer it. You said it it partly is religious but doesn't have to be. It's partly genetic, but it doesn't have to be. And so that you can see why I'm I think I was very clear that being Jewish is an identification either through blood or through faith that you're Jewish. It may be that you're a blood Jew, but you don't necessarily practice Judaism. Just like there are people who say they're Christian, but they don't do a thing to demonstrate what Christian There are a lot of bad Christians, including me some of the time. a lot of the time, but I don't have a right to real estate on the basis of my claim of Christian. You don't have a right to real estate if you're talking about a specific parcel. But if you're talking about a land, I think what we're talking about, that's all I'm all I'm saying. And there was a designation to the family of nations of the world that there would be a Jewish homeland. Let's let's get to that point because I think you've taken us on several trails here and I'm not sure we can follow them all. But is there a reason that the Jewish people that represent and I want to get back to this because you didn't let me finish while ago. They represent 0.2% of the world's population in the entirety of the world there about 16 million Jews total and 8 million of them live here. The rest live mostly in New York or South Florida and a few other places. Okay. So, this is a small population of people. They have connection to this land historically, biblically. Do they? Yes, they do. If if BB's family, we know they lived in Eastern Europe. There's no evidence they ever lived here. He's not religious. What? But do you have his family tree? No, we don't. Do you? He doesn't. So, no one does. That's the point. So, how do we know that he has any connection to the land at all? And if there has been a practice of Judaism and a connection to the language, the Bible, the land, his His ancestors didn't he doesn't practice Judaism in any rigorous way. His ancestors didn't live here. They didn't speak the language and there's no evidence they ever lived here. So, in what basis does he have a right to very much speaks the language? He has fought for the land. His family has fought for the land. dodging a very obvious question which is where does this right come from and the reason it's meaningful is because there are a lot of people in the territory that Israel controls today particularly in the West Bank who through genetic testing we can know their families have been here for thousands of years we don't know whether they practiced Judaism whether they were Samaritans pre-Islam we don't know that a lot of them we know have been Christians for 2,000 years They have less of a right to the land than someone whose ancestors, the only thing we know about them is they lived in Latvia or Poland. They're Eastern European. How does that work? They're Jewish. By what definition? They're Jewish by their But how do we know they have any connection? They're Jewish by their faith. They're Jewish by the connection to the language. Jewish by the connection to the Torah. But but but how do we know that BB specifically BB's ancestors ever lived here? How do we know that? I I'm I'm not sure if I understand your question. How do we know if the prime minister of Israel's ancestors ever lived? Maybe I could ask you, how do we know they didn't? I mean, well, it's on the basis of the claim that they did that all kinds of things happen. People are displaced. There's a money flow. I mean, there's it's a big question. A lot hangs on this. It's not some theoretical thing like, oh, you know, did my grandparents do this or do that? It's like, no, no, we have a right to be here because my ancestors were here. Okay, how do we know they were here? I I I'm totally unable to process what you're trying to get at. It goes back, do Jewish people have any land on this planet that should be theirs? I feel that way about all peoples. I feel that way about Jewish peoples. I feel that way about. Okay. Then then you don't mind him having this. Is there any Is there any country Let me ask you this bluntly. Is there any country that European peoples have a right to exclusively? I think they have attained their land through conquest. I mean, let's ask ourselves. Have the Britons attain their land through conquest? No, they've always been there. The Romans, the Greeks all speak. No, no, let's Well, you could certainly say that here. The Romans the Romans controlled this as you know and they expelled they don't Jerusalem. Amen. I want them to control it. I'm anti-Roman. Okay, we're on the same page. Okay. But my question is very simple. Is there any European peoples that possesses the same right to their land that the Jews, including people whose ancestors lived in Eastern Europe, possess here? The Britain, we know, the British people, the Scandinavian people, the Irish people, their ancestors have been there for thousands of years. That's provable through genetic testing. Do they have a right to their land exclusively? Is anyone saying they don't? Yes, of course. Yes. No one will say they will. And I'm asking you, do they have that right? And I'm not sure what what that question involves because no one is trying to force them out of their land of their homes. But here, hold on. You want me to Why won't you answer that question? Does any Because I just did. Oh, so the eur So the Irish people have the same right to their land that the Jews have the biblical connection. Okay. But I'm a I'm a Bible believer. Okay. So that is but it's also it's also a principle and that is and you've said it 15 times. Sometimes people have land because they they were able to attain it through war. They were able to obtain it when it was challenged. I understand that there's all kinds of conflict. But we can't say that about the Irish world borders change all the time. Not actually the borders of the island of England have not changed nor but the Ireland those are just two examples. So you've got the indigenous people there. Do they have a moral right to that as their homeland and I think they would probably say yes we do because we have ancient history I've never thought about whether now that I'm raising the question and you spent a lot of time thinking about the right of the Jewish people to their homeland. Do the Irish have the same right to a homeland? As long as they can defend it and as long as they, you know, as long as they can defend it. But Tucker, here's the point. I'm telling you. Wait, hold on, hold on, hold on. Now you just flipped. You're the minister here. Yeah. And I'm telling you, as long as they can defend it, and if they can't defend, you're allowing me to tell you that I think that what is very, very special here is that there is a biblical as well as an ethnic and a historical. So you can take any one, but if you add them all together, biblical, historical, and ethnic, you have a very strong case that the Jewish people are living in a land that is indigenous to them. That has been their historic homeland for 3,800 years. You can repeat it as and you can also look in the archaeology. The stones cry out. Okay. Have you been to the city of David for examp so you know then that it's an amazing place. It may be the greatest archaeological discovery in all of history because it's it's stunning and they still continue to find things that date the Jewish people to this land archaeologically for 3,800 years. We can we can date the Britain the British people to their land much longer much thousands of years longer. Stonehenge is 3,000 years older than any building built by the descendants of Abram in this country. And so I just it's fine. I'm not trying to invalidate anyone's right. I'm just wanting you to affirm that right, but it makes you uncomfortable and you won't. And I don't know why. Because I've never honestly sat down and and asked myself, are the lines around the It's an So we know what the lines are. I'm but I'm I'm saying but are those lines are those rooted in something other than the historical connection? Well, great. Then they should have it. But that's they have a right to have it. But then you said if they can defend it and if they can't defend it, they lose the right. But I didn't say it was exclusive one or the other. I think you're really going off the chart. I just want to know if these principles apply universally or if they only apply to the people of Israel. And my answer appears to be just the people of Israel. They're the only ones with these rights. And I just reject that. I didn't say that. But I'm saying we are talking about Israel. We're in Israel. We're talking about Christian Zionism because you've made some disparaging statements about Christian Zionist. You've apologized for him for which I appreciate. And now we're trying to define Christian and Zionist. And it seems like we've gone way way off of trying to get as you suggested as a former debater at the outset. I'm trying to get to terms and a common understanding of what the words mean and the term and I'm no closer to that than I than I was when I began. You're not closer to the term a Christian. What that means? I think it's someone who follows Jesus. And that's my next question. There are a lot of Christians in the West Bank and um there there were a fair amount of Christians The Killing of Christians in Gaza in Gaza and some of them have been killed. There were 5,000 in Gaza. Yeah. Yeah. and church. Two different churches were hit by the IDF. Christian Hospital was hit seven times by the IDF. And I don't understand they were not hit seven times. They were there were different I know. And one of the times it was a rocket that was shot by Hamas and all the news agencies reported that the IDF shot the rocket. They said the IDF ever hit the hospital or the churches. They did uh accidentally because and they apologized for it and it was very unfortunate. But they also you got to remember there were times Hamas often hid caches of arms under hospitals. Were you bothered by the fact that the IDF hit Christians? I'm bothered that anyone got killed in Gaza. But you know why I'm bothered? You're a Christian minister. You can't say that the Christians are Islamic extremists. No, but I can say that the reason side with the Christians over the secular government of Israel, but I I would look at it even more broadly. I would ask you this. Why was there so much suffering and continues to be suffering in Gaza? It's because Hamas, which could have built a Singapore, built a Haiti, they have a land mass the size of Las Vegas. They built tunnels underneath that are larger than the London Underground, over 500 miles of tunnels. They didn't build it to move people from one hospital to the other, one marketplace to the other, but to hide terrorist, to hide weaponry. And on October the 7th, they went over there and they massacred,200 civilians. Massacred, mutilated, humiliated them. You're never going to get me to defend Hamas. Sorry. Please don't. I'm not going to. But I'm telling you, I'm appalled by it. How many civilians have been killed by the IDF in Gaza? We don't know. You know why? We don't know. What's your guess? Well, the only numbers we have come from this dubious entity called the Gaza Health Ministry. You know who that is? Well, why does Israel have a have a some kind of count on it? We also know that a lot of the people who were killed were in fact warriors. Sadly, how many kids were killed? We don't know. What's your guess? I don't know. I'm I'm sure it was thousands. And as thousands of kids were killed, some of the kids who were killed had been recruited to be in the military. Kids as young as 14 years old kids. Do do you hear yourself? I wonder. I just said that there were kids as young as 14 that were recruited to be Hamas soldiers who were given arms. How do you feel about the kids being killed? I think it's horrible. You know what I also think is horrible? I think it's horrible that,200 people were slaughtered by people across the border. 252 people were taken hostage. 48 of the,200 were Americans. And then when Hamas could have ended this on October the 8th and given all the hostages up, they didn't. Leaving no choice. You're never going to get me to defend Hamas. I'm not pro Hamas. I'm totally opposed to slaughtering innocents whether Hamas does it or whether the government of Israel does it in much larger numbers. And the reason I'm opposed to it is because I'm a Christian and I believe that all souls are created by God. I did don't do not disagree with that wholeheartedly but but I said how many children have been war is a horrible thing period and we don't know we know that a lot of the numbers were reported by you said you think thousands of children have been killed yeah and a lot of times you know why they got killed because Hamas would gather up the children and put them in the targets. Do you know what Israel does? They send page messages and they send texts to every cell phone in Gaza and they say, "We're going to hit this particular target." They drop leaflets and they announce where they're going to hit. Nobody does that. The US doesn't do that. Israel does that in order to prevent, let me finish this, they do this in order to prevent civilian casualties. What Hamas does, they say, "Oh, this is the target." And by gunpoint they push people into those various places. And then when people get killed, they say, "Look, Israel just slaughtered these people." Even though it was Hamas who moved them into harm's way, knowing that it was going to put them in a place of danger and death and destruction. And they do that because they don't care. You say you care about life. I care about life. It's interesting. They don't care about life. I'm not saying that Hamas does. You're never going to get me to defend Hamas. I'm good. I'm anti-hasm. You said that three times and I I believe it. Your dig at the United States is very revealing. Why is it revealing? Because your priorities are very clear. No. No. Yes, they are. Yes, they are. And as an American, permit me a moment, okay, of outrage. Because I said many civilians have been killed. And you said right in the middle of your elaborate defense of the IDF's killing of civilians, including children, you said they do a better job than the United States does. That's my country. and my government I consider what flag am I wearing here? Well, I I'm asking why is it what flag am I wearing? Well, that's of course my flag as well. And it's my flag. It's who I serve. So why the dig at the United States in the middle? It's not a dig at them. No, no, no, no. You you've totally misrepresented. What did you mean by that? I did not take a dig at the US. What I'm saying is So the IDF is more humane than the US military. I'm just saying that Israel takes steps that we don't take and no other country that I'm aware of takes to try to prevent because no matter what Israel does, they're going to get accused of genocide. That may be right. And I'm um I'm just telling you that they But then let me ask you on that question. You know, I that's such a politically loaded but I resent the idea that you think that I'm not loyal to the US. Look, I'm not say you're not loyal. I'm merely noting what you just said, which was that the IDF takes greater pains than the US, our military does to spare civilian lives. And I guess my question is, when was the last time the US military killed this many civilians? Do you know? Well, it could have been Nagasaki, Hiroshima, could have been uh Iraq, Afghanistan. We don't know the full number. And I think most Christians would say all of those things were atrocities because innocents were killed in large numbers. And we we don't believe in that. And so that's not really a defense, is it? It's a horrible thing, Tucker. And there are people who end up unfortunately being killed that shouldn't have been. I I would tell you that I wish that none of those people in Gaza had been killed after October the 8th. Well, I say not none of them. I'm glad Muhammad Sinoir was killed. I'm glad that some of those warriors, the people who masterminded and carried out the atrocities, old Hamas operatives, how do you feel about their deaths? If they participated in that, then God help them. I'm telling you, I don't know that they were 14 years. No, but I'm telling you that when someone commits the acts of atrocity and then they hold hostages, if these were your children being held hostage in Gaza, what would you do to get them out? I wouldn't want to kill 14-year-olds. I'll tell you that. Let me ask you something. Would you do whatever it took to get your kids back if they were being tortured, raped, starved? I would not kill children, period. Well, I'm just telling you, and I would never make excuses for killing children either. And I'm not talking about targeting children. I'm talking about You told me that 14-year-olds deserve to die because they're working for him. My question is, can you hear yourself? I do hear myself. So, do you think a 14-year-old child has agency? Do you think that he deserves to die because he's being used by adults? Isn't his death a crushing tragic? He's holding a gun and he's pointing it at someone who's trying to save a hostage and the only way to save that hostage. I'm telling you, war is a horrible thing. It's a horrible thing. And a lot of innocent I think I'm the one who thinks war is a horrible thing. No, no, no, no. I think what you don't I'm trying to explain how horrible it is. And you're saying that the 14-year-old deserved to die. We don't execute 14-y old. Putting words in my mouth that I didn't I don't know what you're saying. You never said deserve to die. Okay. I say there are people who die. That is unfortunate. Okay. But I'm saying that you are not giving Israel credit for having done everything they possibly could to a level that quite frankly in urban warfare there has never been a war criticize Israel but it's a foreign country and I would much rather criticize a foreign country than my own. Feel free to do that. They can you pivoted against our country's done a better job than our military has. I I simply gave you the illustration and I helped you understand that Israel goes to links that no other country, including ours, goes to in the middle of an urban war. And yet, Israel ended up with fewer civilian deaths in an urban war than any urban war of record. You said you didn't know how many civilian deaths there were. So, how can you say that? If you took Gaza's numbers, Hamas's numbers, you don't know what the numbers are. You just told me that. But I'm saying it's a lower number. But if you took the numbers that they reported, which is like 50,000, 24 or 25,000 of those were actual warriors. How many civilians if you if you range from 120 to 78? Those ones I just read. I don't know if that's real. I don't know either. I'm asking you. Yeah. And I'm telling you those numbers I've not heard have not read. The numbers that I think are more reportable are somewhere in the 60,000 range. Where are those from? from the Gaza Health Ministry. You said those are valid numbers. I think they are. I don't think that they're accurate, but I'm saying let's just You're saying they're inaccurate, but they prove that Israel is done doing a great job. Let's assume that the most uh widespread numbers, the largest numbers that have been reported out of Gaza by Hamas. Yes. Let's assume they're true. That's what I'm saying. I'm not saying they are true, but assume they're true. Let's just take them at their word. Then you still have a lower number of civilians killed than in any urban warfare environment in modern history. Fact. Is that a fact? Yes. What are you comparing it to? To any urban war. Name one. Iraq. Where? Afghanistan. We're in Iraq. Where in Afghanistan? There aren't many urban areas in Afghanistan. I don't think there was any fighting in urban areas in Afghanistan. Cobble. I don't know. Was there was there were there pitch battles in Kbble over long periods of time? I I don't 20 years in Kbble. I don't think throughout all of Afghanistan. But what so what were those rates you're talking about? What are the rates there? You just the number of people who were killed. Uhhuh. Into the tens of thousands. I I'm I'm asking you to I don't know the answer. I'd have never heard of any of this. You brought it up. You said the IDF has killed a lower proportion of civilians in urban warfare than in any urban conflict in modern history. I'd never heard that before. I don't know what your what are the controls for that. And you said, well, the US military killed more civilians. Would you agree that the real tragedy was that Hamas continued to force this war? Hold on. You just once again said that the IDF is more humane than the United States military. You just said that. You said in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US military killed more civilians than the IDF did in Gaza. You just told me. I never heard that before. And my question is, how do you know that? What are those numbers? And I'm trying to explain to you that there were extraordinary efforts to keep the numbers to you. I think they were tens of thousands. I'll get them for you. Well, you brought it up. That's the only reason I'm pushing you. But you I'm wearing a flag. I've worked for a country and you pretended or alleged that somehow I'm not loyal to this and that I'm criticizing my own country. A better job than the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan. And I said, "What are the numbers?" and you said, "I don't know." So, on what basis are you making the claim that the IDF in Gaza spared more civilians than the US Army and Marine Corps did in Afghanistan and Iraq? Why are you saying that? Like, on what basis are you saying that? from the conversations that I've had with the people who fought there and I don't have the exact numbers for you. But what I'm trying to help you to understand, and I don't think you're willing to go there, is that there was no desire to kill people indiscriminately in Gaza. I don't think there was any desire to kill people indiscriminately in Iraq, Afghanistan. Let me just say I think on and I know a bunch of people who serve in the IDF and I don't Benjamin Netanyahu's Calls for Genocide believe your average IDF soldier wants to kill innocents. I just want to be really clear about that. I don't think most soldiers want to do that. I think a lot of them in our country, in Israel, wind up doing that cuz that's what war is about and it really hurts them. And I know people who've done it personally, I know them really well and it like wrecks their lives. So, but I don't think your average soldier wants that in this country or any other. The leadership is a different question
And I want to refer you very specifically to a number of speeches the prime minister, your friend Benjamin Netanyahu gave in the aftermath of October 7th, including one in November of that year when he referred to Amalcch. Now Amalecch is a reference, a biblical reference. Of course, you'll be very familiar with that. The Amalachites were a tribe described throughout the Bible, particularly in 1 Samuel, that obstructed the Jews as they fled Egypt. And God tells Samuel to give the instructions to Saul to kill the Amalachites. And he says, and I'm sure you remember this. This is in 1st Samuel 15. Of course, I'm sure I know you know it. He says, "Kill the men, kill the women, kill the children, kill the infants, kill the donkeys, kill the camels, kill everything." And Saul spares the king and he spares the animals. And for that he l he is punished by God. That is genocide. God is calling for genocide of the Amalachites of Amalcch. And the prime minister of Israel at least once, I believe on other occasions described the Palestinians in Gaza as Amalcch. That's calling for genocide. And you know that. I totally disagree. Tell me then what it means. Because to say that Israel was attempting to commit genocide, first of all, that's simply not true. I'm not saying I'm saying what is the prime minister talking about. Why would he refer to the Palestinians as Amalcch? What is You would have to ask him. I don't know. I know what I know what Amalecch is. I do understand First Samuel 16. I get all that. 1st Samuel 15. But I do understand very and it's widely known. So if you say our enemy is Amalecch and we are proceeding on the basis of God's commands to us, you are calling for genocide. Tell me how I'm missing something. Because if Israel wanted to commit genocide, they could have done it in two and a half hours. We can debate what's happened in Gaza. I'm asking you why the leader of this country ask him. Well, what do you think? I don't know. Does that bother you at all, people? I I I don't know what he meant. I don't know if it was an illustrative metaphor. I think what he was saying was that we're not going to let anything keep us from getting our hostages back. Their sons and their daughters who are being brutalized, raped, tortured, starved, beaten. Come on, Mr. Ambassador. No, I there are many examples of justice in the Bible, but there are accused of genocide regularly. I'm not accusing Israel of anything. I'm saying that the prime minister of Israel described the Palestinians intended to do genocide. I'm asking why of all the references in the Bible and there are many to justice and there are many to reconciliation that is a reference to genocide as you know killing every man woman child and infant I'm quoting and their animals wiping them from the earth and when they don't do that they're punished when you say that at the outset of a war and then you wind up with massive civilian casualties maybe not as big as they were in Iraq Then I have to ask you what what is that? And is that kind of thinking consistent with Western values and with Christianity? Do we as Christians believe it's okay to kill people's children? No, we don't. And neither do the Israelis because they didn't go after their children. If they wanted to kill all their children, Tucker, they've got the military capacity. They could have done it in less than a day. I've heard you say that. I mean, I guess why didn't they? Why didn't they? I think there are a lot of decent people in Israel who don't want that. But I'm talking Do you think that the prime minister wanted to wipe out every single person in Gaza? Do you asking you what you think is the US representative of our government? I I don't think that that's what he wanted to do because why are you referring? You never had to ask him that. Why? Because I never saw any evidence any evidence that Israel tried to wipe out every single person. I just gave you examples that they tried to save civilian lives. Not. By the way, I'm not, as I've said, and I mean this, I I I think most soldiers in most armies, including the Israel Defense Force, don't want to kill civilians. I just don't believe that. I think there are some lunatics. Can I ask you something? Yes. You platformed a guy. You had him on your show. Tony Aguilar. Don't platform Huckabee Accuses Tony Aguilar of Lying anyone. I You interviewed Not a liberal, so I don't platform people. Okay. You you interviewed Tony Aguilar who claimed that IDF soldiers killed a little boy in his presence. Uhhuh. That didn't happen. Okay. It did not happen. Let me give you I don't know if you know whether it happened or not. Well, I can tell you why I know it didn't happen. Because we found that little boy less than a week later. All right. I was involved, heavily involved in helping to extricate him from Gaza. Four different countries were involved in getting he and his mother to safety, get them out of there. Tony Aguilar is a liar. Okay. Tony Aguilar claimed that he saw an IDF soldier shoot the little boy. He was fired from the GHF for cause and he begged for his job back and they wouldn't give it back because they didn't want him. And he told him that if they didn't give his job back that he would burn him down. Okay? So he goes out. Now let me finish this because it's important for you to understand. Right? So this guy then goes out and makes up this story that he witnessed IDF soldiers shooting a little boy. I don't know that he made it up. He seemed to believe it to me. It's possible he's wrong. I've been wrong many times. Well, this is a little bit more than just missing a fact. He claimed to be an eyewitness to the murder of a little boy. a little boy that a week later we found. And you're sure it's the same little boy? We're absolutely sure. How do you know that? Because we have pictures of him. We had descriptions of him. We know his name. We know his mother. Okay. He was extricated out of Gaza. It was a very delicate situation to get him out because if Hamas had found out that he was still alive, they would have killed him in order to validate Aguiler's story. How do you know that? So, he gets out. How do you know Hamas would have killed him? Why wouldn't they? Wouldn't they have wanted to kill him? because that way they could have said that this story was true. The people are just telling you that what you're saying is true and I have no basis of knowing. I'm really glad cuz I don't want little kids to get killed even 14-year-olds. Okay. You shouldn't want anyone to get. But let me ask you, is it true he also made the claim and he had audio of it um and video too that uh US contractors were using live ammunition to disperse crowds and he had video of that. Do you know if is did he make up that video? There were times here's what happened. Crowds would come toward the sites. They were given verbal warnings and then they were given additional verbal warnings and they were shots were fired either in the air, sometimes in the ground. And if they continued to come and threaten, there were times when there were people who were uh engaged in in firefights. That happened. Oh, they were armed. Sometimes they were. They were. Can you do you know of specific instances where they were armed? I can probably get you some specific information about that. I think I know the answer to that. I don't think there's any evidence at all that they were. But I also know that Are you okay with using live ammunition um at aid distribution sites for families, women and children? Very rarely did this happen here at all. Are you okay with that? No. I tell you what, I'm not okay with No, no, no. I think you are so trying to put words in my mouth. You you said that they were firing back, but then there's no evidence that they weren't. On a Sunday afternoon, I can remember when there was widespread reports on BBC, CNN, and the New York Times, and they said that 27 people were killed at a feeding site. We had video extensively over that site. Not one single person, not only were they not shot, nobody was shot at. There was not one bit of violence that happened at that feeding site. Trying to get me to defend BBC. Not going to do that. It's like defending Hamas. I I agree with you. I I don't believe anything I see in the media. It's just that it's really simple. If people are using, and these were American contractors, by the way, these are not Israelis that I'm aware of. American contractors run by some crypto minister or something was running the group. Um, if they're using live ammunition at an aid distribution site, that strikes me as totally unacceptable. They were not firing. Does that seem acceptable to you? They were not firing at people got killed. There's a way to some of those people got killed because Hamas were trying to keep them from getting to the aid distribution sites because Hamas was controlling the food. Hamas made $500 million selling the food that was supposed to be given away for free. And what they were trying to do is to keep people from going to the sites where they were getting food for free. When we set GHF up, the first thing that happened I know, but I'm telling you, the first thing that people said was, "Wow, this is the first time we've had food that we got for free. Is it okay to shoot unarmed people? I just told you it wasn't. That's awful. Yeah, it's awful. Of course it's awful. Um, are all lives equal, do you think? Of course they are. So, the death of a Palestinian is every bit as important, significant as the death of Israel. Why wouldn't it? Of course it is. There's no such thing as a human soul that God made that is less valuable than another. That I'm pro-life. Me, too. So, I believe that every life has intrinsic worth and value. There's no such thing as a worthless or a completely disposable life. That's what makes me pro-life. Tucker, I totally agree. And I believe that from the conception until the end of natural life. Why I would never say when confronted with the death of children, war is terrible because it minimizes the deaths of those children. It's awful. And I don't think it minimizes. I think it it is outrageous. It's a terrible thing. I wish we never had war. Why do we have war? Fighting Wars on Israel's Behalf We're about to have one with Iran. It looks like how many Americans do you think will die in that war? I hope none. None died last year when we uh participated in the 12-day war. Not one. You said 20,000 would die and they didn't. I said could and they could have and and they could die now. And that's a real risk. How many boots on the ground do you think the US has supplied for Israel over the course of its life? How many times have we put soldiers on the ground for Israel? Well, we had the Iraq war um which was for Israel. That wasn't for Israel. How was it for us? Well, because it was a retribution against 9/11. Now, was it the best idea? Was Was Iraq involved in 911? Our government thought so. Why are 9/11 documents still classified? I have no idea. Why Are 9-11 Files Still Classified? Should they be unclassified? I think so. All of them. Right. I have no problem with that. Me, too. I like transparency. I like sunlight. I do. I hope you'll call for that. I like free press. I like free speech. I totally agree. I really I like all of that. But if no if there was no con I've never seen I'm open to anything but I've never seen any connection between the government of Saddam Hussein the secular ba'ist government of Saddam Hussein and the terror attacks of 9/11. I don't know that there were I don't know right so so I'm not sure but I don't know how why was that Israel's fault well Benjamin Netanyahu now prime minister of course exerted lots of pressure openly on the US government to take out to regime change the Saddam government. I was there. was in Washington and um and they complied. I don't think there's any way to read it. I don't Do you think Israel leads the US and pushes them and tells them what to do? Not on everything, of course, but what I think, let me be specific. I think the uh Israeli government strongly pushed the United States to take out Saddam Hussein. But there's no question about that. I think the Israeli government right now BB Netanyahu has been in the White House seven times in one year. Yeah. Pushing for uh regime change in Iran. I think they're on the verge of convincing this administration to affect regime. You think the president is weak and is being pushed? I'm not saying that. I know. Well, I know. I know the president's being pushed. Why do you think a foreign leader was in the White House seven times in one year? Are you okay with that? That's a Netanyahu's Many Visits to the White House lie. You know, Israel is not just a friend or an ally. It is a real partner. We have an incredible relationship with Israel in intelligence and in military, in culture, in values. You know, to to be shocked that the Israeli prime minister would have that many meetings, it's a lot. But I I want to ask you the question, do you think President Trump is weak enough to let BB Netanyahu push him into something that he doesn't want to do? I don't. Look, I think, and I don't know, of course, the answer to every question, including this one, but I think the president, President Trump, really doesn't like nuclear proliferation, and I don't think he wants Iran to have a bomb. I think he really sincerely means I hope you don't want them to have a bomb. Want them to have a bomb? It I don't want anyone to have a bomb, including Israel. I don't know why we're okay with Israel having nuclear weapons. I'm not I'm not okay with Pakistan having them. I'm not okay with Saudi having them. Israel's nuclear weapons were created, of course, with nuclear material stolen The Nuclear Weapons That Israel Stole from the United States, from a nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. As I know, you know, I'm opposed to all of it. I don't like nuclear weapons. It's mass murder as far as I'm concerned. So, no, I don't want Iran to have a bomb, obviously. The question is, what are the potential costs? And you have to factor that into any decision. And and what are the costs if they were to get a nuclear bomb? They've said for 47 years, death to America. Well, I don't think they target us. I don't think Israel they've targeted President Trump specifically. Yeah. They've hired a person to assassinate Iran, BBC and Hamas, not defending them. Good. All I'm saying, we're in agreement on that. I want our country is not thriving and we're spending, you know, tens and tens and tens Why Is the US Sending Israel So Much Money? of billions of dollars over time defending Israel and helping it prosecute all. You know where that money goes? Goes to a lot of places. But but let's let's talk about that a minute. $3.8 8 billion a year. That money goes right back to the US to purchase weapon systems. For example, every round of ammo that the IDF shoots is manufactured just outside where I live in Little Rock, Arkansas. Mhm. The components, a lot of them for the Iron Dome and the A3 missile defense systems. Yeah. Are manufactured near Camden, Arkansas, which needs it. By the way, Camden's economically depressed. You know the area. I do. And there are thousands and thousands of American jobs. And there are billions and billions of dollars of expenditures that Israel makes in the US and buys the things that we I know how defense contracting works. I'm from Russia. No, I I know this. I guess what I'm saying is America's not thriving at all. And you think it's Israel's fault? I I don't think it's Israel's fault. Okay. Well, good. I I I think I just think that what we're doing isn't working at all. And America is not rich. The president is doing some amazing things to get us back on Trump. Not attacking Trump. Okay. I'm merely saying that over say the last 20 years, America's not gotten richer or freer um at all. And I come to Israel and the infrastructure we're flying in and I said to my buddy, I was like, "Man, the looks first looks great. I love the agriculture in Israel cuz it's beautiful. I love green. I love plants." I remember when it didn't look like that. Yeah. Yeah. First time I came here 53 years ago. It's great. It did not look like that. Great. looks a lot nicer than our country and it has higher standard of living. It has nicer roads uh than the United States. And so it's like, okay, why are we sending all this money to a country that Is Huckabee Okay With Israel Providing Free Abortions? has a higher standard of living than ours? I don't know that they have a higher standard of living. They do actually. They have free healthcare. They also have free abortion. Are you okay with that? I personally don't like that. Why would we be subsidizing? Why would we send any money? Why would we send any money to a country that provides free abortion? Because the money that we send does not pay for healthare. It does not pay for abortion. It pays for military. It's like if they don't spend it on this, they'll spend it on that. They do spend it on that and then we get many more times back and the return on investment when we say we're not sending you any more money as long as you have free abortion. Well, that would be a policy decision. I would be okay with it because I hate abortion. I think it's horrible. How much do you hate it? Why are we sending the money if they're paying for free? They're not paying for abortions with the money and because we in turn get billions of dollars. The return on investment is estimated somewhere between 400 and 1200. I've heard these numbers. I just live there and I know and I'm by the way I'm for American manufacturing. The defense industry is totally corrupt and CD as you know. However, I like to see American companies thrive. Like it's complicated. I'm not an extremist or an absolutist on really anything other than abortion. However, net net, as we say, our country is not really thriving. And I we're also totally Why is that the case? Is it because we've done a lousy job controlling our borders, a lousy job of controlling our economy? It's a lot of things, but we own that. I think President Trump is doing remarkable things to turn it around. I cannot imagine any president. Oh, but if you're saying the country is in trouble, listen, saying we're out of money actually credit to what the president is doing to get us out of debt because I think that what he's doing economically, I'm not supporting Hamas and I'm not attacking Trump. Okay. Just with those baseline agreements, it's also true that like our debt is not sustainable. And so given that, like what do you think it will cost? What what did it cost to move all these to move the fleet off Iran into the Persian Gulf? A lot less than it would to bury a lot of Americans if they ever got a long range ballistic missile. A lot less. I want you to understand that when Iran has told us for 47 years they're going to kill us, do you think they would do it if they had the capacity militarily? What would happen if Iran took out any of the energy facilities in the Gulf or took out a bunch of them? What would happen to the United States economy, do you think? Well, our economy probably would survive because we have energy independence thanks to President Trump. Would survive. Our economy is based on our markets. What What do you think? It would be a terrible thing to happen globally. It's why Iran is a global threat. It's why Iran through its proxies. Tucker, this is another thing people They're not blowing up energy infrastructure right now, but if we try to regime change them, they have said that they will. I don't know if they will or not. either is that a risk that but they have their own problems to defend if they try to do that and they lose their own energy capacity worried about so if they took out and I again I don't know what's going to happen and I guess we're not supposed to think about worst case because that makes us pro-Islamic or something but I'm an American and I don't want a depression in our country it's too fractured and unstable right now I don't think we want that at all okay none of us want that none of us want that not right now we don't not at all I don't want it next year next week 10 Seriously, now all these states are basically in a state of insurrection against the federal government. They're not enforcing the most basic law of the land, which is immigration. And thank goodness, President Trump is pushing back and he's I agree. I'm just saying seeking to force if all of a sudden compliance markets just tanked and gas tripled or whatever and you had, you know, like a severe recession or something worse. That's a massive cost and I don't see anybody factoring in that possibility. Iran has said it will do it. You've said 10 times they're evil. Okay, I believe you. Then why wouldn't they take out the Qatari gas fields they share with Qar or refining prochemicals extraction in any of the Gulf countries? That that would [ __ ] us. Let's well energy wise again we have independence because President Trump put measures in place that gave us the capacity. We set international energy prices in the United States. In some ways we do because our own market and our own production has a whole lot to do with what those world costs are going to be. If you took Saudi energy production or Qatari energy production or Emirati energy production offline that is making an assumption that if there were regime change that they would be more effective at attacking than we would be defending. And that's a pretty Can we defend the the straits for moves? Can we defend all of that energy infrastructure? Is anyone even asking these questions or it's all like a Mark Leven episode where are bad. Okay, they are certainly asking the questions. That's part of the whole process. Saying is it I've raised this before and it's like shut up. You're taking money from the jihadis. I've never taken a dime from anybody. Obviously, I just care about the United States and it freaks me out and no one else seems worried about this. In caring about the US, you should care about the fact that the proxies of Iran have moved globally. 12 Central and South American countries have Hezbollah deeply embedded. Venezuela one of the worst. They're in the Western Hemisphere already. Do we know how many? Where would you rank that on the on the like list of concerns for the average American? Hezbollah in I doubt most Americans think about it. I think about it because I know what they do. I know that if it weren't for Iran, there wouldn't be Hamas. There wouldn't be the Houthis. There wouldn't be Hezbollah. We wouldn't have the problem on the border with Lebanon. We wouldn't have the problem with Yemen. We wouldn't have the difference problem on the border with Leb I'm as I'm an American. I'm not having any problems on the border with Lebanon right now. I live in Maine. We don't have problems on the border of Lebanon. Like what are you even talking about? No offense. There's 700,000 Americans who live in Israel for one thing. Does that matter to you? Well, of course every American matters to me. Every life you say matters the same. So that should matter when my country like shelling civilians and civilians get killed and displaced. That should matter to all of us. But I mean there's a genocide going on like in all kinds of different countries there. There's a lot that's sad and broken about the world. We know that as Christians. Satan rules the world. But our job as like members of a nation state is look after our community families, right? So I don't think any of the concerns that you've just raised, which I think are all real, I'm not disputing them at all, are even in like the top hundred for Americans. Can the US government be spending this much time and money worrying about things that are not on the list of Americans concerns? Do we have self-government? Does it matter what Americans actually think or doesn't it? Of course it does. But it also matters how much does it matter what the threat is to Americans. Do you think there's a threat to Americans because of the proliferation of the proxies in in Iran? Conceivably there is. I'm not pro Ron, but but beyond conceivably, do you think that they mean it when they say 47 cartels like in my town and no one's doing anything about it at all? I'm hearing a lot doing anything about that. No one's doing anything about it at all. Okay, that's a fact. We have a huge country. This is a country the size of New Jersey with no resources. You know, it's just a tiny little country. Mhm. We're from a huge continentalized country that's totally diverse, very, very hard to manage and police. And we have a lot of problems. And I just think if you ask Americans what do they want to spend their time and money worrying about fixing, improving, no one's going to mention the border with Lebanon that I know. Do you think? I doubt they will. But this don't like to think that there are people that the US government has monitoring what the threats are to Americans long term. Do you think there's a threat? The question is when people talk Well, but I don't know that Saddam ever said he was going to take down America, but the the Iranian regime has said for 47 years they are. Will you just if they had the capacity of a long range ballistic missile and nuclear capability, do you think they'd light that puppy up and send it to us? I don't know. Um, but I know Well, I know this from sitting here last year, four wars that I went through in less than a year, the Iranians rain down ballistic missiles. Can I ask you a question? Like, how much does it matter what Americans think? Well, it matters every bit what Americans think. That's why Americans vote. It's why Americans have the opportunity to have free speech. We want them to have that. Okay. So, what percentage of Americans How Many Americans Support War With Iran? support a war with Iran? I don't know. Do you know? I do. It's I think it's around I saw the numbers yesterday. I think it was like 21%. Okay. Is that enough to have a war with Iran? We don't live in a world where you have a poll taken to find out whether our policy should be a particular direction because Oh, I thought I thought you just said that democracy. No, we care deeply about it. But on the other hand, do we make the decisions of foreign policy and even domestic policy based on we care deeply about it? In what sense? How in if we're ignoring it, then in what sense do we quote care deeply about it? Well, I think we care deeply when we see there's a threat. No, but about Americans opinions.
So, you've got 350 million Americans. Um, they vote they voted in this last election on the basis in part of the promise no more wars. Okay. So, now we're about to have a war. Looks like 80% of people are against it. In that range, let's say it's 70%, but nowhere near majority support for this war. And it's not direct democracy, but it is a form of democracy. It's representative democracy. The ultimate form of democracy in our system in a republic because we're not a true democracy. We're a republic. Exactly. Right. It's a mediated democracy. It'll be an opportunity for Americans to vote if they think that we've made the wrong policy decisions. I personally think the president is making the right policy decision. But I guess it but you just said it matters deeply what Americans think and if the overwhelming majority are against it in what sense does it matter cuz what I hear is it matters what they think but it really doesn't matter what they think because no you take it in you certainly ingest that and then what do you once you ingest it then you make sure that you have you just got it goes out the other end obviously no it doesn't it doesn't Tucker but you also have information that the average American may not have they may not know what the threat is. How many Americans know that Hezbollah is in 12 Western Hemisphere countries? How many Americans care? Well, I would hope they would all care. How many Americans know? How many people from Iran from terrorist cells have come across Joe Biden's open border? How how many Americans? They definitely care about that. Okay, you care. Why haven't they been rounded up? But they're trying, but you got all these blue state mayors and governors making it very difficult. But thank god President Trump is trying to get it done. Look, I'm totally all for that completely. I guess what I'm saying is that most Americans over I've never met an American who thinks other than like the people who have ideological reasons to pretend they think it that the imminent threat to America is anything having to do with Iran. Imminent threats to America include like bankruptcy from too much debt, your son ODing on fentanyl, your neighborhood completely changing because unlike Israel, Americans don't have a right to their country. It can just be completely changed by their legislature. New people can show up from foreign countries and not speak your language and there's nothing you can do about because you don't have a right because you're not BB. Can you feel the resentment? Because it's real. I'm not against Israel. I'm against the total destruction. You hide that very well. I'm mad at my lawmakers for not protecting my country with the care they've protected Israel. I don't think that your country, my country, our country has spent that much time protecting Israel. I asked you a little bit ago. They have no time protecting my country. No, I ask you. Well, actually, they do. How? They are the tip of the spear. Every enemy they have is our enemy. Our country. Things that are targeted toward us often go through them. How do we have 60 million illegal aliens if they protected my country? Well, that we didn't protect our country because we had a president that opened up the borders and didn't give a rip going on since Reagan 1986. Yeah, but that's 40 years. President Trump the credit for having closed the border. I'm giving I love the fact I campaigned for Trump cuz he said he'll close the border. He did. Amen. Thank you, Trump. But we had Reagan, then we had Bush. Then we had Clinton. Then we had Bush again. Then we had that guy Obama and then you know the presidents. Yeah. And they all presided over my country's total transformation from a nice clean affluent orderly society into like pretty kind of third world actually. That's not protecting us. That's behaving with total contempt for my country. You said a moment ago that we do more or you inferred that we do more for Israel than we do for ourselves. Do you believe that? No. What? I don't I didn't say we do more for Israel. It's like, but where's the care? Where's the concern? Where's the Holy smokes? There are drug cartels in your neighborhood. You're telling me about the border with Lebanon and like Hezbollah or Hezbollah, whatever you call it, in some Latin American country. I don't care. There are drug cartels in my neighborhood. I know people who've died of fentanyl os. Where the fentanyl come from? Probably from China. It's from Mexico. From China through Yeah. The precursor chemicals they say come from China. I get it. And who's in that axis with China? Iran. Uh Larry Frink is in that access with No, actually actually the heads of our biggest corporations are in that axis with China. I don't care about Iran at all. I care about America. And if blowing up Iran makes my country richer and safer, I'm for it. And if it doesn't, I'm totally opposed. It's that simple. I think most Americans feel that way. Was the War on Iraq Really About 9-11? I asked you a question a little bit ago you never got back to because I think it's an important one because one of the things that I I sense a tension with you. You feel like that we do too much for Israel. We're getting nothing from it. And I ask you how many I don't think we're getting how many boots on the ground has the US placed on behalf of Israel? However many went to Iraq. We did that for Israel. No, I don't think we did. You said we did it because of 9/11. That's was the US justification for it. But it wasn't 911. So what was the actual reason? Well, that's the US government told us it was for 911. They told us that they were part of it that they had weapons of mass destruction. They knew they had nothing to do with 911. Obviously, there's no evidence. So what was the actual Israel was not in that component. Israel had no influence on our decision to invade Iraq. That's not what the people who made the decision say. They say Israel Well, let me get back to the point. Gave us that information about the fake weapons of mass destruction. What do you think the question came from? BB, how many how many Americans put their boots on the ground for Israel? The answer is zero. Everybody who served in Iraq put their boots on the ground for Israel. Did not. Did not. Where did we get the information about the weapons of mass destruction? That wasn't real. We didn't get that from You're saying we got that from Israel? That Israel was one pushed us into that? Well, absolutely. You really believe that? I know that for a fact. And so does every Yes. This has been uh widely written about and discussed. And I'm not attacking Israel. Like they thought it was in their interest to take out a government that was paying the families of suicide bombers. I get it. I'm not mad at Israel about that. I never have been. I'm mad at the Bush administration and all the people who went along with this to the detriment of my country. That's who I'm mad at. Not Israel. BB is doing what he can for his country. Whether you agree with him or not, I want my leaders to do the same for my country. That's it. I think the present leadership is doing just that. I truly do. And I don't think that it's at all accurate to even intimate that tiny little Israel is pushing the US into something it does not want to do. I totally Our leaders appear to want to do it. Our public does not want to do it at all. The public does not want war with Iran. BB does. He's gotten seven seven trips to the White House. The average American Hold on. The average American doesn't have that level of access and a foreign leader does. Seven in one year. And now we're moving toward war with Iran. The average American doesn't want that war. The average American is outraged. Don't you understand? I'm not the strongest president I've ever seen in my lifetime. Going back to Eisenhower for God. If you're an American. No, no, no. Listen to me, Tucker. For God's sake, I'm not attacking Trump. I like Trump. I know, but you're making it sound like that he is being pulled into something that he really doesn't want to do or pulled into something cuz he's persuaded. I'm neither saying that nor implying. I was in the meeting last week. I was in the meetings last summer. I can assure you, President Trump is not being led into something at all by Prime Minister Netanyahu. To be clear, I'm neither saying that nor implying it. what I am stating out loud is true and that's that Prime Minister Netanyahu BB Netanyahu has way more influence over American foreign policy than Americans do. And we know this because he wants a war with Iran. The overwhelming majority of Americans don't want a war with Iran and we're very likely to get a war with Iran. So who has more influence, Benjamin Netanyahu or 80% of Americans? I'm saying that's outrageous. That's all I'm saying. I would counter that. BB Netanyahu does not want a war with Iran. To say that he wants a war, you know who's going to be at the very front of that? His people. And I don't agree with that. I'm with him enough to know he does not want a war. He doesn't. Does Does he think that there may be a necessity of taking a war in order to prevent an attack on not just Israel? But I think I know too much. I mean, let's let's Israel's Sabotaging of US Negotiations With Iran be real, okay? So, there was uh you know, Steve Wickoff, in my opinion, is just a sterling guy, just a good guy, excellent guy. I that's my view and kind of pro-American and just couldn't be nicer and wants to do the right thing and he's probably Trump's best friend. He and maybe Jared, too, are involved in a negotiation with Hamas. Um, or you mean with Iran? With Iran. Yeah. I'm so sorry. Okay. And the Israeli government short circus it by hitting Iran. So like they What do you mean they short circuit by hitting Iran? They did everything they could to shut down the negotiations between the United States, the Trump administration, and Iran. And look, I wouldn't. They're acting again in their own interest, but our country should also act in its own interest. That's all I'm saying. So don't tell me that BB doesn't want a war with Iran. He doesn't. If Jared Kushner and Steve Witco could be successful in getting the president's demands, and keep in mind, these are the president's demands. What are those demands? No enrichment, no nuclear weapon. Quit killing your own people in the streets by the tens of thousands. You, you and I both agree that it's a horrible thing to kill your own citizens, which Iran is doing. It's a horrible thing to kill anybody's citizens. Anybody's citizens. We agree on that. Except that they're 14-year-olds working for Hamas. But whatever. It's still a tragedy. No, it is. Sorry, I'm being a jerk. You really are being a jerk. I am. I know. I am being a jerk on it. I am such a jerk. I'm going to write down admitted. I know he's a jerk. Oh, I am a jerk. Everyone knows that. I mean, I'm trying to really trying. Okay. Okay. No, but I agree with you 100%. Of course, it's a trap. If that could be done, and I pray it can. Yes. And you know why? Number one, because it would be wonderful for everybody. Number two, if there is a war, you're going to be 6,000 miles from it. You know where I'm going to be? In the bullseye. Do I want there to be a war? No. Do Israelis want there to be a war? No. How many I keep hearing Israel is fighting a sevenfront war right now. What are those seven fronts? Well, you got Lebanon, you have Egypt. Now, Egypt is not an active war, but you have the Muslim Brotherhood within Egypt. You've got uh the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. You've got Syria. Wait, they're fighting war with Jordan with the Muslim Brotherhood that is in Jordan, not directly with Jordan, not the government of Jordan. What are they? You've got Hezbollah, you've got in Lebanon, Hoodis in Yemen, you have Hamas in Gaza, you have uh the threats that come from Iran. And how many is that? That's seven. That's seven. Okay. I give you an eighth one. You know the eighth one? The media. No, I would tell you there's an eighth front war they fight. How many journalists is Israel killed in Gaza? I don't How Many Journalists Has Israel Killed in Gaza? know. Over 200. That seems like Now, are they real journalists? Because a lot of those people that were supposedly journalists were actually Hamas fighters that are documented Hamas fighters. So that's why I ask you how many are actual journalists. You know, I I don't know. But a lot of them were. I mean, they worked for big news organizations and they had press written on their chest. Yeah. Some of them had UNRA cars and they were also working for Hamas. So are you concerned? So do you think that over 200 journalists killed in Gaza, all fake journalists who deserve to be killed? I have no idea how many the total number is. I I don't have their credentials, but I know that there were quite a few that were actually Hamas fighters that protected Hamas. Ask the hostages. The hostages came back and they started telling about the number of people that were doctors in hospitals that held them hostage in their homes or the number of people who were pretending to be journalists who were actually holding them hostage. As someone who is telling you that there's there's a lot more to what as someone whose tax dollars helped pay for killing all those civilians in Gaza, I feel like I have a right to know how many were killed and Israel won't let outside observers in to figure it out. And I I'm frustrated. I just want to say Is Huckabee Concerned About the Persecution of Christians? that my last question is about Christians. Um both Christians who visit and Christians uh who live here, particularly in the West Bank. Um, I spoke to someone recently, um, a Christian minister who grew up in a town right outside Bethlehem. We would know it as Shepherd's Field um, in the New Testament where the shepherds were tending their flocks in Matthew and of course the angels come and announce the arrival of Jesus and in nearby Bethlehem. His family's been Christian, he says, for 2,000 years. He says his where he grew up is now surrounded by settlements um, of people who are not from Israel at all. A lot of them are from the United States, Jewish settlements. They have different roads uh that the native Christians are not allowed to use. I don't quite know how that works. Um and he described a story where his mother was shot outside their house by an IDF soldier for reasons no one ever explained. She survived um but no one was ever punished for it or even explained why they did it. And he basically described being terrorized by settlers. Uh, and I wonder if that's a concern for you for the native population, the indigenous population. Did you say this happened in Bethlehem? Uh, it happened in Shepherd's Field. So, it's a Christian village. Beth Sahor, I think is its name outside right outside Bethlehem. If it's in Bethlehem, it's not in Bethlehem. It's again, it's I think it's Betahor, I believe, is the name of the village because there are no Israelis in Bethlehem. None. There are no Jews in Bethlehem. Are there new settlements outside Bethlehem where he is from? Uh over in in area C, but not in area A. There are none. Well, he he describes the town he grew up in. And I guess I I wonder why a Christian whose family's been there for 2,000 years. There are Palestinian Christians throughout uh today in Samaria. That That's true. I've been over to visit them. I know. I know. I know you have. and some have been um you know we've advocated for some that are Muslim but they're American citizens and we advocated because there was uh but why can't they just drive into Jerusalem to go to the church of the holy supplr? Why do they need a permit to do that if they're from there? Because of the acts of terrorism that has made it impossible to do it. You know how many suicide Christians you asked this question. So what do we do? Just say you're a Christian. Oh yeah, I'm a Christian. But you're wearing a suicide bomb. Do Christians do suicide bombs? They could they could if all they have to do is just say announce I'm a Christian. There were over a thousand. Why don't just get an identity card says I'm a Christian. Let me just finish this. Before Israel put the the green line up and before they took great care to put checkpoints in place, there were over a thousand suicide bombers in one year. It was awful. I remember it. But I don't think any of them were Christians. And they may not have been. Okay. But but my point is we we could find out if they were and so you're you're saying we just trust somebody if they come up and say I'm a Christian I just want to go to the holy supplr. Let me in. What I'm saying is that Christians have a right to go to the holy supplr. Israel does not own it. They've had possession of it since 1967. It doesn't belong to BB. It belongs to me and you and every other Christian. BB was a probably a young person. I'm not even sure he was No Christian should ever be barred from the church of the holy supplr. Should Christians be barred from Joseph's tomb in Nabilus? I don't know. Let's just start with the church of the holy self and I don't understand on what grounds they are. Well, they can't if they're Christians at Betsah. So, I don't understand why they're a threat. They're not a threat. And why won't you as the Christian minister, US ambassador to the state of Israel say to the prime minister, "You can't allow this. Your country exists in part because American Christians support you. So, you have to treat us well." Part of the problem, Tucker, is that in the Palestinian Authority, and that's what we're talking about, there are Christians. Look, I know some Christians who live in Bethlehem, and that is area A. Bethlehem was 80 plus% Christian before Oslo. 80% Christian, less than 20% Muslim. Today, it's flipped. It's now 80 plus% Muslim. It's very few Christian. And some of the Christians that I personally know and know well are Zionist. Let that surprise you. They're Zionist. They're hardcore. Some are are Let me finish my train of thought here. Okay. So, in the Palestinian Authority, they still teach children from the time they're five years old that the greatest thing in the world is to kill Jews. And that if they end up being a martyr and if they kill Jews, they will get a pension for life if they die. And if they don't, they'll get a paycheck for life and their families will. And it's called the prisoners and martyrs fund. It's we call it pay for slay in the US. It is against our law. A lot of Christians collecting on that. I don't know. Zero. So my question remains and I'm a little bit frustrated at this point. I because I'm not defending Hamas. I hate suicide bombing. I hate suicide. I hate violence. I hate the killing of children. Period. Why can't a Christian who was born there, whose family's been there for 2,000 years, following Jesus for 2,000 years, drive, cuz it's really close to the Church of the Holy Supplr. He poses no threat. And why can't the United States government advocate for him to do that? We do advocate for Americans because that's our job. And it doesn't matter whether they're Palestinian or Israeli. We do that. But as far as when they How many Americans are being held in Israeli prisons right now? Um total I don't have a exact number on that. I don't know. How can you advocate for them if you don't know how many there are? Well, everyone that we know we go visit. Our consular goes there almost every week and visits the Americans. It's not a large number uh as far as Americans, but when we have them, we go we go to their trials when they're on trial. So, yeah, we do a lot more than you've given us credit for. Oh, I'm giving you credit. No, no, you're giving credit for doing that because we don't get much. No, we don't get much. By the way, not every embassy does that. I happen to know for a fact they don't advocate for Americans in jail. And we take our consular services across into the Palestinian Authority and help people over there. Some of those are Christians, some are not, some are Muslim. But if they're Americans and they have American citizenship, an American passport, we help them. That makes me so happy to hear. I go to Ramla, I sit down with the vice president and the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. We try to work ways to make things better. But the reason that sometimes it's not just a absolute free passage, I'll tell you why. because there are too many instances of terrorist acts and Israel is not going to allow themselves. But the Christians didn't do it and they're not going to do it and Christians pay for all of this. They pay for a lot of this. Horrible. It's it's very you can say it's unfair. But here's you can't punish the innocent. How's that? But you got to somehow make sure that you screen people. And that's why the checkpoints. Let me tell you what happened not too very long ago. We had a humanitarian aid truck that came across from Jordan. The driver was supposedly vetted. He was a former Jordanian military person. He came across the checkpoint. Everything should be fine, right? He gets out of his truck. He takes a gun and he shoots two of the people, I believe it, who are the Israelis at the checkpoint. One of whom was a young person less than a year in the job. His mother teaches in the American school where our embassy people go in Herselia. I get to make the phone call to the mother. I'm going to tell you something. It was not the most pleasant day of my life. It sounds awful. It is awful. And so those kind of incidences are the reason that it is difficult to go from Judea, Samaria, or the West Bank. Call it whatever you want. But if you're in area A, which is under the control of the Palestinian Authority, and your education has been that killing Jews is a wonderful thing. I'm talking about the Christians. But the Christians, if they go to those schools, they're still going to get that education. When was the last time there was a suicide bomb detonated by Christians? I don't know. Never. Let me ask you this. Look, I'm not trying to defend, but I'm saying to you that if the curriculum doesn't get changed, if the pay for slay doesn't get changed, that doesn't apply. You have a culture. Well, it you say it doesn't apply. Maybe it never has happened. I don't know whether it has ever happened. When will Palestinians in the West Bank have the same rights as Israelis in the West Bank? Are you talking about the ones that live in the Palestinian Authority? I'm talking about people who live in the villages they grew up in, but changed hands, went from one government to another. whether they live under the Palestinian Authority government or whether they live under Israeli. If they live under area A, do you know the difference? I do. I'm saying if they live under area A, they live under the Palestinian Authority government. They don't live under Israeli government. What? But it's controlled by the Israeli government completely. There's no airport. They control the utilities. I mean, this is it's silly. I understand there's a form of self-government, but the big decisions are made by the Israeli government. Obviously, I've been there. I know this. And you know it, too. So, how long does this go on? You say that God gave the nation of Israel the right to this land. Why not just take it, declare it Israel, and make everyone a citizen? I don't understand why that's not happening. Well, you know what? There are people who think that that would be a much better think. I think it it very well could be. And if you ask certain people living in the PA under their very corrupt government, where 91% of the people think the government is hopelessly corrupt, that's what the numbers are. They would tell you that they would be better off if the Israelis were the governing authority. Everyone gets voting rights. Would that be the case if they were all under Israeli authority? You know, there are do you you realize there are lots of ArabIsraelis? I know. And they vote. Do you know they serve in the Knesset? I'm very aware of that. And I'm just wondering and they serve on the Supreme Court. And did you know that it was an Arab who sentenced a former president and prime minister to prison? I I know this. So the qu I just want to know what's going to happen. You know how many Jews get to help govern Saudi Arabia or Qatar or Syria? I I'm not attacking Jews. It's a much more open government in society and you make it sound like that the Israeli sound that way. I'm just asking I No, I am not attacking the nation of Israel. I'm just wondering what the plan is. So, I've been hearing my whole life how bad the PA is. Okay, great. But what's the plan here? So they're moving all these Americans, people from around the world into settlements subsidized by Americans in the West Bank. No, they're not moving them from around the world to the settlements. They're people who make aliyah. They come and these are is these are Israelis who live in Israel. Well, there are a lot of people and area C is Israel. Okay. Okay. But does it remain a territory under military control forever? Does it just become part of the state? You talking about the Palestinian Authority? Correct. That's the big question. Do you believe in a two-state solution? And if you do, I would I would show you a map and I would ask you because this is u I don't know. I don't know what I think. I just think you need to treat people like human beings and that's not happening obviously. And that would be you don't glorify their killing. Yeah. Let them go to their church if they want. See the yellow parts? Yeah. That's Palestinian Authority. The tan parts, that's area B. That's the area that is mixed. Israel has military authority, but the Palestinians can live anywhere they want to in there. And the blue area, that's area C. Area C is Israel. And Israelis can live in Israel. That's what it is. Now, when people say they want a two-state solution, I love to show them a map like this. And I ask them, where does that state line up? There is no continuous work. You know, we've got a lot of states in the United States that need help. So, I'm not going to weigh in on other people's states to be totally honest. I just don't want to pay for it anymore and just want to fix our own country. But let me ask you one last question, which is how Christians are treated in Jerusalem. I've talked to so many who've been spit on. Uh I so many how many? Uh well, two yesterday. Two. Okay. Yeah. Both Catholic clergy and both told me the same thing. Anglican clergy. I interviewed I just had dinner recently with a Greek uh patriarch. Well, there have been a million stories about this. Yeah, I know there are instances where Christians get heckled. Usually it's people who are wearing clerical robes and they're wearing crosses and it shouldn't happen. It's horrible. It is bad for that to happen as it is to spit on somebody wearing a kip in New York City. Great. Terrible. It's horrible. And actually, I should to be fair, there is, and I just learned this, a Jewish Israeli group that keeps track of Christians being spit on in Jerusalem because they're offended by it. And God bless them for keeping track and for being offended by it. But there are an awful lot of examples of that. And my question to you, you're against it. Of course, your Christian clergy horribly against it. What is that? And so is the prime minister, the president, the foreign minister. So is I think every No one would defend that thinking person. But what is it? Why are they spitting on Christian? It's very limited. It's very, very isolated. Where does it come from? But for the most part, you know what? As Christians, we have freedom of movement here. Tucker, I go to church every Sunday. I play bass guitar in my church band. I get it. I don't get hassled being a Christian. Everyone here knows I'm the first evangelical to be ambassador to Israel. Do you think they hate me here? No. Are evangelicals recognized by the state of Israel? Yeah, they are. Yeah. Okay. And and welcomed and and appreciated. No, but like as a as a religious like are there evangelical churches in Israel? My gosh, yes. There's 184,000 Christians in I know. I know. and much larger than but there are churches that are non-denominational evangelical here. Of course there are and and it ranges from when you say non-denominational some of them are affiliated Baptist Assembly of God some of them are truly non-denominational Pentecostal some are messianic churches right where um most of the people are um ethnically Jewish but they are Messianic they believe in Jesus there are a lot of those churches and they're spread out all over Israel so um but you don't Oh I there I know a lot of Christians in Israel by the way us and I, as I said, I really hope I can come back and talk to more, but and come to church with me. Oh, I definitely would love that. Why, and I mean it, too. Why would people spit on? Like, where does that come from? I think it's from an evil heart. Yeah. What else would it be? I agree. I mean, I don't think anybody would ever spit on another person, even if it was, you know, I don't care what a person's religion is or what a person's nationality is. I don't hate anybody. I wouldn't spit on anybody. I wouldn't heckle anyone. And I find it repulsive. Nothing about it is defensible. I will say that the one, this was off camera, but I interviewed this Christian uh leader here and I said, "Oh, that's so awful." And he goes, "You know, I feel blessed because Jesus was spit on and it's an opportunity for humility for me." And I thought, "Wow, that's a Christian." Let me tell you this. I've been coming in and out of Jerusalem and Israel for 50, well, soon to be 53 years. Before I came as ambassador, I made over a 100 trips here. I've never been spat on. I've never had someone yell at me. Um, I've never had an experience where I felt uncomfortable or that I was unwelcome. Um, if you spit on someone wearing a yamak in New York City, you go right to jail. They would not put up with that for one second. And they do put up here because it still happens. I'm not sure they do go to jail in New York City. They should and they should go to jail here. I'm against it. I'm They should go to jail here. Amen. So, there were all these uh Christian ministers who were brought over here, evangelicals, in December. Uh and I think mostly to attack me, but also probably they had other Oh, they really weren't here to attack you. I'm just joking. They were attacking me, but whatever. Um and but they were flown over by the state. the state paid for it and they had a conference here. I got one of the guides that they received when they arrived and I think it's real and it says don't preach about Jesus when you're in Israel. We don't we don't allow that. Don't do that. Really? Yeah. Why would a Christian minister agree not to preach about Jesus? I'm not sure because I have I've never heard someone tell another Christian minister not to do that. Interesting. Good. Well, I was I was totally baffled. What would be the purpose of going to church as a Christian if you didn't talk about Jesus? Agree more. Thank you. I can assure you that that the church I attend, we talk about Jesus. I mean, we pray in the name of Jesus. I don't get it. To anyone else outside the church, are you allowed like could I stand on the corner and just tell people about Jesus here? You could. I'm not saying you'd get applause or that people Right. That's fine. But I'm But I'm saying there are people that There's no law against that though. Not that I'm aware of. The only laws that that I know of, you can't proitize someone under the age of 18. And you cannot offer people things of value in order to cause them to listen to your presentation. For example, I can't say, "Hey, for $10, would you let me give you this gospel track and and scream at you?" Can't do that, right? Uh I don't know if it's enforced. I'm I'm not sure. I don't ever hear anyone arrested for it. But there no there's no law against just like preaching to people. walk down to the old city, you'll hear people, you know, out there preaching on the street. Now, are they effective? I don't know. I'm not sure that people are stopping and falling on their knees and saying, "This is what I've been waiting for." I don't know. But what I'm telling you is that the idea that you can't say it. I know that there are places in the rest of this region where you can't do that. For sure. Yeah. Cutter, you can't wear a cross in public. For sure. You can't pray in public. I see a lot of people wearing crosses in cutter, but in cutter, I don't know. I have, but I don't know what the laws are. Yeah. In Saudi Arabia, don't think so. I doubt it. The one place is an exception is the Amiradis, and I love those folks because they are so um progressive and they're doing so many things to change the the template of things. They have a Abraham house that is it is a combination synagogue, church, and mosque. That's pretty amazing, isn't it? That they have the same building and they use it for all three of the major religions of the world. And I think that's incredible. Um, but they're really trying to do things that are beyond what anyone else in the region. They changed their textbooks. They teach that Israel is not a nation they should hate or seek to annihilate. They've done some remarkable things. You've been following all this stuff in the I agree with that. They have a Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi. You've been following all this like hate the Muslim stuff going on in the United States on the right. I I hear some of it and it's uh it's unpleasant. We shouldn't hate anybody. Amen. Yeah. It's not a good thing. Hate is a an evil thing. I I don't uh you know sometimes you say, "I don't support child killing." Okay, I don't either. But I don't support hate in any form. I think it's a horrible thing. That is such a great standard and I want to hold myself to that and thank you for saying that out loud. I don't hate you. I hope not. Governor, ambassador, thank you very much for spending all this time. I appreciate it. I'm glad you came. Please come back. I will go with me to some places and a church. I want you to see that as Christians, we're pretty free here. Amen. Appreciate it. Thank you. And welcome.
Iran's Missiles SMASH US Bases, Trump-Israeli War BACKFIRES | Elijah Magnier & Mohammad Marandi Danny Haiphong Streamed live 4 hours ago #iran #trump #israel
The US and Israel launched strikes into Iran in the early hours of February 28th in an attempted regime change operation that both Trump and Isarel officials say will last days. Iran has already retaliated in a massive way, leaving several US bases and Israel itself under heavy fire. War correspondent Elijah Magnier joins the show to break it all down.
Transcript
Welcome everyone. Welcome back to the show. It's your host Danny Haiphong. As you can see, I'm joined by independent journalist and war correspondent Elijah Magnier. Thank you so much for joining me, Elijah. We have a lot to get to because the US and Israel have begun their kinetic war, their allout war on Iran. Thanks so much for joining me today. It's a pleasure to be with you. Yes, everyone hit the like button. and that helps boost the stream as we get to this uh critical show here. So Elijah, first your overall assessment, I think what Israel is calling it is what? Roaring lion. Their operation uh the US says this is operation epic fury. They have uh conducted major air strikes in Iran. Uh they've targeted civilian infrastructure. We've seen over 40 children, I believe, at a school bombed uh by Israel. Uh, and we know that the United States was sending tomahawks through Iraqi airspace. We could go on and on and on. Iran is now retaliated as well. So, how about we get to first your assessment before we get into pulling up anything at all. Your assessment of what has happened here and where we are now. Thank you for having me. Well, first of all, let me start with it is actually not a lion Israeli war because the Israelis did not go to war on their own. When they did that in June 2025, they failed and they asked President Donald Trump for support to stop the war. And it is not a fury from the American side because this is a war on behalf of Israel. actually it is to impose Israel as or not impose to try to impose Israel as the only power in the Middle East that can intimidate or bully or impose on all the countries in the Middle East whatever the Isra want and this is the theory of Benjamin Netanyahu who said I don't really need to bother to ask the Arab to sign a deal once Iran is gone then everybody will knock my bill. So that is all about it is a war to Iran's economy and military infrastructure so that can lead to the fall of the ruling system in Iran. And why I'm saying that is because both leaders, Benjamin Netanyao and Donald Trump said this morning that the objective of of this war, and I quote them, is to change the regime in Iran. Now, but Jam Netanyah was a little bit more careful than Donald Trump. He said he wants to create the circumstances to change the regime. And in my understanding covering different wars around the Middle East, it reminds me of 1990s the war on Iraq when the bombardment of Iraq and the sanctions imposed on Iraq, Saddam Hussein at that time uh food for oil led to the fall of the Saddam Hussein uh ruling system in Iraq after few years when the country was crippled. and its economy. So basically what we have seen today are two operations. The Israelis went on a personal uh attack to kill the leaders. The Benjamin Netanyahu loves the theatrical uh side of any war and Donald Trump uh selected the objective of military position, military target. So on one side you have the Israelis killing political and military leaders. This is not something that happened in the June 2025 because Israel told us that they went to kill the foreign minister, the president, the Iranian leader, the uh all the top senior commanders as they have tried to do in June 2025 when they killed the senior military commanders and now they're killing the political commandership. Therefore, it is completely different and we see how the Israelis are acting. We imagine that in the coming days the war is going to be much more nasty and that the Americans and the Israelis will target the infrastructure, the energy, the electricity, the gas, uh the oil, the harbor, the transport, communication system, everything that can sustain a country to make sure that Iran will never be able to stand on its feet when there are of course um sanction imposed at the same time and that will be extremely difficult for Iran to recover very quickly and they want to create the perfect scenario for the Iranian people to stand against the ruling system and then try to change it from within when the American and the Israelis have created the perfect uh scenario and setup for people to stand against their ruling system because the country will not be able to provide uh what a country should provide for its population. Yeah. No, that's uh great points, Elijah. Now, uh here we have uh some unsuccessful attempts. The Israeli air strikes that you mentioned did not succeed in uh getting in assassinating the Ayatoll Ali Ki. And uh the same goes for the president of Iran, Masoud Puzzeskin. Of course, this is just the first day of the strikes. I'm sure that there are going to be many more as you said, but uh I wanted to ask you about uh what has happened. Uh Elijah, what has the US and Israel struck? Uh first, let's get to this before we get into the Iranian retaliation, which was also quite rapid. But first, what has the US and Israel hit uh so far? And does it conform to what you believe uh is going to happen in the coming days as well? Well, at the first beginning, the normal procedure is to hit all the defense system so all jets can have a free a free control over the Iranian airspace. Uh, and for that the Israelis and the Americans need to destroy any potential threat on their jets where they can operate anywhere in Iran because Iran at the end of the day is 1,640,000 square kilometers. It's huge. It's a continent more or less and they have four seasons which means that the effective of Iran are spread in the north, in the south and the east and the west. And we've seen today some of these strikes in different side of the country. We've seen strike in Sistan, Beluchistan on the Pakistani, Afghani border. So it's in the southeast and then we have seen also in the northwest in Kurdistan. We've seen inul in Thran in esfahan in kar in so many other cities where some of them are known to host the military missile program and this is what Donald Trump said that he will destroy the Iranian missile program. Now from the 2025 uh June war, the Iranian understood that they cannot keep their missiles on trucks and come out because of the possibility of the Israelis and the American to dominate the sky. Therefore, they went to CEOs under the ground where they can launch missile from different sides of the country, different parts. uh it makes more difficult for the Israeli and the Americans even with the control of the total sky over Iran to uh stop these missile from being launched. Now I think both sides, the Israelis and the Americans understand the impossibility to destroy the Iranian missile program. So they're going to try and destroy as much as they can and where they have information where they see missile launch because with the satellite today it's very easy to identify the location of the launching. Nevertheless, because Iran has thousands of ballistic missiles, what we have seen from Iranian side is interesting today. Well, you want to talk about it separately, but yes, you made some comments, but uh the the objective of the Israeli and the Americans now is to try and kill the minister of defense, the head of the IRGC, uh the uh commanders in the control, command and control uh centers, which they have failed obviously from the Iranian reaction and we'll come to that. And then they have to they would hit the radars. Um they will destroy the navy to make sure they do not present threat against their carriers. But for that they need also to destroy the surfacetos surface missiles that can hit these carriers. And within we're talking about hundreds of kilometers. If you're talking about surface to surface and ballistic missile, we're talking about more than 1,700 to 2,000 uh kilometers. So, this is not an easy battle. This is why Benjamin Netanyahu learned the mistake from Gaza and Lebanon did not really set the bar very high unlike Donald Trump and said to create the conditions because he knows this might not succeed today. But for Netanyahu as we're talking about him, this is a personal war. It's not only about um the destruction of Iran and his control, but it is to cover up his failure on the 7th of October. This is the only way he can get away with it in front of the Israeli society and say, "Hey, look, I failed on the 7th of October, but now I succeeded with Iran." Because so far although he destroyed Gaza, he set back Hezbollah, he did not manage to destroy Hamas because he's still asking to disarm Hamas or to destroy Hezbollah because none have raised the white flag and they both keep building up their forces. Well, uh, let's then, you know, we can, of course, circle back to all of this, uh, Elijah, but let's now get to that Iranian retaliation because, um, I'm seeing reports that the US military, military analysts have been a bit surprised by how rapidly Iran was able to strike back. Actually, I believe during the 12-day war, it took about 18 hours for Iran to recalibrate due to the surprise attack by Israel with US help. Of course, this time around, not so much. There has been an operation launched very rapidly. This is uh it's called uh I'm probably butchering this, Katamal Tufan, meaning putting an end to the storm or the deluge. I'm saying putting an end to the flood um in reference to Alaka flood. uh that began October 7, 2023. And I'm just going to play a few I'll I'll put them on mute. I'll just play a few of the videos as you're speaking about, you know, we can look at, for example, uh Bahrain was hit. This is actually from a US uh personnel who is actually uh panicking quite hard because he is seeing I'll I'll put the volume on a little bit. Um he is seeing what's going on uh by his window in Bahrain. Oh Where he can actually see what's going on there. Uh there are missiles coming down on uh uh the base there in Bahrain. Then we also have uh another uh image of the same uh area. I believe the base there is called Elijah the fifth fleet I believe. Uh is that correct? Um that is where uh we are seeing reports of uh hits by Iran. Here is I believe aloud or Qatar. Uh so we see just plumes of smoke uh coming out. This is all happening within a very short period of time after Israel and the US struck. And then here's Abu Dhabi in the UAE also experiencing uh Iranian retaliation. So uh maybe you can talk about Elijah how or or what you have assessed in terms of Iran's response to uh these strikes, how rapid they were and uh whether the reports are true that this has caught the US by surprise and maybe perhaps Israel as well. Well, first of all, um let me make one point clear. Last night, the Iranians and their allies knew that the bombardment is going to come today and the war is coming. So, that was not a surprise. However, uh it's very easy to say it when it is not possible to prove it. Nevertheless, in June 2025, the Iranians were taken by surprise. During the negotiation, the Americans gave a go to the Israeli to start the war and the Israeli managed to kill most of the top leaders. Now in this position, it is important for the granite to rename and appoint a new leader that and they've understood the mechanism. This is why it took a long time. Also, many of these center of control and command were destroyed in June 25 in the first hour of the attack. This time is different because first we see several points in the Iranian retaliation. First, there is a need to assess what the attacking forces are targeting. I'm sorry because we have seen Iran targeting the Israelis in the same way. So if Israel target only and exclusively military objectives then the Iranian go and target exactly the same research center or military base IRGC center on the other side they target the elite forces the Israeli elite center etc. So they really create a balance and for that they need an initial assessment. During June 2025 most leaders particularly the missile commander uh was killed in the first attack. What Iran did is exactly what the other allies like are doing. So there is no one commander that can control the unit but there are several uh subcommanders that can replace the commander and his vice and his vice. So you have at least four people in every position that do not exist in the same place have the same knowledge, the same information and the same uh instruction what to target and when uh depending on the capability of every unit. This is why we have seen now a very fast reaction from the Iranians from launching missile from different locations. But another point we have seen from the morning until just an hour ago Iran using old type of missiles. How do we know that is because the missile needed between 12 to 10 minutes to reach the objectives in Israel. However, in the last launching of the missile, when the Israelis were warning the um people to go to the shelter, the missiles were already above Israel, which means that now we are back to specific kind of ballistic missiles that reach Israel between five to six minutes, which mean that the Iranians are now introducing among the old missiles, also few new missiles, which mean that the Iranians are acting in full control and they want to overflood the Israeli interception missiles system, the American interception missile system and their allies because the British are in that with them to intercept the missiles. But also we have seen Iran launching kind of ve really I'm not going to say primitive but old missiles against the Gulf countries US military bases in Qatar al- Hudate in the Emirates particularly in the Emirates for its known very close relationship with Israel in Kuwait in Bahrain um in Jordan but not Oman. So we have seen also in Kurdistan. So the Iranians are making sure that the message reaches a political message reaches the American people and the American uh politicians uh turning against Donald Trump is saying well look the Iranians are fighting back. They promised to bomb the US bases even if they were evacuated and they kept their promise which is new because they've done it in 2020 when the Israeli killed General Kasumsmani in January 2020 in Iraq. the Iranian bombed um Alamar US air base in Iraq and then again they bombed in June 2025 when the Americans bombed the Iranian nuclear site and they the Iranian retaliated against the US based in Aroate in Qatar. Therefore, we have seen now the first move of the Iranians saying this is what I'm going to do. All the countries in the Middle East will be involved. Now, we're talking only about US bases. The Iranians have not started with the um navigation and the sea blockage. Not yet. Therefore, this is a card that Iran is showing it is fully capable of using damaging the world uh economy and that is also an invitation to all the Arab countries to put pressure on Donald Trump to stop the war because they know what is coming if this war lasts for weeks or for months. Donald Trump has 60 plus 30 90 days to act without the approval of the Congress. Uh I don't think it can last for 90 days. I think if the Americans want to bomb for four to days to one week, then they really have to use all the mighty power they have to the Iranian econ economy and create a real economic damage on Iran without bringing down the ruling system. But for that the Iranians will also bomb the energy resources in the Gulf that the Iranian uh nowhere and that the American and the European and the rest of the world benefit from to make sure that everybody is going to pay the price is not only Iran. And why I'm saying that is because the Americans and the Israelis told Iran that their objective is to destroy the Iranian rule current ruling system which mean they are telling to the Iranians we're going to kill you and destroy you. This is where the Iranians are put with their shoulders against the wall and only way they have is to fight but to fight with all their power. Yeah. Yeah. And uh I'm sure you remember Elijah that the joint chiefs of staff head of the United States uh Dan Raisen Kaine as he calls himself uh said to Donald Trump according to reports that uh once this thing begins it's not clear where it ends because of US limitations as well as unknown Iranian capabilities. uh uh and now I think uh uh what we are seeing and it seems like what we're seeing is that uh Iran has so quickly responded that it's it's obvious. I'm wondering if you would comment on uh uh it was thought that the that Iran's missile system was actually heavily depleted and you're telling me that Iran is actually just beginning with older missiles uh and which means that there are likely more advanced ones still yet to be even uh uh you know administered. So uh maybe you can comment on this. Well, my knowledge um on how Iran acts is Iran never plays all its cards in one go and it has a lot of patience. This is why it is important to know how the interception missile system works. One missile cannot bring down another missile. The um interception missile system may need to fire three or four and it is not perfect. The Israelis said that today because we've seen many missiles falling on Israel and exploding and the Israelis invited the inhabitant to seek shelter and they said the interception system is not perfect. So when the Iranian launch old missile system and sneak in two or three, these two or three are enough to create serious damage on the objective they are reaching and escape all the interception missile system because the interception missile system cannot stop the modern Iranian ballistic missiles. And we've seen the proof in June 2025. And we have seen also the large destruction these missiles can cause. And we have seen also the limitation of the quantity of interception missile system in Israel. Even if the Americans made sure to fill up all the Israeli needs of interception missile system and installed others in Greece and Cyprus, they have carriers in the sea. They have jet in the air also to intercept missile system incoming missile system but not in the area where it's falling because then it will endanger also the jets the allied jets in the air. So this is not a war that the Americans and the Israeli can sustain for very long because they really don't have enough. But for Israel, for Iran, uh the Tehran need to think as if this war is going to last for many months ahead. It cannot use all its power in the first week and say, "Okay, now I have nothing to fight back and the Americans can continue bombing me with the Israelis." For the Iranians, it's important to launch between 100 to 200 missiles in the first day. When we talk about old missile system and then to launch between 15 to 20 per day and no more, these are the modern missiles that can hit these 15 and 20 target and inflict real pain. in uh in Iran. They understand that every missile that falls on Israel one who are going to scream are not the Israeli citizen but the Americans who are going to scream because this is where it will be felt in Washington more than in Tel Aviv. However, it doesn't mean the Americans will get away with it. They already have their image hit because Iran is the first country in the world in modern warfare that attacks so many American bases simultaneously and challenges the most powerful country in the world ready to fight back and continue the fight without being flexible. This is something that Donald Trump brought to America where it is shaking its image even if he hits Iran. Iran doesn't need to win. Iran doesn't need to lose and need to continue fighting back. That for Iran is a victory. Yeah. I mean, that's what I was thinking as I was scouring all of and I'll pull some more up all of the images of Iran's retaliation. You know, some may scoff and say, "Oh, can you hear me?" Uh, hello. Hello. Uh, Elijah, can you hear me? I am I believe uh okay let's see I don't I don't know why we lost maybe you can come back um hold on um I don't know what's happening but um maybe go to your settings uh well I was going to um uh maybe you can reload load. Reload. Um refresh. Um private chat. There's a private chat in the um see if that works. Okay. Uh maybe refresh. Hold on. Um go to what? Uh do you have your um okay be refresh? Can you go to your phone and check refresh and I'll bring you back? Okay, I'll bring you back. All right. So Elijah will come back. Um cuz I was going to ask him that as I was watching the retaliation by Iran, I was thinking to myself that Iran is indeed making history. And here is Elijah right now. Let's see if he can hear me now. Can you hear me now, Elijah? Yes, I can. Yes. I don't know. I don't know what happened there, but I wanted to ask you um you know, given everything that you said, uh as I was scouring all of the footage of and the reports of Iranian Iran's retaliation, I was thinking about how this is historic because you can think about think back to all of the wars that the US has waged in the past. We we often say even on this show, you know, the US has lost a lot of wars. However, the US has never been hit back with this kind of technology, with this kind of weaponry this fast uh in response to its own assault. I don't think ever in its history. I I mean, Vietnam, Afghanistan, we go on and on and on. All the wars that the US has lost. This time around though, the United States now has to contend with its bases from Bahrain to Kuwait to uh there reports Saudi Arabia on and on and on being hit. And then Elijah, I'm just going to pull this up. We haven't even gotten into the potential of this turning into also a problem for um the United States in terms of I need to find it here. Here we go. um the naval assets, Elijah, because there have been reports that Iran has already sent out drones on the USS Abraham Lincoln. Now, there are breaking reports that they have struck a combat support vessel with missiles. Uh we know that the USS Gerald Ford is, you know, backing up Israel right now and has its own internal problems. So, any reaction to this because all this stuff, all of these developments are are kind of ongoing. Yes. Um we will see a lot of u um the use of drones and other missiles and uh uh kind of uh uh tomahawk missiles used in this war not only the jet or ballistic missiles because it's important on both sides to keep engaging one another to make sure that the uh defense system is more exposed or it is flooded and for that We we know that the US carriers are not really the game changer in this war because the Americans and the Israelis need to send effectively at least between 30 to 50 jets that are bombing at the same time and for that they need much more as escort and they need to refill in the air. So there is going to be a lot of pressure on the effective of the Americans and the Israelis to conduct this war. Timing is going to be crucial. For how long they going to do it. If they want to go for a a long war, which I doubt Donald Trump can sustain that and certainly Israel cannot, then on a long war they can lose what they capitalize on in the first day. But if they want to do a short war, then the outcome uh is not achieved. And in every war, we do not look at what has been damaged. We look at the achievement of the objectives. If the Israelis and the Americans will achieve their objectives or not, if they fail to achieve the objectives, then this war was not a win for the Americans and Israelis. Even if they are for the first time coordinating this scale of attack, but not this is the first time they coordinate in every war they started or the Israelis started, the Americans were present. Even on Gaza, the Israelis could not do it on their own. Third beginning, uh Joe Biden sent 2,000 Delta force to Israel and he sent cargo plane and navy to support the Israelis to intercept missiles, everything. All the support Israel can get. Israel cannot conduct a war on its own. for that. This is going to be a failure for Israel or the Americans or they're going to succeed together in uh changing the ruling system in Iran. And this is not going to happen from one day or another. And it's certainly not going to happen during this war because the riers and the manifestation took place already uh at the end of December, beginning of January and that was uh under control by the Iranian authority. Therefore, we cannot think that the Israeli and the Americans will have local support uh for them, but inevitably they will have people unhappy about the economic situation that's going to they they will be left with. I remember the Iran Iraq war that I covered on the ground when Hashimir Sanjani was president. He lost at the end of the war because there are consequences after a war, economic consequences that people stand against and want to change. So how do they want this change? Do they want to change the entire ruling system or they want to change the people they voted for? And also that is not confirmed. So basically the Israelis and the Americans are not going toward anything confirmed or concrete that they can achieve in this war apart having a very strong military power that is capable of destroying to destroy. They can achieve that. Yeah. Yeah. They can achieve that. We've already seen uh and they're targeting a lot of civilian infrastructure. Of course they've gone after government institutions. they've tried to assassinate the leadership uh but at the same time and I don't know there have been some reports that maybe some of the IRGC's top leadership has uh been assassinated by these strikes but there's also Elijah this fact that or at least this uh uh uh you know claim a very strong claim by IRCG Ibrahim Jabari who says Iran is going to unveil weapons we've never seen before Trump should know that Iran is equipped to fight for years, to fight the US for years, which maybe we shouldn't be surprised by because the United States has been launching a war of aggression in many different kinds of forms for years against Iran and that all wars that the US has fought have gone on for years. But this war seems like it's going to be different if it goes on for years. And as you said, the US and Israel likely can't go on for weeks, let alone years. Yes, that is true. They can't continue for weeks. However, there is an advantage that the Americans and the Israelis have because they started this unlawful war unprovoked. Therefore, they are the one who can end it. Because at the end of the day, if they say to Iran, okay, I want to stop this war. Well, they are the one who aggressed Iran. Therefore, the Iranians would not say, "Oh, no. I want to continue." Because at the end of the day, for Iran, it's important to preserve the country and be able to stop the war, to reconstruct, and to make sure that the Israelis and the Americans did not achieve their objectives. Therefore, unfortunately, the Israelis and the Americans are the one who started this war and they can stop it even if Iran is going to say, "Well, you start something you cannot stop." Particularly if the Israelis and the Americans are failing to achieve their objectives. However, Iran, in my experience, will not continue bombing if the Americans and the Israelis have enough. at the end of the day for Iran as long as there are uh effective in the country and resources that are still intact where they would stop the war. So yes, the Iranian can continue because they thought about how to run this war for the very long time thinking that if the Israelis and the Americans want to continue then they can continue. Nevertheless, I don't think Iran is going to accept to stop the war without a proper deal. The June 2025 war stopped without a ceasefire. It has stopped just because Benjamin Netanya contacted Donald Trump, asked him to stop the war and Trump called the Omani and the Qatari and asked them to mediate to stop the war and that's it. There are no treaty, no deal, nothing. Today the Americans and the Israelis have violated international laws. They attacked a UN member. They attacked a sovereign country unprovoked and because they violated international laws, they don't care. Even if the ceasefire has little meaning because is America proved to be untrustworthy starting the second time the war during diplomatic negotiations. Nevertheless, the Iranian can always say, "Well, we've signed a deal and this is the end of it." But I mean, we're still in the first hours of the war. It's still too early to talk about the end of this foolish campaign. Yeah. I mean, Israel and the United Israel itself has said this is going to last. I mean, you said it earlier, uh, Elijah, this feels like, and this seems like, it looks exactly like Israel is at the head of the operation and or at least the brains of the operation. The United States is very much um, you know, uh, being the uh, you know, the uh, the great father of Israel and and helping it where it needs to be helped. And uh I just wanted to uh pull up some other breaking developments here as we go on. There are reports from Al-Mayaden saying that among the targets of Iran's strike so far has been the American radar station at a US base in Qatar, the FPS 132. The radar is used to detect ballistic missiles. It has a range of 5,000 km and it has an approximate cost of 1.1 billion US. So again, the damage keeps coming and we haven't gotten too much into Israel, but uh Israel is being hit. Israel was some of the first strike, retaliatory strikes uh that Iran launched and here you see Hifa as during the 12-day war getting the brunt of a lot of the damage Tel Aviv as well. You know uh Elijah I wanted to you know ask you this Iran said was going to become a regional war if it occurred and we immediately saw Yemen onsella uh come out and say that they have now joined the war. They launched I believe a missile uh salvo at Israel and uh there are some reports saying that they are closing the Red Sea in the Bendub street or at least they're going to target the aggressor parties there. So, um, talk about this. Uh, is this going to go regional? And are we about to see, uh, the axis of resistance led by Iran conduct a coordinated campaign against this act of aggression? Well, it's too early to say it because it's already regional with the fact that there are uh five Gulf countries involved so far in this war and they have been I mean the US bases have been bombed in these countries but one can safely said say that these countries have been bombed. So it is not really a war limited to Iran and to Israel. It's Iran. did Israel and uh there are Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Birates, Kuwait and good Jordan. So we have six countries that are involved so far plus Iran and Israel and the United States not as a country but as effectives in the Middle East. uh if uh the is the Yemeni and will come into this battle? Most probably yes. Uh the day uh Iran feels the need to close the Red Sea, the Red Sea will be closed and uh is the straight of Horus will be closed. Most probably yes, depending on the time this war is going to last, but not from day one. As I said, the Iranians don't play their cards immediately. Well, I think this is a great opportunity for Hezbollah to join the battle regardless the destruction to impose a rule of engagement on Benjamin Netanyahu and stop his continuous daily violation of international law and Lebanon sovereignty. Nevertheless, is not going to happen from day one because Iran has started to fight back against those who aggress. We need to give it more time to start seeing if Iran needs to diverse the uh retaliation on different front, diverse the effectives or the attacking forces in this case the US, Israel and their ally in the region and then open different front showing that the risk of spillover is really effective and the biggest this war becomes the most easy to stop it because this is where other countries will intervene and ask the American to stop fighting on behalf of Israel. And the first who did that already, the Omani foreign minister, he is the one who act as intermediate between Iran and the US hosted the negotiation in uh Moscat, Oman and in uh Geneva and in Vienna was supposed to do so. and he said is the Americans are fighting this war on behalf of the Israelis and they should stop because he also was told that the Americans were honest in the negotiation and discovered that they were not. So yes, it is becoming larger. The war is becoming larger. More countries involved. more forces are expected to join in if this war lasts for very long or for longer than expected or if the damage is increasing on Iran because if don't fight back and join the battle along with the Iraqis then after Iran it is their turn and they fully aware of that. So it is in their advantage to d to divide the damage on different countries simultaneously and hope that they can impose a cease a ceasefire that prevent Benjamin Netanyahu to violate the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon to bomb Iraq as he did today against Hastabi in Jerus Baghdad. And for Yemen, it's certainly the turn of Yemen is coming after Iran unless Yemen join in and there is a global deal that stop this war. Yeah. No, the the stakes are incredibly high, Elijah. And you know, I wanted to ask you about what you believe uh caused, you know, this whole process. We saw reports coming out of Politico where it said that the United States was looking for Israel to initiate the first strike because it looked better uh politically. It looked better for the United States for the Trump administration. Uh but then all of this has happened so fast uh where Donald Trump came out and said that Americans are going to die in this war and that to me this is shocking. I'm curious on what your thought process is about and your analysis is of why the US because I think we should uh really uh put that out there that the US uh really makes all of this possible. Why the US is going so hard for this? What is what caused the rush? Do you find that this strike uh is in is strategic in nature or do you find that it's uh you know um it's it's part of a calculation that's kind of gone ary because we've seen the US come up toward strikes on Iran a couple of times in the last month or so and now we're here uh and this comes after the Pentagon was reporting it was or leaking that it was trying to advise against this It is not at all strategic for the United States, but it is for Israel. And I will explain. Iran doesn't represent a danger to the Israeli to the Americans because America is far away from West Asia and the Iranians never took the initiative to attack an American target. It is vice versa that the Americans took the initiative to to attack Iran and the Israelis did the same. Which means that there is no interest for the Americans when they are sitting and negotiating a nuclear deal. After Donald Trump said that he had decimated and obliterated, these are his two words, the Iranian nuclear program. But because the JCPOA, the nuclear deal that was signed by Barack Obama in 2015, expired in October 2025, then Donald Trump wanted a new deal. Not because the last one was not good, but because it has ended. It had terminated automatically, even if he did terminate the deal in 2018 and pull out. And this is where the whole problem started between Iran and the United States. So the Iranians were ready to have US inspectors, UN inspectors were ready to freeze the nuclear enrichment production. Sorry. And to put it under the control of the IAEA, the nuclear organization, and to make sure that they are not enriching uranium more than 3.75% and 20% for medical and research purposes. In fact, Iran went to 60% only when Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018. And then Iran a year later in 2019 started to enrich uranium until 60% because the Americans imposed maximum sanctions and because the Israelis start killing more Iranian nuclear scientists. This is why Iran needed the leverage for the sanctions to be lifted and expressed it readiness to do so. And this is where the Americans were negotiating with the Iranians. So they were negotiating in a bad faith because during the negotiation there was a meeting that's supposed to happen on Monday in Vienna. The Americans started the war on Sunday. It's exactly like they've done in June 2025. Now uh is this going to uh help America in a way? No. Because the Iranians had no trust in the Americans but now more than before. Is it strategic for Israel? Yes. Because for Israel, it's important to be the only dominant force in the Middle East. The Iranians started to build up their influence in the Middle East due to the American intervention and unlawful wars in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Libya, and in Syria. So, the vacuum was filled up partially by Iran. And this is where Iran collected behind the mistakes of the Americans. Did that represent a danger to Israel? Not immediately, but for Benjamin Netanya, it represent a danger to his political career because he has elections in October 2026 this year. And he needs to sell the card that he really destroyed Iran even if the Americans are doing the job. And if um He sold for for since the last 16 years the fact that Iran was days away or weeks away or couple of months away from nuclear bomb and we have never seen this nuclear bomb. Therefore everything that Benjamin Netanya is advertising for is to create a chaos in Iran that has border with seven countries. So creating a chaos in West Asia that West Asia will never recover. Until now, Libya has not recovered from the 2011 war. And we talking about 15 years after Iraq 2003 had not recovered. Regardless the war and the end of it and everything that happened in Iraq, the Americans still are capable of threatening Iraq to choose and select the prime minister even if it is the majority of the parliament selected the person and I'm talking here about Nuraliki. So the Americans still have the le leverage and they still control the income of the Iraqi oil. So they still have their prince in the Middle East. That is not Iran representing an existential danger neither to America nor to the Israelis. and to say like the uh American spokesperson, White House spokesperson uh Levit that Iran is saying death to America that is an existential threat is quite idiotic and ridiculous for the simple reason that Iran doesn't have a nuclear bomb and the Americans have thousands of nuclear bombs. The second country after Russia if not competing Russia. Secondly, the Americans are the most powerful country in the world and they have uh jets and airplane and carrier and they are surrounding Iran with the military bases. Therefore, the one who represent real danger is the United States representing danger on Iran as not vice versa. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I mean there there's no denying this and everything that you just said Elijah completely annihilates Donald Trump's justification. The 8minute justification he gave at an undisclosed location where his he began straight up saying the Iranian we are doing this to protect Americans from the Iranian regime. And I think a lot of Americans are looking around saying, "What danger was this there?" You know, I I think and now the United States is in this war. Do you find that what the US is trying to do is similar to, you know, the US waged two different wars? I mean, it was waging me, you know, it was involved in a lot of uh aggression in the region uh you know, against Iraq and elsewhere um you know, uh for many many years. But we had the Gulf War and then you had the invasion of 2003 and in the Gulf War with those sanctions there was a lot of damage done. Do you find that this is kind of like a repeat of the same model and does it stand to work in the same way as it did with Iraq? Well, even worse because Iran has a lot of natural resources apart from oil and gas. is supplying the gas to Iraq, is selling the oil to China and to other countries. So, it is important uh for the region to see Iran stability. But what the Americans are unaware of is they are creating uh a destabilized country and they have not learned the lesson from the war in Iraq, the war in Syria and the war in Afghanistan, the war in Vietnam, the war in Libya. They haven't learned the lesson. And then we really don't understand what the Americans are trying to do. Donald Trump is saying, "I've decimated and completely obliterated the Iranian nuclear missile, nuclear weapon or nuclear program." And then we have the inspector, the UN inspector saying, "Well, there are no evidence that Iran has a nuclear weapon or can develop develop a nuclear weapon in the next weeks." And then we have Trump saying I want to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon. But if you have decimated the nuclear program, how Iran can have a nuclear weapon, if there is no nuclear program according to what you have been advertising for the since June 2025 with these beautiful and lovely B2 that came beautifully bombing uh the Iranian beautiful site. This this is the language of Donald Trump is extremely poor and it doesn't make any sense. So we not dealing with a stable president and someone who is really knowledgeable about geopolitics to understand where he wants to go from here before the war and after the war. When is he going to stop and under which criteria? What are his objectives? If this main objective is unachievable, we're not talking about balanced person who understand geopolitics. We're talking about uh a theatrical uh person who create divers diversion and shows and attraction on daily basis but not a thoughtful um policy for the progress of humanity or at least for the benefit of the United States. how American people benefit from using billions of dollars in bombing a country that is far away like Iran on behalf of Israel. What is the gain of the American people? How this is contributing to their daily life? None. On the contrary, the price of oil will increase. the currency is going to be devaluated and then this is what we are left with along with Iran ruling system as it is. So we've seen these action that irrational and honestly without any objective. So they just taken just because Donald Trump thinks that it's a good thing to go and bomb Iran and still claim he is a peace president and he wants a medal of the Congress or the Nobel Prize. We don't really understand what the Americans are doing. Well, th that those are uh great points because uh we are seeing actually um and I want to uh try to pull this up here. Um we are actually seeing a bit of this crumbling that you mentioned this lack of uh you you frame it as a lack of strategy and a lot of the objectives at least in the initial part of this strike uh have not succeeded. And here is uh just breaking actually the foreign minister of Iran Abbasachi was on AB NBC news uh as this is all going on and he's talking about how the US and Israel did not get any of the IRGC's leadership and the Iranian leadership as they had hoped.
Here we go. I just I appreciate your your comments there and we do have a series of other questions I want to ask you but just for clarity for our audience right now. Can you confirm with specificity that the Ayatollah Ali is alive and separately that the Iranian president is alive right now following these American and Israeli strikes? As far as I know, yes, they are alive and the head of judiciary as well, the head of the speaker of parliament as well. All high ranking officials are alive and the secretary of the national security council. So everybody is uh now uh in uh its position and we are handling this situation and everything is fine. So everything is fine. I mean that doesn't sound like uh uh Elijah like there's a lot of fear uh coming from is is this all talk and bluster or I mean we hear all the warnings we hear that Iran is ready to fight this for years and and now we hear publicly going on western mainstream media uh the foreign minister of Iran saying that uh at least for now the US and Israel have failed in this very key objective that Donald Trump announced to the world getting rid of Iran's leadership. Well, look, only Iranians can speak in the name of their country who should rule them or not. If there is a changing of the ruling system, it is up to the Iranian to go and vote for another system or to rise in the street as protesters, not rioters to destroy the country. when you stand against um the economic situation or the ruling system, you don't go and destroy your own country. So far, the Mossad and the CIA said they have invested heavily in changing the regime in Iran. They failed. So anything any change that come from the outside makes the ruling system much more rigid to any change because they understand that there are Mossad or CIA forces behind it. This is what the CIA did with Mosadic the prime minister of Iran that was elected in 1952. Therefore this is not something that is up to foreign countries to intervene in Iran. And the Iranian will say yes we are fine and even if the leaders are not fine they can be replaced because leadership in ideological uh ruling they not it's not made horizont made vertical it made horizontal one person goes another person is replaced if there is a need to free the Iranian people like Donald Trump said it is none of his business it is actually none of anybody's business but the Iranians and they are the one who are entitled to choose their uh ruling system and you cannot convince them because we've seen that in June 2025 what to do by bombing the country because they're proud people and all those who stand with the government and against the government in Iran and outside Iran stood against Israel in 2025. That was an unprecedented move from the Iranian population saying we reject an outside interference. It doesn't mean we're happy. No, they're not happy. 47 years of sanctions doesn't make the Iranian people happy about the economy. On the contrary, the economy is suffering dearly. But allow them to survive. If you can you are concerned about the Iranian people don't intervene but don't sanction them so they can suffer and say I am the I am bringing the solution when you are the one who brought the problem in the first place. So Araji today by saying no we are fine he's saying he's defying the Americans and the Israelis and saying we are determined to fight back. This is not the way you negotiate a deal with the Iranians. The way you negotiate a deal with Iran is to sit around the table and make sure you are not offending them. You are not destroying their pride and you are not humiliating them and you don't want to submit to you. You have concern, you express your concern and it's up to the Iranian to make sure that there are no concern and there are verified element and mechanism because there's no trust on both sides that can ease the situation between Iran and the rest of the world. So far since 1980 Jimmy Carter first sanctions, we have not seen this. We've seen only the world using a stick to the Iranian with the Iranians and hitting them in every single sanction to bring them to submission and the Iranians will not submit and that's a big problem and I think that's where uh uh the question is well where does this actually go Elijah because uh the United States cannot accept Iran not submitting Israel of course uh in similar vein and maybe with even more ferocity due to their uh overall uh actual strategic vision that we know is so dear to them uh the greater Israel project. So that's the big question. Where does this go? Uh because uh we knew that this war was coming. We don't know how long it's going to last uh in in this round. Uh but we know that this war is likely ongoing until one side loses and the other side wins. A lot of people uh maybe look at that as zero sum and I think you articulated very well earlier that Iran doesn't necessarily have to win. Uh but it seems like uh what Iran maybe has to succeed in doing is uh creating an actual uh deterrence through their response uh showing that the damage is and the cost of this is just far too grave. I would like to say something here. the there are many young people in Iran, women and men who did not uh live during the Islamic Revolution 1979 and 1980, who did not see the Iran Iraq war. They are young people who want the relationship with the West to be established on equal ground. The the Iranians during the last negotiation were are aware of that. They are fully aware that there are many Iranians would like to have good relationship with the rest of the world. And this is why the government said we are ready to give the Americans not the Europeans because they were European in 2015 and now they say we're ready to give the Americans contract with four to5 trillion dollars to invest in Iran. They're bringing America in to develop the country. This is what they want. They don't want death to America because they don't like the American system. On the contrary, they don't want the American regime to impose on them the way they they have to live. And why do they do that? Only because they have seen the examples in Afghanistan. They've seen the examples in Iraq, in Libya, and in Syria. In Afghanistan, the the American destroyed the country and after 20 years they removed Taliban to give it back to the Taliban 20 years later. In Iraq until today, the war against Saddam Hussein in 2003, not because Saddam Hussein is good or no, no, his world is very bad for his people, but they said they're going in for weapons of mass destruction. It was a lie. The Americans and the British confess that. But then we see today Donald Trump in his first mandate when the Americans when the Iraqis asked the Americans to leave, he said no because he holds 90% of the country's budget of selling oil that is pouring into the American federal bank before reaching Iraq. So he's holding them by the neck and Iraq cannot be independent. He's using the airspace to bomb Iran. He bombs Iraq whenever he wants. He bombed the Iraqis who don't want the Americans in their country. So they've seen the example how the Americans went to Syria and occupied the northeast Syria, the oil and gas, Konico and other gas and oil field for years when they pretend they are fighting ISIS. They've seen Libya from very prosperous country to a destroyed country. there's no stable government between Benghazi and Tripoli and the the situation is totally unstable. So they've seen all of that and the Iranians actually don't want this. They want a good relationship with the West, but they don't want the West to impose the agenda and destroy their country because of these examples. And the Americans are not using a a language of they're using the force. They're using the stick. They're saying to the Iranians, either you do what we want and they impose it on them or we're going to bomb you. And they bombed them. So this is the the lack of understanding from the west of the Iranian culture and the way how to approach Iran to tame it and to bring it close to the international society when the world consider Iran as an enemy throughout the years only because the Americans are imposing these sanctions and want to control the oil. But the Iranians are ready to sell the oil to the Americans and to allow the American company to come and exploit the Iranian energy, but not according to the American condition and not if the money of oil is sent to the American federal bank like in Iraq, but it goes to the Iranian pro prosperity. This is the problem between Iran and the United States. And now the Americans are conducting a war on behalf of Israel. Which mean that the Americans are ready to sacrifice American citizens for the benefit of another side and the foreign side like Israel only because Israel want to be the only power in the Middle East and want to use the stick of the Americans to to do so. This is where this war is not going is is the base of this war is wrong. And if it is stopped, it doesn't mean the problem is solved. On the contrary, the problem remains. Elijah, it was great being with you. We're going to I have to use another platform for uh Professor Mandi. So, I will uh do that now. I'll I'll I'll get him here, but I want to make sure everyone knows to visit your uh website in the video description before we go and we'll definitely be in touch um in the near future as things develop. Thank you so much again, Elijah. Really appreciate you taking the time. My pleasure. Thank you for having me. Yes, of course. It was wonderful. All right, everybody. Uh stay tuned. Right now, we are going to go to Professor Morandi. I'm going to admit him into the Zoom so I can start to share the screen. I'll just say hello to him now as he comes in. Let's see how it goes. Um, this is how we are going to get to our dear friend of the show, Professor Muhammad Morandi. I want to make sure that my self view is out of here. And, uh, if he can hear me. Uh, Professor Mandi, can you hear me? I'm going to share the screen now. See how that goes. Um, I don't see him yet. Professor Miranda, you there? Uh, there he is. Can you see me? Yes, I can. But for some reason, you're not showing up here. Uh, I don't know what's going on with either. I don't know what's going on. U, it's not letting me. It keeps on saying that you're playing in picture here. That's so strange. I don't know what is going on with the picture. Uh, but let's see if it fixes itself now. There we go. All right, Randy, it's finally working. How are you doing, sir? I'm good, thank you. How are you doing, Denny? Uh, well, uh, things could definitely be uh far better. I know that this is a very difficult time uh for you and your country and of course a very shameful time for uh myself and my own country. Uh so Professor Mandi maybe just your first initial reactions to what's been going on and uh how you are witnessing this uh there um on the ground. Well, first of all, it's not shameful for you or for anyone who has been opposed to the policies of this uh Epstein regime that's in power. Those who support it and those who are silent and indifferent, they are the ones who bear responsibility, but they've been responsible for a very long time. Um, I sorry I just broke my glass and um I haven't uh been checking the news for a bit but uh the situation is as you would expect. Uh many people are leaving the city. I'm in Tehran. I'll remain in Tehran until the war ends or uh I'm targeted. But um the government has asked people who can leave to leave because the United States is and the Israeli regime are both targeting civilians. Uh I'm sure you've heard that this morning they targeted uh an elementary school uh murdering 63 girls and uh they murdered school children elsewhere. They bombed a a school in Thran. Fortunately, there were just there were just injuries. So, schools are closed. Universities are universities have been closed. They'll they'll probably begin online work in a couple of days just like during the previous uh 12-day war where the Israeli regime and the United States like this time around were uh secretly plotting against Iran as the United States was negotiating. This time around, of course, Iran was much more prepared. We were expecting uh something like this. Actually, last night I was speaking to friends and almost all of us thought that the possibility that they would strike u while the Omani foreign minister was in Washington was very high. So, uh this is where we are. The Iranians of course after the initial assault have um been striking back at US targets in the Persian Gulf region and um also they've been striking the Israeli regime. Excuse me. Iran's allies are preparing themselves. We've seen statements from Iraq and Yemen. So, we'll have to see where things go from here. But uh the catast catastrophe at the uh school at the elementary school of girls uh I I wrote out a few tweets and uh one in one or two of them I said the epste class they have a particular interest in girls. Yeah. Yeah. I mean a very good point and uh thank you for correcting me professor morand about that. Yeah. know uh we have to make that distinction between the uh people of the United States and what the United States is doing uh abroad in Iran right now because uh this is a very unpopular venture. Barely 20% of people in many polls say they supported this um and now the Trump administration is doing it anyway. And uh I wanted to get your reaction to you said Iran has been striking back. You know uh top Iranian officials are saying they're ready to go for years. I'm wondering uh what your reaction has been to the Iranian response. It's much quicker than during the 12-day war when there was the surprise attack. Uh what has been your uh reaction to this uh given uh where you are? Well, first of all, there hasn't been it wasn't much of a surprise and u very uh few people were killed in the initial wave. Uh so obviously uh the country being much more prepared than it was last time round and preparing for war and the fact that uh the assassination attack attacks by the Trump regime and it's uh and its allied Netanyahu regime uh the fact that they failed uh I think may is reason main reason why the Iranians immediately struck back and uh they've been striking back pretty hard. Of course, the Iranians are in it for the long haul. So, they're going to take measured uh strikes. Um there are many calculations that they have to make uh mathematical calculations when they fire missiles, how to get through air defenses, how to force the other side to use their the enemy to use his air defenses. And we've already been told on uh by an Iranian general that uh the armed forces are only using their very old missiles right now and that the newer missiles will be uh will be used later on and they will have much more devastating impact. But right now they're using older missiles for obvious reasons. Both because now's the time to use them and also because they can figure out how air defenses work and uh force the enemy to use its interceptors and um at very little cost. And then of course the many of the missiles as we've already been seeing have been getting through. And then when the air defenses are exhausted, as they will be within a not so long period of time, then Iran will start devastating the enemy uh in a very painful way. Yeah. No, I mean that that that it seems like that's exactly what's going on. Uh, Professor Morandi, what did you make of Donald Trump's uh, announcement after the fact, after this occurred? He made a lot of very grand claims. He talked about this being an operation essentially to protect the American people from the Iranian government or what they always say, the regime. Um and that there are all these objectives that the US wants to achieve including getting rid of the navy, getting rid of the missile system, nuclear uh energy or nuclear enrichment, all of this essentially get rid of everything for some what what's your reaction to this and uh do you find it very convincing because uh for many Americans this was this was a war that um even Politico had to say was not very well justified from the very outset. Well, first of all, I didn't even bother to watch it. I just read a a summary, a few lines of it. This is the person who during the 12- day war demanded absolute surrender from Iran. What happened after 12 days? It was the Netanyahu regime that was begging Trump to get him a ceasefire. And from day nine or 8 to 12, Israelis were the Israeli regime was in serious trouble. And so what happened to that um surrender? I wouldn't take anything that Trump says seriously. Of course, Trump is no different than a neocon. Those who believe that he was different, uh they were naive. Uh, of course he we've already seen him expose himself over the Epstein files and he's shown himself to be very much a part of the Epstein class. The entire regime is subordinate to the Epstein class and uh you can shoot women in the face, white blonde women and white men in the back who are nurses for veterans and get away with it. So that 20% that you're talking about, that's the sort of people that um support Trump despite the the Epstein files, despite um the scandal, despite the uh all the lies that we've seen over the past few months. Uh now then this wars of course have um continued. There's no difference between Trump and George Bush. There's uh no difference between Trump and any other Zionist neocon or per member of the Epstein class. They're all the same. Iran, of course, is no threat to the American people. It never has been. And we saw how Witkoff, another Zionist, was lying last week saying that Iran is about to build a nuclear weapon. Just eight months ago, Trump said Iran's nuclear program was obliterated. So in eight months, Iran can build a nuclear weapon from an obliterated program that was by the way completely peaceful and under the supervision of the uh or being monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency. All the assets that the American regime and the Netanyahu regime destroyed, they they were all monitored by that international body. And then of course we saw the outrageous claim that Iran is making missiles, building missiles that can strike the United States. This is all 2003 stuff. It's the same lies. But the difference is that Iran is not Iraq. And the axis of resistance is a very very powerful force. And the dedication of the Iranian people and the Iranian armed forces are not like Iraqi armed forces under Saddam. Iranians are united. And we will see in the coming days where uh things stand and who at the end of the day is going to have to back down. But this is going to come at a very heavy price to the world and uh when market o markets open on Monday, I think uh we're going to see the beginning of that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um that's uh those are great points, Professor Mandi. And and what do you make of you know I was u you know conversing with Elijah Magnet uh earlier and I talked about and we both talked about how this is kind of a historic response in many ways by Iran because uh Iran rapidly I mean when we talk about the the strikes that Israel and the US began uh within uh I don't know how what exactly the time was but it wasn't more than a couple of hours till we saw of the Iranian response and now that response is hitting US bases, Professor Mandi, so uh in many ways this is historic. What has been your reaction to this because um this is something that I don't think the United States has really ever experienced at this scale and at this level and uh we're hearing that this is just the beginning. I think everyone should have expected it. This is something that I've been warning from the very beginning that Iran's capabilities are enormous. Iran has been preparing for a US attack for two and a half decades at least at least since the United States invaded Afghanistan and then contemplated invading Iraq when Iran was declared the axis of evil and then when Bush and then later Obama started saying that all options are on the table. Iran has been preparing itself since then. And most of Iran's military capabilities are not directed towards the Israeli regime. That's the sideshow for Iran. Iran's assets are directed towards the United States. They're directed towards the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean. Why? Because that has always been the threat. So, they have countless underground military bases, uh, drones, short-range missiles, medium-range missiles that are very easily maneuverable. They don't need, uh, to be uh, moved around with heavy vehicles. The United States has made a an extraordinary mistake. And of course the Persian Gulf is the most sensitive place on this planet arguably because u 20% of the oil comes from the Persian Gulf itself. And then from West Asia and the Caucus is almost roughly I guess 25% of the world's oil comes uh is exported or or is produced and and exported. And then of course there's the natural gas as well. So Iran has been prepared. It's been prepared for a long time. when people people weren't even people on the streets weren't fooled. Whenever you and I would have a discussion or on other shows, I would always say that the Iranians are negotiating for two reasons. One, in the highly unlikely chance that the United States behaves reasonably and wants to really have a deal, the Iranians are prepared for it. But the major reason, the number one reason is so that the Iranian people, the international community, everyone would see that Iran tried to solve this crisis. And the United States did exactly what it did during the 12- day war or right before the 12- day war. It was negotiating not in good faith as an act of deception. But this time around, no one was deceived. Last time around, I'm not sure if we can say that Iran was deceived. And I I think what Iran did not expect was an attack on uh senior commanders and and academics and scientists in Tehran and other cities. They didn't expect them to target apartment blocks and murder everyone in the apartment building so that they can get one person. But this time around, the Iranians were completely prepared. And as I said, even I and friends when we were talking last night as the Omani foreign minister uh went to Washington, we were all saying that the chances of a US attack are high because the United States is a completely discredited rogue regime. Yeah, Professor Morandi, when I saw actually, you know, I I didn't know what time it was going to happen. I didn't know exactly when it was going to happen, but uh everyone was telling me this weekend, this weekend, and I was like maybe, maybe, sure. I we can see all the writing on the wall, but when the Omani negotiator went on the main on mainstream media and essentially said a deal is close, when he said that, I thought this sounds almost like a plea. And that to me uh made me think that this strike was coming soon and here we are. Yes. And also it's interesting that they carried out these attacks as children had just arrived at school in the morning. And of course, as I said, there was a major massacre in Minov city where they so far 63 kids have been slaughtered and and and their teachers at a at a girls elementary school. Uh but uh that's that's just how that's the that's the United States. That's the Epstein class. That's who these Zionists and these uh and these uh and these neocons are. They are barbaric. Remember, they already have two ceasefires in Lebanon and in Gaza. Every day they're murdering Lebanese citizens. In Gaza, every day they're murdering multiple Palestinians. The Western media looks away. Why? Because the Western media is owned and controlled by the Epstein class. So, no one in Iran ever believed that Trump was trustworthy or that the regime in Washington is in any way or form trustworthy. No one in Iran expected the Europeans to take a principled stance. Iran expected the Europeans to side with aggression and murder and terror because that's who who they are. Uh just like during the previous war, that's exactly the position that Australia, the Europeans, the Canadians, uh that's the exact position they they all took. Murdering people is fine with with them. The the hypocrisy is all gone. And in our region, Awak Ardawan's regime, they've been allowing NATO Awax planes to fly and ga gain intelligence from Iran. The US is using its base in Turkey. Shameless. Utterly shameless. as he continues to provide the Israeli regime with cheap oil from BCO Persian Gulf regimes. You see that uh the U US bases there uh they've been plotting against Iran this whole time and now they complain that Iran is striking at them. They they're a part of the problem. They without these family dictatorships in the Persian Gulf, there would be no attack on Iran. the Jordanian regime and the Saudis, they're all heavily involved in this right now. The sound I could I don't know if you heard there was an explosion. I don't know if you can hear it. Yes, I can. So, that's how things are. This is the situation that we're dealing with. we're dealing with Iran which is Hussein is that it is independent that it supports the Palestinian people and no one else does except for the axis of resistance no one does it's all fake fake to Erdogan fake they're all a part of the US they're all in the US camp they may dislike the Emiratis and the Emiratis may dislike them but they're all the same. And the Iranians are opposing genocide in Gaza. They they're opposing US policy in Cuba and Latin America. These are Iran sins. And so they sanction the country. They strangle the country. Western journalists, that's not what they say. They don't talk about the strangulation. They don't talk about the terrorism. They try to demonize Iran to pave the way for this these sort of atrocities. Even those who pretend to be anti-war, they're they're they're with the Western regimes, those who are in the mainstream media. They say, "Well, just like I was telling you before, Maduro is evil, but we shouldn't act. You we shouldn't strike. These these people are just as evil as the neocons. Those who are evil are the Americans who send terrorists into Iran. The Israeli regime that sends terrorists into Iran, has strangled Iranian women and children through sanctions and now bomb elementary schools in Iran. These are the evil ones, not the Iranian government. The Iranian government, the state, the leadership in Iran, morally speaking, is infinitely above the entire epsene class that governs the West. and they are fighting to defend the country and they're fighting to defend the dignity and honor of the Palestinian people. The axis of resistance for the last two years, for over two years now, has been making sacrifices whether in Lebanon, whether in Yemen, whether in Iran in order to stop the genocide. And what do we hear from the other side? We hear the US ambassador in occupied Palestine says saying that if they take the entire region, it's fine. That's unofficial US policy. That's unofficial Western policy. Have no doubt about it. That's their unofficial policy. Just like I've always been saying, the two-state solution that has been they've been in the West has been talking about for decades, especially the Europeans, it was always a lie. It was always to buy time for the Israeli regime to colonize the West Bank. It was always a lie. So this is this is uh you know it's just dishonesty from beginning to end and top to bottom. Yeah. Well, speaking of uh honesty, dishonesty, hypocrisy, uh you know, there are reports uh professor Morandi the there's such a swirl of uh psychological warfare uh information, misinformation coming out. Uh reports now Israeli media are saying that there are growing signs that Ayatollah Ali Hami has been killed. Iran has denied this. uh foreign minister Abbasarachi was just on NBC news saying that they are just fine and that actually all you know uh the top IRGC commanders that the US and Israel were targeting are fine. Uh what do you make of these reports? We're going to be hearing a lot of misinformation, well disinformation in the next few hours and days and perhaps weeks ahead. And I think that uh people should ignore western legacy media and they should go and tors and use alternative media and um and you know my own Twitter account the people I follow these are the people I I would uh advise u your viewers if they're interested to follow as well including yourself. Uh, as I said, there's no difference between Western mainstream media, uh, whether it's the Guardian or Fox News. They're all the same. They may there may be one may be more bombastic and one less so, but they're all they're all they all belong to the empire. They're all dishonest. And, uh, I think after Gaza, that should be clear to everyone. So when they demonize Iran and pretend that Iran's gunning down peaceful protesters and all that and all those lies, if anyone believes that after Gaza, then they just want their eyes to remain closed. So in the days ahead, those who are politically aware should ignore Western media, the West will fail. The United States will fail in this war. The Israeli regime will fail in this war. it will turn out to be a big mistake and the axis of resistance will remain intact and remain strong and it will be a step forward and the liberation of the Palestinian people. And again, let's go back to the problem. The problem is that the Epstein class says that Israel should rule the region and the Iranians are saying Palestine should have equal rights for Jews, Christians and Muslims so that they can live peacefully side by side. This is the position that the Western media, Western think tanks find outrageous and unacceptable. That is a position that the Iranians find unacceptable and outrageous. Figure out who is moral and who is immoral. Yeah. And Professor Mandi, I wanted your uh reaction. You know, I I just thought of this. Um Iran has connected its response, its retaliation to the US and Israel with actually October 7th. that said it was going to be a regional war and uh uh I believe and you speak the language and so I believe the operation is called in English something like the end of the flood and I'm wondering if you could react to this because it's very historically significant. It's not just called operation true promise 4 uh even though there are those calling it that all over social media. Um so talk about this and uh the regional part of this war on the axis of resistance side because we've seen Yemen uh come into the fray on Sarala and uh there are reports that at some point if it comes down to it Hezbollah might join but we also know Iraq has uh been activated to some degree. So your reaction to this and the significance of Iran choosing this particular label for its uh response. I don't know if this label has been chosen or this name has been chosen. I have heard true promise 4, but I haven't heard this. I'm not saying it's this is not true. I just haven't heard it. But, you know, I've um I've been busy a lot these days and I don't some there are some things that I haven't uh covered properly. So, I'm sorry if I can't give you a more uh precise response. I've heard as I said from Iranian uh social media accounts uh you know like media outlets that that this is True Promise 4. I don't know actually even if it's been officially called True Promise for, but that's what I've seen in social media. But what is important is that uh the Trump regime fails and that the empire recognizes that there is one country on this planet that uh is not intimidated by the United States that will not kneel and that is the Islamic Republic of Iran and direct threats that we've seen over the last few years And especially the last few months and in particular the last few weeks, we saw that they did not create any fear among uh the Iranian leadership and uh people do not live in fear. Now we are in the right and they are criminal and evil and we are defending ourselves against a rogue regime that is increasingly uh becoming more rogue than ever before and we are alone in this fight. uh except for the axis of resistance uh the entire region is basically a part of the US it's a you know US-led constellation and some of them pretend to be supportive the of the Palestinian people but in reality none of them are and the fact that US bases are active and as we speak they are full of American soldiers as we see with through the surface air missiles that they fire. Um it's clear where they stand. So this is not going to be an easy war. Seeing the images of the dead girls, I think is enough for us to recognize that there will be a lot of people who die in the days and perhaps weeks to come. And the regime in Washington is completely uh immoral. And the Israeli regime is the same. And Western journalists are basically legacy media journalists. They're basically foot soldiers for empire. So we don't expect them to tell the truth. But things are going to go downhill for the United States and for its ally in the region. And I think that is going to increase pressure on Trump. So I think this will be this is the end of the Trump I think this is going to be the end of the Trump regime in one way or another. This is going to be the end of his presidency. I'm not saying that he's going to be removed from power anytime soon but I think this is going to be the end of the presidency. Well, the uh we we said earlier that this is a ma massively unpopular uh venture that no poll shows that anywhere close to a majority of people in the United States support this. Uh but and even the western mainstream media has had to well I have to say it's very tepid. The New York Times, for example, wrote a whole editorial board piece about how Donald Trump was being irresponsible and that there are more responsible ways to wage war. I don't know if that's the justification or that's the kind of path. Please, please. Yeah, if I could just add a couple of things. First of all, the New York Times and the other media, they are completely hypocritical because they also have been encouraging an attack on Iran. I think what they wanted to do was to have an attack but also to attack Trump so that they can have their cake and eat it too because they're they're a part of the same political regime. But uh but they would like to use this as an opportunity to to attack Trump. Otherwise, we've seen many articles in the New York Times talking about overthrowing Iran, attacking Iran. So it's not as if they're, you know, they're they're any different. And the premise is in any case is that the United is that Iran is evil and the US is good. And it's the opposite. And the New York Times therefore they along with Fox News and everyone else, they they strengthen the narrative. The only difference is that whether this is good policy or bad policy, not whether that we're the good guys or and they're the bad people. So, you know, they and of the New York Times, of course, has been behind the genocide this whole period. So, of course, this is, you know, no one should uh think that they have any there's any moral position being taken here. No, they they they would like to undermine Trump because of their own rivalries within the Epstein camp. And in in addition to that, um I think that uh the unpopularity of the war uh this actually reminds me of when you said that it reminds me of General Solmani because he once called Trump a gambler. I think perhaps that Trump knows how bad things are for him in the United States and how unpopular he's becoming and how it's going to probably get much worse without the war. And so he took a big gamble and he thought that if he wins this war and he crushes the Iranian people, slaughters people and but gets his way, which he won't, that this may turn things around. So, he's betting on some sort of victory. That's how I see it. And of course, I would like to uh add that General Solmani also said that we are the nation of Imam Hussein and that we are not going to be intimidated by the regime in Washington. Yeah. Yeah. And uh uh you know, Professor Morandi, we have people in the audience wanting to ask you. Everyone wants uh uh the opinion of uh on this show of uh the next step for Iran in terms of this retaliation. There have been reports that already a US Navy support vessel has been heavily damaged by Iran's retaliation. And uh you know Ayat Ali Ali Kamei said that uh you know uh targeting an aircraft carrier may be in play here. Uh do you find that that could be the case? Uh especially if this thing goes on for a while with Israel saying four days at least. I don't think we can believe anything that comes out of the US in Israel's mouth. Uh Trump was talking about it as being a longerterm operation, not just a one-off or two days. So, uh your thoughts on this? Well, as I said, Iran has lots of things up his sleeve and um I think we'll see a lot more of that in the days ahead. The Iranians are not showing their capabilities yet. What we're seeing right now are strikes with medium-range, long range missiles, drones that are all 10, 15 years old. But in the coming hours and days, I think you're going to see uh Iran reveal uh greater capabilities. Again, the United States and the Israeli regime will continue their slaughter, but uh they will not win this war. And I know you have a a very busy schedule, so maybe we can uh come to a close soon. Uh just a few more final questions. Uh one, what have you made of, you know, you mentioned in the region that uh all of these Gulf states, uh these Arab monarchies, etc. that host US bases have been speaking out of the side of their mouth in terms of not allowing an attack. Well, now I believe Saudi Arabia has said that it's going to collaborate fully now with the United States against Iran now that there have been reports of Saudi Arabia's uh US bases or the US bases occupying Saudi Arabia have been targeted. Um you know what do you make of of this development and uh perhaps you can also talk more about you know a lot of been made of the region. We talked about the ISIS resistance uh these client states of the US and Israel, but uh this is going to have global ramifications. So maybe we can close on both of these points. Well, Saudi Arabia and Emirates are fully complicit as well as the others. And the United States is using Saudi Arabia uh to strike Iran. Its aircraft is is is based many of them are based in Saudi Arabia. So the the Saudi regime is nothing to complain about. If they get involved in conflict with Iran, they will definitely lose. They were unable to fight a war despite full western support. They were unable to defeat Ansar. And at the end of the day when Ansar Allah began to destroy their oil assets, they accepted a ceasefire. We all recall that. So none of these family dictatorships in the Persian Gulf are inherently stable nor powerful. So the smart thing for them to do would be to tell the Americans to leave. But when their bases are being used and jets are flying and uh and uh planes uh that carry fuel for the jets are are flying from these bases. They're in no position to complain about anything that Iran does. So Iran will continue to strike as long as it feels that it's being threatened and it will strike wherever it feels that it's necessary to strike. All US interests in the region are fair game. All of them. That's how the Iranians see it and that's how they're going to act. And while the days ahead will be dark and many innocent people will die, but the Iranians will make sure to see this through. and those in the West who've been supporting uh anti-Iranian policies, they should take a look at those little girls who've been massacred at their elementary school and uh reflect on their behavior. Yeah. Yeah. And then lastly, Professor Mandi, I mean, I think this is a point. It's like it comes full circle. We have the absolute uh heinous war crimes, the genocidal war crimes. It all it all connects what happens and what's been happening to Palestinians. Now, this war on Iran, we see that the victims of it are essentially uh linked, if not mirrors, of each other. And then of course we have this larger explosion that might come from this war that actually all of the western mainstream media is saying at least all the economists and investors and all of them are saying that this is going to have heavy impact globally on the economic uh uh situation. Uh your final thoughts on this as we as we close out here. Oh yes this is going to be the the global the the global economic situation is terrible. It's already very bad and it's going downhill. We all know that. But this is going to make things far worse. And depending on the behavior of the regime in Washington and uh its sidekick in Tel Aviv, uh things will get things get much worse. The Iranians will have no difficulty in shutting down the straight of Hormos and Iran will have no diff difficulty in destroying tankers, oil installations and gas installations. And that would mean that even if the war comes to an end and the straight of hormones is opened, it will take years to get back to where things were before. So Americans should think twice about the regime in Washington, about their their foolishness, their their immorality aside, but uh when things go down go downhill, even the MAGA people who are utterly immoral and support Trump despite Epstein and everything else, even the MAGA people, when the economy goes downhill, they'll they'll turn against him. Yeah. Well, uh, everybody, I want to, uh, make sure I I hope that you all, uh, uh, can thank, uh, Professor Morandi. I mean, he's doing something incredibly brave and as well as, u, uh, just spending so much of his time, especially during Ramadan. And everyone should remember that the US and Israel struck Iran during Ramadan. That it also did so as professor Morandi says said during the school hours in literally targeted schools. Uh so this is absolutely I mean we're seeing the mask if there ever was one and if there was any mask left to rip off be completely ripped off. and and Professor Morandi, I I want to thank you so much. We'll head out together um uh for joining me today uh especially in this time uh and and of course I'm sure I speak for everyone uh who says uh that we hope that you remain safe and that we appreciate everything that you do. Thank you, Danny. And I thank all of your viewers and I hope they all do what needs to be done. I have advocated that across the world people who are politically active should boycott everything that's American, Israeli of course and even Western as much as possible. Um and uh people should be protesting wherever they can and uh hopefully we will see better days ahead. many will die but those who survive uh after this war I think that uh things will be much more difficult for the empire and that is a good thing for humanity indeed. Well everybody um I'm actually back in 3 hours with our mutual friends Rachel Blevens and KJ no which was planned uh ahead of this uh absolutely criminal war of regression on Iran. So, do join us in about 3 hours, 2 pm Eastern time. You can find that already on the page. Uh, do hit the like button before you go so Professor Mandy's conversation with me as well as Elijah Magnes gets pushed in the algorithm. We're going to head out together, everybody. See you in a couple hours. Bye-bye.
Iran CLOSES Strait of Hormuz, Hits US BASES as Full-Scale War ERUPTS | KJ Noh & Rachel Blevins Danny Haiphong Streamed live 2 hours ago #iran #trump #ww3
Independent journalists and analysts KJ Noh and Rachel Blevins react to the preemptive strikes launched by Israel on Iran as Trump green lights full-scale war. Trump just made a fatal decision to attack that could change everything.
Transcript
Hey everyone, welcome back to the show. It's your host Danny Haiphong. As you can see, I am joined by two uh friends of the show, independent journalist Rachel Blevins and geocitical commentator and analyst uh KJ No. Thank you guys for coming on today in this uh very wild time. Yeah, thank you so much for having us. Good to be with you, Danny. Yeah. Well, let's get started. Well, the I think the big news of course is that uh Israel and the US launched their war of aggression on Iran overnight or in the early morning hours of the last day of February. Now, Iran is saying that over 200 people have been killed by these strikes, including a horrific massacre at a school of young girls in Iran, in a small city in Iran. Now I wanted to uh ask first KJ because uh the big news coming out now in terms of Iran's retaliation is that there are reports that the straight of Hormuz has been reportedly closed by Iran and I'll just pull up that it's reported by Reuters although I can't get past the payw wall anymore but here is a summary of it. Iran has been telling vessels that they are closing the straight of Hermuz where 20% of the oil supply is potentially coming to a halt. This comes as the retaliation from Iran has uh saw has seen at least 200 plus missiles, a lot of them older models, drones be launched into Israel and all essentially all the US bases causing pretty significant damage. And Iran says it has a lot more on the table. KJ, what's your response to all this? What's your reaction? We see a full-scale war essentially be declared by the United States and Israel and Iran has rapidly responding just within a within less than a day getting to this point of closing the street. Well, you know, US uh war strategy which is known as air sea battle, airland battle is traditionally shock or is traditionally a decapitation strategy. You go in there, you try and suppress uh enemy air defense, and then you rapidly decapitate command and control. And the Iranian leadership has said, you know, you haven't done anything. All you've done is kill civilians. You've killed 85 school children. I mean, if that's your idea of decapitating the leadership, you know, something's not right. Uh but uh Iran is retaliating rapidly. It has 17 types of missiles of which eight can reach Israel but it's rapidly hitting all the US bases. Uh you know the US has attacked 24 provinces including key cities Tabris, Thran, Quam, Mispahan, Shiraz and of course uh Minab. But uh is um Iran is hitting back hard uh and you see attacks on Kuwait uh uh and Bahrain and uh the UAE and I think that you know the US bases are looking to be highly vulnerable. We're seeing you know uh explosions, we're seeing uh missiles landing uh of course the straight of Hormuz and of course their other targets. Tel Aviv has also been hit. So I think that this is exactly as they promised. The US wanted a rapid decapitation. What they didn't understand is that uh Iran has the capacity to retaliate. It ducked and now it's swinging back. Uh and I think that there are going to be unended consequences, unforeseen results. Yeah, Rachel. And I'll put that list up again. This is from Visgrad, which is no friend of Iran, certainly a Zionist entity here in the media. And uh this list is pretty stunning. And we're talking about a response that comes after the United States, after Israel has attacked. And now the straight of four moves is in uh question. And there are reports that Donald Trump is not happy with what has transpired just in the last 12 or so hours here. What's your uh what's your reaction to all of this? Yeah, I don't blame Trump for not being happy because he came out with that grand eight minute video at the start of all of this. And you would think from that video that Iran was about to fall, that whoever was in Trump's ear and telling him how things were going to be, that they were telling him, "Look, we're going to carry out these decapitation strikes. We're going to take out Iran's top leader, the Ayatollah. We're going to take out the Iranian president, and then we're just going to call on the people of Iran to fill the streets." Because that's what Trump said. He said he was doing what no US president had ever done. So I would expect a little bit of frustration from him as we get to this point, right? Several hours in and maybe he's on social media, maybe he's not, but he's looking around. He's going, "Okay, we don't have confirmation that these top Iranian leaders have been killed. If anything, we've heard the opposite of that. We've heard statements saying that everyone's safe except for a couple of lower level commanders and Iran has been retaliating, which goes to show you that their military is still very much intact. So, whoever gave Trump the the okay, the go-ahad, the we've got this for the US military did so I think a little bit too soon and with too much gravitas, thinking that they could just go in completely wipe out the Iranian government. And now we're starting to see that Reuters report come out and say that Trump was warned ahead of time that even if they killed Comey that, well, Iran would just replace him with someone else who was even more of a hardliner. that the Iranian government as a whole would not fall. And obviously from everything we've seen, obviously we've seen a lot of protest in recent months, we've also seen a lot of rallies, a lot of demonstrations coming from Iranians on the ground who are standing for their government and their constitution. So this magical idea that you know you just overthrow the government in a few hours and then you parachute in Reza Palevi to be the new dictator, it's not working out quite how the Washington architects seem to have thought that it would. I'm sure Netanyahu is getting a little bit frustrated too as well because instead what we have is we have Iran in this position where not only are they not saying our leadership has completely fallen and you've destroyed us all, but they're pointing to the fact that, you know, we have these horrific massacres like the massacre at the school with all of these dozens of young girls being killed. the fact that the US and Israel chose to carry out the attack today, which while yes, the stock markets are closed here in the US, this is the start of Iran's work week. So, these young girls are going to be in school, they're not going to be at home with their families. The fact that they chose to carry out an attack on a day like today and that they targeted all of the civilians that they did, well, that starts to create blowback coming back at the Trump administration because now you get on social media and you see all of these horrific images and videos. And you look at it and you're like, "Oh yeah, that's kind of similar to what we saw in Gaza with these horrific attacks being carried out." And the US and Iran are behind it all. And so even though we have some of these Gulf monarchies standing up and acting as though they're really going to stand up to Iran, I look at this and I go, from a public relations standpoint, it looks very, very bad for the US right now. Yeah. Well, KJ, I want to ask maybe a followup on what it means for the Straight of Hormuz to now be a target. Now, Iran has certainly signaled it could be closing the straight. Uh, of course we're going to see how that transpires over time, but uh, what does it mean for Iran to already have this in mind? It seems like there was a real plan in place to rapidly move in retaliation to this strike, which means they knew the strike was coming. Um, and uh, so I'm curious on what your thoughts about that are. Well, what it is is it's it's a near fatal move. I mean, if I give, you know, kind of a combat analogy, the United States was headh hunting, was trying to hit Iran rapidly, you know, and knock them out by hitting them to the head. And Iran has the potential to, you know, duck that blow. It looks like it's ducked the worst of it, and now it's going to go around and choke it. And the straight of Hormuz is one of the world's most important choke points. as you say between 20 you know 20 plus% of petroleum and natural gas is shipped natural gas and petroleum goes through the straight of Hormu. So it's a vital artery for the entire global economic system. If that gets shut down, we're going to see cascading economic effects all across the board including you know the cost of oil rising to perhaps 150 200 perhaps even further uh per barrel. So that is going to have massive ripple effects all across the economy. And you know as Iran has said they had they had said this is what is going to happen. They had given very very clear signals that US bases would be attacked, that Israel would be retaliated against and the strait of Hormuz would be shut down. And of course, Ansur Allah has also said that they're planning to shut down the Babel Mand Mandeb. And so we are seeing this cascade in ways that I think that Trump really did not uh anticipate. I think that he was engaging in magical thinking. I think he was deceived by, you know, the Bolton proteges that he brought on. And he was also misguided because Iran up to this point has been very very um very very diplomatic and even when they were attacked, they only engaged in symbolic tit responses uh previously until you know the 12- day war. And so that I think gave them uh gave the administration the illusion that this was again going to be a cakewalk and that Iran would collapse or it would be uh you know uh compliant and obliging. Uh and that certainly is not the case. Iran is a completely different animal uh to you know the weaker states that the US has knocked over like bowling pins. Yeah. Well, uh let's take a look at this uh Rachel and get your reaction. You know, as Iran moves on that, uh economic front, we also of course have the strikes. And what I find interesting, similar to what happened during the 12-day war back in June, is that what you see is rather than the US and Israel having legitimacy in the region to do this and you know there are you know there's all the talks about people dancing in the streets and everyone's so happy about this in Iran but uh how about people in the region here is in Bahrain uh there have been massive strikes. I mean, these are ongoing missile strikes by Iran, hitting the fifth uh fleet base there and other sites in that very tiny country. But look at how people have reacted to them. up. I mean, uh, not necessarily. There's some celebrations going on across the region, similar to what we saw during the 12- day war in places like Jordan where you had people cheering on Iran's ballistic missiles and hypersonic missiles going over uh their heads uh through air defenses. So uh your reaction to this especially the legitimacy part because uh uh there across the board it seems like other than the compliant leaders in the region there's a lot of anger about this. Oh absolutely and yeah it's been interesting to watch and I know that a lot of people look at Iran and they say oh well it's a paper tiger it's not really going to respond. Well today Iran did respond and it responded in a way that was unprecedented. I mean, never before have we seen this wide ranging of an attack targeting all of these US military bases and having an impact in a number of different ways. I mean, we went into this knowing that the US military was not prepared for this. I know Trump got a little mad earlier this week over the warning saying, "Look, if you go in and you attack Iran and this goes beyond, you know, four to seven days, we are going to be looking at a stockpile shortage." And that's not good when we're talking about helping out Ukraine over here and preparing for the eventual dream of war with China that, you know, the hawks in Washington still have. So, they want to be careful when it comes to how they're approaching Iran. Well, Iran has made it clear that not only are they legitimate, but that they do what they say they're going to do. And one of the things they've been saying with each version of True Promise 1 2 3 4 at this point is that every time they retaliate, it's going to keep getting harsher and harsher and it's going to come sooner and sooner. So instead of waiting around for two weeks and going, is Iran going to respond? We saw this response almost immediately. And I don't blame people in the region for getting excited. While yes, they know that there is going to be destruction, getting excited at the fact that Iran is responding because Iran is the main country standing for the Palestinian people, standing against an ongoing genocide, standing up against the West in a lot of ways. And that doesn't come without weighing its capabilities and its options. I mean, we're talking about a country of 92 million people. And while yes, there are moments where you look at them and you say, "Oh, they're standing up to the US." a war would still have an impact on Iran just like it would have an impact on the region and that's something that their government has had to take into account. I think the fact that they are being so quick to move on the straight of hormuz is a very telling sign because that's also unprecedented. I mean I've heard people say for years now oh Iran will never actually close the straight right they'll never take that step. Well, they're taking that step right now and they're making it clear that if they are going to suffer, if dozens of young school girls are going to be murdered, well, the rest of the region and the global economy is going to suffer as well. And so it puts the US and Israel in a very dangerous place because up until now they've been bargaining on this idea that Iran has no legitimacy, that the government would just fall, that you know, all of the the hawks in their situation rooms who are coming up with different ideas of how this should play out that they would know exactly how things would go. Well, they didn't seem to know how it would play out and we're not even 24 hours into this. So, I I think we still have a long ways to go, but I do think that Iran is making it very clear that they are going to do what they say they're going to do, and that has got to be terrifying to the US and Israel. Yeah. Well, Israel, uh, KJ has been talking a big game. They say that they are going to do this for at least four days. I don't know if you heard the fancy names that the US and Israel came up for their operations. I believe it's Epic Fury for the Trump administration. in the US and a roaring lion for Israel. But what you know those sound uh nice and tough and scary, but and of course there have been people who have been killed, but what has this moment so far revealed to you about uh uh the image of the United States and Israel as these uh dominant powers that uh are supposed to not ever be challenged in any kind of way, especially militarily. That's like the that's that's like the nogo for especially the United States. Well, I think that image has been tarnished more and more and it started certainly with the 12-day war when Iran showed that it could hit back and it could hit back hard and it was actually Israel which wanted to sue for peace and now they think they have you know reloaded and they're able they wanted to go in again and decapitate and once again I said that if the US does not have an early decapitation early suppression of enemy air defense uh early destruction of command and control uh things get much much more complicated and I think it shows that you know that the US uh does not have the power that it has. It doesn't have the kinetic force uh to push around Iran as it has done with many many other smaller countries like Panama, Grenada, Venezuela etc. It's a completely different ballgame. 90 plus thousand people uh a continent the size of Europe uh vast dispersed uh military capacities 17 different types of missiles, eight of which can very readily uh reach Israel. I think it breaks this notion of US impunity and invulnerability. We're still in early days. You know, things could shift rapidly. War is always unpredictable but the main thing that the US and Israel were counting on that is rapid decapitation seems to have failed. You've missed your you know your sucker punch and now uh things become much much more difficult and challenging for everybody including Israel including the US but certainly also for the Gulf uh cooperation states. These are the US vassels that are facilitating the war in particular you know uh Bahrain, UAE, Qatar, Jordan, uh Saudi Arabia, all of them are are are currently uh soiling uh their underwear. And we also have to remember that they are weak illegitimate states that don't really even have the proper proper definition of statehood. Saudi uh excepting Saudi Arabia, the rest of them are populated 60 to 90% by migrants. They're essentially family monarchies that have sold themselves off to the West as imperial vassels and staging places for American bases. They have no legitimacy. They don't even have stable populations and they risk being tremendously destabilized uh as a result of this uh if this war continues and expands and that could change the entire picture uh of of West Asia, the Middle East uh if if things continue. Yeah. And I'm hearing uh uh you know, I just saw an article in Yahoo Finance, Rachel, that says that uh you know, crude could go up$10 to $20 per barrel. Uh uh up 20 $10 to $20 increase $10 to $20 per barrel up. that would bring things to 70 8090 which would rapidly cause an economic uh seismic wave uh in a title wave on the US economy and the world economy as a whole. Uh but your your any follow-up to what KJ was saying and uh the the larger consequences to this war. Yeah, I think he made a really good point about the place that these Gulf monarchies are in. And I did notice that the UAE in the statement that they put out after their American milit military base was targeted, they specifically were calling out what they referred to as Iranian escalation. And I'm looking at this and going, okay, you can call it that all you want, but the only reason that Iran was targeting you was because the US and Israel carried out attacks against Iran. And Iran has only been warning Six Ways to Sunday that it was going to target the US bases in the region if it was targeted with an attack. So cause effect, Iran carries out this attack and now suddenly the UAE is pointing the finger at Iran saying they're the ones who are responsible for this, right? They're the bad guy here. And so it's going to be very interesting to watch in the weeks to come, especially as you have and I saw that Fox News was already kind of capitalizing on this, saying, "Oh, the Gulf countries are turning on Iran." And I'm going, "They were never with Iran to begin with. They were always with the US. Exactly as KJ noted, they were made to be US vassal states in a lot of ways in the region. Made for those military bases and made for this moment of war against Iran. And Iran's well aware of that, right? They can see the map. They know all of the US military bases that are around them and they have been preparing for this war for a long time. And going back to the comment that you were making about the position that crude oil prices are in, I'm wondering how Trump is not taking that into account because he just gave his State of the Union address this past Tuesday and one of the really big pressures on him has been the affordability of the United States, right? Because the American people, they can bicker back and forth over Democrats and Republicans all day long, but they want to know about gas prices and food prices and housing prices. And a big impact on these gas prices is going to be where oil stands, how trade stands. If we see the straight of hormuz close for multiple days and we really see this war explode, it is going to be devastating for the global economy and therefore devastating for the US economy in a number of ways. And so the Trump administration, I think they thought that they were going to get in, get those decapitation strikes, get out, make it look easy, get Iran to quote unquote capitulate and give them whatever deal they wanted and then call it a day. That has not happened yet. And so as they start to really see fully what Iran is made of, right, what it has been preparing for for all of these years, as we start to see, if we start to see Iran use their hypersonic ballistic weapons, that's going to be a gamecher because the US and Israel are still facing the same stockpile problems that they have been this entire time. So, I would not be surprised to see them do a version of what they did in the 12-day war and say, "Okay, okay, we're done. Let's stop. Let's have some sort of a a truce, not necessarily a ceasefire, but an end to fighting. We'll stop shooting you if you'll stop retaliating against us." If it comes to that, the question is going to be what is Iran willing to do? Because we've also seen a version of this with the current war in Ukraine where Russia has made it very clear that they don't want to just sign on to any deal that is offered to them by the United States and then fight this same war three or four years down the road. They want it to be decided for good now. And so the fact that you had the IRGC coming out today and saying that they are seeking a decisive victory, that is very telling here about the position that they are in when they're talking about their operation being called the finale of the Alaka floods. That tells us that they are going all in here and I do not expect to see them be as quick to just sign on to whatever deal the US is offering. And I think that's why we've seen this back and forth with negotiations where even as we've had all of these rounds of indirect talks in Geneva, Iran has made it abundantly clear that they are not going to just sign on to whatever deal the US is trying to sell them. I mean, you had Steve Wickoff and Jared Kushner, according to reports, trying to get Iran to agree to destroy its own nuclear sites, the same ones that Trump has spent the last several months bragging that the US destroyed when it went in and attacked Iran during the 12-day war. I don't know how much more ridiculous it gets or how much more obvious it gets that the US is not serious about a nuclear deal. And we also knew that even if Iran signed on to checking every single box that the US wanted, they would still find a way to sabotage things down the line. So I think the point that we're at was inevitable. It was inevitable to get to this point. And it was not surprising whatsoever to see the US and Israel go in guns blazing, acting as though they could carry out a series of attempted decapitation strikes, take out the Iranian leadership, and then call it a day. The question is going to be what they are prepared for after this because that is a major unknown right now. And if Trump is getting frustrated like I think he is, it could get bad before Well, it could get bad before it gets worse. Let's just say that much. Yeah. Yeah. Great points, Rachel. Now, uh you know, I wanted to show uh some of the damage, KJ. Uh and it's it's this is this is damage that's still relatively minor given the level of weapons uh that Iran is uh showing uh that they're beginning with. But I'll just pull up uh some of what has already happened today. This is one that people have made note of which is in uh Qatar. There was a billion-doll radar that was destroyed and a Iranian strike on the facilities in Qatar, US facilities uh destroyed this early warning radar system and there you see the before and after. Uh and here is the uh range of this early morning radar. So it is quite uh quite you know uh how should I say valuable to um you know it's the reason why it cost a billion dollars. But uh then there's the reports of of course strikes on Israel which you know for use of old weapons still quite impressive. Here we have some scenes out of Hifa and just there's just reports of buildings being destroyed. U just massive warning signs to Israel about what's to come should this continue. So KJ uh any reaction you have to this? Well, what uh Iran is doing is what they did before during the 12-day war. They're firing their older, slower, less effective missiles as a kind of chaff. They just want to deplete the air defense and then once that is depleted and we know very clearly that the US and Israel have a magazine problem. David Sling, uh, Iron Dome, THAAD, Arrow, uh, Patriot, all of these things, SM3 and six, all of these things have limited magazines, and the US does not have the industrial capacity to sustain uh, prolonged and uh, protracted uh, defenses against Iran's attacks, which are uh, potentially uh, capable of completely overwhelming their systems. So, I think that that's the first thing to note is that I think they have just gotten started and they're just throwing in throwing out the junk. Uh, and once uh once the magazines they sense the magazines are depleted, then they're going to come in with much much harder stuff. Uh, and then the other thing to notice is on that radar dome, notice how precise that attack was. I mean this is one of these key major major radar systems that functions like a regional panopticon. It renders the entire region transparent and this is what the US lives and dies on. It wants that transparent battlefield where it can see everything that is going on. And once you start to blind that and once you start to knock out these different elements of what they refer to as the kill chain, it becomes much much harder. it becomes much much more of an uphill slog. This is the kind of stuff which is not supposed to happen according to US battle doctrine. But they always seem to forget that the adversary has a say. And here the adversary in Iran is speaking very clearly and loudly in forceful ways that the US I believe has not fully reckoned with. Yeah. Uh uh Rachel. Yeah. And I think that as we're watching this play out, it's also really notable the position that the entire region is in, and I know we've been watching for the last few years, right? Watching the war on Ukraine and kind of the impact that that has had on the multipolar world, watching as you've had an allout genocide targeting the Palestinians, watching the impact that that has had. Now we're moving into really this next phase of it with this war. And I know that in a lot of ways Trump has looked at war on Iran as one that he was going to achieve during this term, right? He brags all of the time about assassinating Iranian general Kasum Solommani during his first term, who notably the Trump administration at the time had lured to Iraq with the promise of talks. And so now we have in less than a year the second version of the US acting as though they want to make a nuclear deal with Iran, carrying out these negotiations and then in the middle of talks suddenly coming in and attacking Iran. And I know that the position that Iran is in, it is having to look at this and decide, okay, where do we go from here? the next time that the US comes around and magically says that they want talks, Iran may not be willing to come to the table in the same way, especially given the damage that the US has done, that it's attempted to do, and that it is likely to still attempt to do against Iran as we get further and further into this situation. And I think the fact that, you know, we had some reports, I know Axios and the Wall Street Journal were initially reporting earlier today that Trump was going to come out and address the nation. And at the time when I saw that, I thought, okay, did they get Iran's leader? Did they were they successful with the decapitation strikes because that would be a reason for Trump to address the nation? And then suddenly that was called off. reports of it was called maybe maybe the reports of it weren't accurate but the point is that did not happen at least earlier in the day on Saturday and so I think that Trump is in a position right now of trying to figure out how in the world to proceed but the US needs to wake up and realize the position that they have put the multipolar world in and I know that a lot of this is intentional right at the end of the day they are going to go after the key pillars of the multipolar world their end goal is to get to China. But if they can't get to China and they know that they wouldn't be able to take on China in a war, they cannot remotely begin to compete with China when it comes to industrial production. And so because of that, they start going after the other pillars of the multipolar world like say Iran or Venezuela or at least an attempt at Russia. And I think that the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro gave the Trump administration almost kind of a false sense of confidence, right? This idea that they could just parachute into a country, kidnap the sitting president, and then act as though they own the government, act as though we are the ones in charge. Now, they looked at Venezuela and they said, "Oh, yeah, we can do a version of that in Iran. We'll just carry out decapitation strikes instead. Everything will go well. the CIA is giving us the thumbs up on the ground, but up until this point, that is not what has happened. And so I I think that the US really overplayed their hand here, and it is not looking good for them right now. Yeah. And KJ, it's not as if the US and Israel haven't done damage. They have killed a lot of people in a very short period of time. This is what they're known for. Uh there are a lot of videos, there's reports about how they did it. They're launching, they're firing from Iraqi airspace. They I hear I I was seeing Tomahawk missiles be uh fired over Kurdish airspace from Syrian territory. All kinds of reports about how this has happened. Not the same kind of I don't know if you remember during the 12-day war cage, a lot of talk about how Israel owned the airspace after that uh uh surprise attack that they did in June of 2020. uh 2025. Uh that is not the narrative now.
Actually, it seems like the Trump administration is having a hard time coming up with the narrative about what's going on. And uh the media is not happy, honestly, with what's happening. And US allies, of course, this is a long-standing row, but I wanted to bring this up before getting your reaction, KJ, because I think it's really important. We've seen the Trump administration be very callous at least in how he presents himself to his European allies. But this is a material uh absolutely material issue that just happened where uh uh Italy, right, Italy has forces in the bases uh that uh the uh uh Iranians are hitting right now. And this has caused much consternation from the uh uh from the Italians where you have a military base that houses over 300 of their air force personnel. There was no orders, no uh warnings that the US was going to strike and they had no time to evacuate and now they're sitting ducks uh unable to leave uh what is a verifiable and now easily hitable target for Iran. Yeah. So, Italy needs to get out of there as fast as possible as should all the other countries. I mean, they are sitting ducks right now. Uh and you know, this does not should not come as a surprise. You know, uh you know, when the mafia dawn is ready to do what he wants to do, you know, there are no objectives, there are no obstacles. You know, uh people are expendable and so they should have known better. But Italy needs to get out of there. uh and of and same thing for the other countries. I mean there is chaos. There is a little bit of uh stress fracture happening between uh Europe and the United States. It's like the connective tissue has been damaged. Little bit of a political sprain if you will. But notice that the uh Germany, France, and the UK, the E3 came out and their statement was to condemn Iran. you know, absolute and complete nonsense. Condemning Iran, that's what they come out with against a war of aggression unprovoked, started under conditions of perity. That's the only thing they can come up with. Same thing with Mark Carney at Iran. Uh Mark Carney, uh same thing, you know, suggesting that Iran was the aggressor and Israel was defending itself. Absolute nonsense. So you still see the western ruling imperial colonial class still paring the same narrative but there are deep fractures inside that system and of course they're not happy and they're not happy with the risks that they're being forced to bear. I think the other thing which is worth noting is I've heard reports that American troops were moved out of their bases and into dispersed into hotels whereas it seems like the Italians were left as sitting ducks as you know tripwire or targets and I'm sure that the uh Italian uh population will be furious and they should uh demand the neck uh of of their leaders for putting their you know compatriots in risk in this completely useless unnecessary fashion. Yeah, Rachel too. Yeah, when you look at the current situation, I know that that's been another major concern as the US has ramped up its military assets in the region. now has two massive aircraft carriers nearby. And especially as we start to see the these retaliatory attacks carried out by Iran hitting some of the key major runways that the US would want to use on the bases of its allies. They're going to start really relying on those aircraft carriers. And then the question becomes, do you target the aircraft carriers, right? these major float essentially a floating city with 5,000 soldiers on it. Is that going to be a target that Iran is going to hit or you know anyone else in the region and anyone else who's part of the axis of resistance that they could then get on board with and are they going to cause major damage to it? And so for a lot of these allies, look, at the end of the day, Trump really isn't exactly, as you all have been saying, he's not too fond of his European allies, but they've got to be waking up here and realizing that they are on a sinking ship. If it wasn't, you know, cutting off Russia, their neighbor on the same continent, cutting off energy supplies that they were getting easy and cheap from Russia and then relying on basically whatever the US wanted to give them. If it wasn't that then, well then now all of a sudden they're turning around and realizing that the position that they're in with the troops that they do have in the Middle East that those could be in danger, that their soldiers could die. And Trump isn't going to pick up the phone and call them and tell them exactly what he's doing. No, he's talking to Netanyahu, right? He and Netanyahu are planning this all out, acting like they have everything under control when they really do not at the end of the day. And so it has to be extremely alarming when you also have the pressure on these European allies to cut off their reliance on China because the US has told them you have to be good little vassel states. Here's who you trade with and here's who you don't. And the only problem is that the US does not have anywhere near the resources of the countries that it's trying to get all of these European states to, you know, completely cut off their ties with. And so I think for a lot of those countries, they've got to be looking at Iran right now and realizing, okay, this is why Iran is where it is. Because the goal of the US was to cut Iran off from the rest of the world, trying to hurt them economically. I mean, we heard Treasury Secretary Scott Besset bragging about the fact that the US had intentionally manipulated the Iranian currency and that that was directly tied to the protest. The goal was to make the Iranian people so miserable that they would take to the streets and then they would start protesting in mass numbers and then all of a sudden Trump gets on social media and he tells the Iranian protesters, "We stand with you." Well, that has not worked. And I start to get more and more concerned, I will say, as I watch this play out because everything that the US has tried has failed so far. And it makes me worried that they are going to look at really whether it be ramping up strikes targeting civilians even more than they currently are right now or possibly turning to some sort of a nuclear option. That's incredibly concerning because when you have an empire or you have in the case of Israel a Zionist state backed into a corner then they start to get really dangerous. And so I think that could be a legitimate question that we could be asking here in the coming weeks, especially if this war does drag out. If it goes longer than just the four days that, you know, reports here in the US are saying, "Oh, it's only going to be four days." I'm looking at this and going, I don't know about that. And I'm worried for what happens if Iran is able to continue to inflict significant damage in Israel, especially if they start pulling out some hypersonic ballistic missiles and showing the world what they are capable of, right? Especially if they start targeting the satellites up above as they have made a mention of the fact that they are going for air, land, sea, and also space. That could put us in a very dire situation. and I'm worried for what the US and Israel may try to do. Yeah. Know, uh, great points. And I wanted to, uh, turn to Israel, KJ, because I don't know if you've seen the reports. Uh, there's of course been this was a, of course, this is a regime change operation. This is a regime change war an attempt to essentially eliminate the entirety of Iran's leadership in hopes that that will lead to the replacement of that leadership with uh compliant and uh uh you know forces willing to bow down to the US and Israel. But here is uh a report uh Benjamin Netanyahu is saying that there's increasing signs that Ayatollah Ali Khamei the supreme leader of Iran is no more. Israeli media has been circulating this uh AC all throughout the first day of this war saying that uh the uh uh supreme leader has been eliminated and that they were successful in this. Now uh uh this is being touted it seems as a huge victory although I think if this is true there would be huge repercussions. Iran has not yet confirmed and they've actually denied this in many respects. But um you also have Netanyahu leaving so he is not staying in Israel. Israel has been hit as we have shown before here uh so far in the first day of this war but uh it's obvious that they know that something is coming that's a lot bigger and so he is fleeing on his presidential jet to Europe. Uh KJ, uh maybe we can talk about Israel here because we heard reports that Israel was going to be the one to be pushed out in front so that it looked better politically for the United States to strike. And then when we looked at the reports and we saw the footage, uh it was it Israel did strike first at least in terms of the initial reports, but then we saw right away that the US Air Force was right there with them and that the entirety of the media called it a joint strike. So this is fundamentally different and Israel is definitely behaving differently than the 12-day war. What's your assessment of this? Well, I I think that, you know, at least we we don't have to deal with the pretense that Israel, you know, is, you know, somehow doing this by itself or that there's a difference of opinion. It's clear that they're both working together. They have the same agenda, which is to control uh West Asia uh and to attack and destroy Iran. Uh I think what is uh interesting to note as you point out is that you know, Israeli leader has hightailed it out of there. I think that tells I think that is significant. It tells you that there is tremendous fear in the Israeli leadership and they're afraid of what they attempted uh could now also befall them. Israel is a small country as I said you know there eight types of missiles it can readily uh reach Israel. uh it has no strategic depth and I think that initially they did think uh that the uh that the the great leader Ali Hamei had been knocked out. Clearly there were pictures of this compound you know which had been struck uh you know very with extreme force. Uh but I I don't think that that is the case. I think if it were the case we would hear more. I think that would also open a Pandora's box that I think the US and Israel have not thought through or thought about. uh and I think that uh still uh the advantage uh is to the country that has the endurance and that is most certainly Iran which is fighting for its survival on its home court and I believe that you know we are just seeing the early stages of what could be much much more dangerous much much more uh bloody in particular um Rachel mentioned and the aircraft carriers. You know, if there's one lesson that we have learned from the Ukraine war is that you do not concentrate your forces. You have to disperse your forces in this, you know, arena of standoff warfare. Never concentrate your forces. And an aircraft carrier is a concentration of 5,000 troops. It's essentially potentially a floating coffin. And I think the United States needs to take that into consideration. The other thing other point that Rachel made which I think is very important for us to consider is if they run out of options or if they face some significant defeat, how will Israel respond? And I believe they're perfectly capable, the US and Israel both are perfectly capable of moving up the escalation ladder. I was just recently, you know, going over the US doctrine for joint nuclear operations in 2005. This was uh a document that was leaked and they talked about the reasons or the conditions under which nuclear weapons can be used and they said for rapid and favorable war termination on US terms to ensure success of US and multinational operations to demonstrate US intent and capability uh and to counter potentially overwhelming adversary conventional forces. Okay, that's boxes checked. That's a lot of boxes checked. But essentially, it means that if the US doesn't like the way things are going, they can use nuclear weapons. Now, they've said that, "Oh, we've disavowed this doctrine." But every time you listen to the pundits and the ruling elite talk, they are quoting directly from this uh paper. So, I would not be surprised if there's nuclear uh preparations being prepared as a potential backs stop. Yeah. I know that's certainly a terrifying proposition, but I think one that has to be taken very seriously and realistically uh given the fact that we already know, Rachel, that before Donald Trump authorized this or however it happened, I mean, we don't know the exact story just yet, but we do know that Trump green lit this thing. Uh uh we we already knew that the biggest fear from the Pentagon was running out of equipment, running out of ammo, running out of air defenses, running out of everything that they have put uh into place in the region to destroy Iran. Uh fearing that uh yeah, this is not an infinite number of resources. We saw that during the 12-day war, but uh this time if it's this is a prolonged and protracted war, uh there could be other things. Uh they they might not have anything left to fire at Iran. Yeah. And we could see it get to that point. And I do want to note there because I was looking on social media and seeing that I know there's been a lot of conversation about the Ayatollah all today. This question of is he still alive? It's interesting that Reuters is now reporting essentially that his body has been found, that he has died. Interesting that they're putting that out there, right? Because we still have not received any official confirmation. In fact, what we've heard from the Iranian government has been the exact opposite of that. So, we don't know either way. But as I'm looking at that and I'm remembering the other Reuters report that said that, okay, if you kill Iran's top leader, they're just going to replace him with somebody who is even more of a hardliner, right? Somebody who will continue the Iranian government or as they want to call it, the Iranian regime. That really stands out to me because I think that Netanyahu and Trump and their planning and scheming, they thought that all you have to do was just take out the Ayatollah and then take out Iran's president, maybe take out some other military leaders and that will be it. People will flood the streets and we'll call it a day and we will have official regime change. We have not seen evidence of that. And so while we don't have that official confirmation on who has or has not been assassinated, at the same time we do have the fact that Iran still at this point has a working government. They still have a working military that is still retaliating. And so, you know, when t bringing up the conversation of how the US and Israel have overplayed their hand, this idea that you make this one move, you kill this one guy, and then all of the rest of the pieces of the puzzle will fall into place. That has not proved to be true. And so what is likely to happen is that the US and Israel are going to have to feel like they have to carry out more attacks and they have to quote unquote retaliate for Iran's retaliation as as they put it. And it's the question of how far they want to get into this. Just how dire are weapons stockpiles here in the US and for all of our allies that we're arming around the world or all of our vassal states more specifically? Because Trump said, he said it during his State of the Union address and he said it again in this 8-minute video that he posted at the start of this overnight when the US and Israel were attacking Iran. He said that Iran is working on missiles that are threatening the United States, not just military bases, but the US homeland. And so he's tried this kind of lastditch effort to argue to the world that Iran is a major threat, right? not quite weapons of mass destruction, but a a version of saying Iran is threatening the United States. But if you look at Iran and everything they've said up until this point, it's we don't want a nuclear weapon. We want to make a deal with you, right? We want to work things out. We want to have peaceful relations and even trade with the United States, if that's a possibility. They're open to a lot, but they're not just going to cave to US demands. And if the US was successful with any of the top assassinations that it was seeking out, that is only going to harden the hearts of the Iranian people so much more so than they ever were before. They are not going to want anything to do with the US. I would not blame them in any sense for chanting death to America because America, the US, that is the country that is directly threatening their homeland, directly threatening their leaders, killing their children while they're at school. I mean, the US is taking this terror and it is bringing it home for the Iranian people. And now they have to respond to that. And so Trump may have thought that it would be easy. will get in, get out, and it'll be another version of Venezuela. But I think what we're seeing is that this is going to be a quagmire, a disaster in a lot of ways. And it's going to be what Trump's second term is remembered by because once again, for the second time in a year, this guy overplayed his hand, thought, "Oh, we can go in, attack her on, and do whatever we want." And once again, it has not worked out in the way that he thought that it would. He should have learned the first time around, but here we are once again. Yeah. And KJ, we had reports, we had reports after report after report saying that Iran was preparing its entire leadership, especially at the military level for the event of decapitation, meaning that they were all ordered and trained to uh ensure that operations continue regardless of what happens. And then when we think about the the potential assassination of the Ayatollah Ayat Ali, we we're talking about uh possibly fury being uh escalated and increased all across the region, especially for the Shia population uh given that he is considered maybe the second most important figure uh in this you know in the Muslim world. So uh what do you make of this? It seems like, as Rachel was saying, there's always this expectation that something like this is going to break the back of uh a country like Iran. Uh but it seems like there were so many warnings before this that that might not be the case regardless of whether they've been successful at this or not. Yes, we we still don't know. And uh I think it's unlikely. I believe that it is an Israeli uh scop uh and they think that by saying this that this will you know disarm and disillusion people and then also encourage them to rise up. I think that is a complete miscalculation. We'll see what the actual facts are. uh I have heard that you know they have lost contact but that doesn't necessarily mean that an individual has been uh taken out assassinated but I really believe that if they have succeeded in this they are opening a Pandora's box they're opening uh literally you know the gates to you know uh chaos and uh catastrophe all over uh the region uh and uh I think think it also ties into this notion that, you know, they're looking for this magic bullet, an easy, quick magic bullet that will take care of everything, but it simply is not going to work out that way. Uh I think that there have been intelligence assessments that says that even if the supreme uh leader was killed in an operation, it would simply result in the IRGC hardliners taking power and coming back with even more uh you know hardline stances. Uh I mean this is you know perhaps uh a weak analogy but in my household uh we never use antibacterial soap which is supposed to kill 99.9% of germs because we know that if you kill 99.9% you know of the bacteria. You're actually getting rid of all the neutral or beneficial bacteria and you're just going to be left with the hardest elements the most fiercest elements. The thing is right now uh Iran is in this uh state where if if it is not destroyed, it will become stronger and it is becoming stronger. Each time the US goes after it, it simply becomes stronger, more stealed, uh more uh more more capable of resisting. You know, the more you pound iron, the more, you know, uh tempered and and and uh uh strong it becomes. I think that this is what's going on right now and I think the US is completely miscalculating. Certainly I think Israel is miscalculating on this. Well uh perhaps we can sum up uh on this question then uh about the larger implications of this. Many people are asking Rachel you know is this the beginning of a World War III scenario? Some people have been on the show have argued that that scenario has been unfolding for a long time now. Um, but what do you say to this? Has World War III just begun now that we see just how big the ramifications and the implications are of this criminal USIsraeli war of aggression on Iran. Yeah, I'm one of those who thinks that we've been in World War II for a little bit now. But it does bring up the question of how Russia and China specifically are going to respond because at the end of the day, if they lose Iran, that is going to be incredibly damaging for them both. And so obviously Iran has its capabilities, right? We have only just begun to see Iran's capabilities and they have noted that they have a lot of different surprises in store. But it also raises a question for countries like Russia and China that have tried to kind of take a more hands-off approach. Obviously, they have a number of things that they're dealing with in their own backyards and they have issues that the US has intentionally placed there, but they are going to have to decide how to respond and what they're going to be able to do for Iran because I think that the future of the multipolar world is at stake here, right? this question of are we going to stand up to the US empire and what is that going to look like? Well, right now Iran is doing everything it possibly can to stand up to the US to stand up to the region to make it clear where it stands. I think it's going to be a very decisive moment for the multi-polar world in the same way that the war in Ukraine has been a decisive moment for Russia and for its handling of the US and the US empire being a just complete and total bully. Now we're in a position where we look at Iran, we look at how they are standing up and it's the question of who is going to stand up with them, who is going to tell the US that this is not okay. You cannot continue in this way. And who is going to put their money where their mouth is at the end of the day? Because for decades now, the US has been the empire. If they want to overthrow a government, they do it. If they want to invade a country, they do it. What they say goes. And no one has really fully been able to stand up to them. But Iran has resisted. Iran has withtood a just incredible amount of pressure. And they are still resisting right now. I think that there's something to be said for the Iranian people who have been through hell and back who, you know, at this very moment are losing friends and family members because of these horrific attacks that the US and Israel is carrying out. They are paying the price and they are standing truly for the entire world and up against this massive bully that has targeted them at this point for far too long. Yeah, KJ, same question to you. Yeah, exactly. You know, I think that we can see the minations and the intent of the Epstein class that thinks nothing of wiping out 85 school children, you know, going to school dutifully. You can see, you know, the blood on their, you know, torn up uh backpacks. So, this is what we're up against. You know, there is this fundamental legitimation crisis that is happening for the imperial West. Uh they are afraid that their power is waning. They're resorting to extreme and overt and naked violence. They're no longer bothering to hide it. We're no longer given the courtesy of being even lied to now anymore. They just simply go in and do what they will. The weak suffer what they must. The strong do what they will. But I do want to point out that currently the US has not brought in any meaningful concentration of ground troops. And this is because it knows that it has no ground game. And ultimately uh without a ground game, without ground troops, you do not defeat an enemy. Of course you can damage, you can even destroy countries, but you cannot defeat an adversary. And the fact that they don't have ground troops, the fact that they don't have that kind of preparation that we saw for example with Iraq and Afghanistan lets us know that even as the US uh retaliates and acts out with this tremendous violence and brutality, it also understands that there are certain hard material limits to what it is capable of. And at the same time you you you can be quite sure that both Russia and uh China are using what is happening right now as a laboratory uh for how they will continue to you know challenge the US as the war comes closer and closer you know to their capitals as well. So I think that it's not a lost game. I think it's important. I think the most important thing right now is for people in the global north to restrain their governments uh to call them out uh to prevent the US from continuing to escalate and to come back to its senses. Iran has never been a threat to the United States. Uh it does not have nukes. It has no intention to have nukes. It was not posing any danger to the United States. This is completely unprovoked, unwarranted, a war of aggression for imperial design. Uh, and we need to be out there in the streets, uh, on the phone lines, uh, in every perceivable way and capacity, uh, trying to prevent this from escalating any further. The US needs to stop right now. Yeah. No, I think uh, that's a great point. We can begin to close here. I'll just say this. uh whatever one thinks about Iran, its leadership, its politics, whatever, uh if it is true that the supreme leader, the ayat ali has been killed, he's 86 years old and uh how Iranians will likely see him as someone who died defending his country. He didn't leave the country. he didn't uh it was obvious that this uh attack was likely known about beforehand whether they had enough time to react to it uh in full as fully as they would want to um in this case but uh that begs the question is how do now Americans uh people in the United States westerners view themselves visav this war uh not just something that's unpopular but you know something that uh we're either involved in or spectators of or or But there's uh there's a big question as to how people should uh you know really approach this moving forward. But any final comments Rachel and KJ that you want to make before we close out here? Yeah, I'll just throw in there really quick that you know going back to the so-called war on terror, right? You think of how hard the US government and the US media worked to sell this idea of weapons of mass destruction, to sell this idea that the American people in the aftermath of 9/11 were going to come under attack again. They sold the war on Iraq that way. We look at this war on Iran. The US government hasn't even really tried. I mean, Trump's points, you can go through and fact check every single one of them when it comes to Iran wanting a nuclear weapon or the danger that Iran poses to the United States or even the danger that Iran poses to US troops in the region who the US has intentionally put around the around Iran. And so it's very telling to me and it should be insulting to the American people that their government is making it clear to them that they don't even care if they are propagandized into the next phase of World War II. Trump is going in there anyway. They're dragging them in there anyway. And so especially for the Americans that did vote for Donald Trump hoping that he was going to be the peace president, that this so-called board of peace was ever going to mean something, right? that the the idea that Trump was going to end any of the wars or even make good on this long list of wars he claims he's solved. the people who genuinely believed in that, they are the ones especially who need to start putting pressure on the Trump administration, on Republicans, and on Democrats as well because at the end of the day, as we saw at his State of the Union address, they were not too happy with Trump in a lot of ways, but all in favor of an attack on Iran. And that is very telling, or at least it should be for the American people, right? They were clapping as he was uh promoting the WMD's lies that he repeated again in his uh 8 minute long statement in an undisclosed location. KJ, any final thoughts? Yes, I'm absolutely, you know, the same as uh Rachel. I agree with her 100%. You know, war will not save any will not prevent or uh prevent from any of the problems that we are facing which are facing which are structural. They have to do with the contradictions of the system itself. And everybody who was told a vote for Trump is a vote to end wars should understand now if anything that they were lied to. And so what we need to do is we need to take action not only to stop the wars, but to punish and to call to account the liars and the wararmongers. That's our task right now. Yeah, I I really agree with both of you. I really hope that this moment can demonstrate that when it comes to US empire imperialism that we see that the uh bigger the carrot, the harder the stick. Every time we go through this where there's a figure Donald Trump twice, Obama once, over and over, we can name them over and over and over again. uh the the bigger the lie, the worse it seems like their record and their service to Empire ends up being in large part because there's probably a lot of there's a lot of things that uh uh this is potentially supposed to serve which ultimately end ends up as we see now backfiring hard. But uh it was great to be on with both of you. I want to be sure to thank everyone who gave a super chat, who became a member today. As well, I want to point everyone uh to Rachel's YouTube channel in the video description. That's where you can uh subscribe to her channel, follow her work. She does great work, daily work. Uh I think it's daily work, right, Rachel? I feel like you are just about. Yeah. Yeah, just about daily. Um and uh not to mention uh you have been very gracious with your platform and space for both of us. And so I just want to say thank you for all the work that you do and KJ of course to you too for giving your time here uh to spend it talking about this. And we'll have to keep this is not going to this is likely going to go on for a little bit. So we'll have to keep a breast of the situation. But uh anything you want to say to the audience before we head out of here you guys? It's time to hit the streets. It's time to hit the phones. It's time to take action. It's time to take everything. Take everything you have and stop the war machine. Yeah. Yes. And uh Oh, sorry, Rachel. Please. Oh, I was going to say what KJ said. I couldn't have said it any better. Well, without further ado, everybody, uh, as you go listen to both Rachel and KJ, be sure to hit the like button before you go because that will boost their voices so more people can hear them, too. uh go to the video description, find Rachel's work and also to find all the places to support this channel. I'll be back probably daily likely I think tomorrow morning I'll be back. I'll let you know what's going on with that very soon as we do daily updates here of this uh what could be and what already is actually I shouldn't say could be a monumental moment in history with this criminal war of aggression on Iran by the United States and Israel. All right everybody, salute. Take care. Bye-bye.