Former State Dept Spokesperson TELLS ALL About Israel The Young Turks Aug 25, 2025
Former State Department spokesman Matt Miller said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued to derail peace agreements with Gaza. Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss on The Young Turks.
Transcript
Matt Miller admits Israel sabotaged ceasefire deals Matthew, aren't you admitting that you were working for the Israeli government instead of the US government? Yes you are. You just don't realize it. The US basically accepted the Israeli notion of that. We will not put any deal on the table that will end the war. The Prime Minister wouldn't agree to it because frankly, we had spent the last few months seeing the government of Israel at times try and sabotage an approach to get to a cease fire. They were always looking for ways to add conditions or make the terms more difficult. Will it be true to say that you wanted a deal, a hostage deal, more than Israel? I believe that's true. The man that you just heard, being honest for once in his life, used to be the State Department spokesman. Matthew Miller is his name. And he lied to all of us over and over again throughout the course of Israel's genocide until Biden was, you know, the Biden administration was no longer in office. I want you to know that. So no one makes the mistake of helping these disgusting, loathsome pricks engage in the, you know, character laundering that they're trying to engage in right now. But nonetheless, he served as an aide to former Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, another loathsome human being. Both men and especially Miller, provided endless cover for Israel during the Biden administration. But now Miller is admitting that the government of Israel has repeatedly sabotaged ceasefire deals with Hamas that could have brought the hostages home. Same thing that we've been saying on this show over and over again now. Wow, aren't we so lucky? We have former Biden administration officials admitting that that was the case and has been the case. So in this interview with Israel's Channel 13, Miller gave some pretty damning examples that prove Benjamin Netanyahu never prioritized the lives of the hostages. Lead up to Rafah offensive I think that's pretty evident with the way the hostages have effectively been abandoned by Israel. And here he is talking about what happened in the lead up to the assault on Rafah last year, in 2024. Before the invasion of Rafah. We were working on a shorter deal. We'd been working on the phased proposal, but the Israeli government agreed to a proposal for just a six week ceasefire, not tied to any permanent end to the war. We were publicly urging Hamas to accept it, and there was a good reason for Hamas to agree to that, which is there was an invasion of Rafah looming, and this might be a way to avert that invasion. And in the middle of that proposal being submitted to Hamas, the Prime Minister publicly said that Israel was going to invade Rafah, whether there was a ceasefire or not. And you can imagine how much harder that made it to get a deal over the line. Hamas didn't accept the proposal. Then they've lost the chief motivation to agree to a deal. Now I just want to remind you all that there were Israeli officials who, you know, said that they felt no pressure from the Biden administration to accept a ceasefire deal. So you have two sides saying two different things. To some extent. Both sides consist of liars. So I don't know what to believe. What I do know, without a shadow of a doubt, is that Israel didn't want a ceasefire, never wanted a ceasefire. And yet Netanyahu did say publicly that he intended to continue fighting because it's not about the hostages, it's about a land grab. It's about the Greater Israel Project. Anyone who thinks otherwise is just delusional at this point. Yeah, I think both things can be true. So I think that the way that it played out was based on reporting, during the time, but mainly after Biden left, because, well, I'll get back to why in a second. So what Israel would do is they would do something outrageous, and then America would try to walk it back a little bit. And to them that was pushback. They're like, what do you mean? We politely asked Israel, our overlords, in private meetings, can we please, pretty please do the things that we both say that we're doing publicly? Like like we want to get to peace. We want to get the hostages back. Can we please do that? And Israel would say, shut up. We're not doing that at all. And then America would be like, oh, I'm sorry. And then they would go out and Matthew Miller himself would go out and go, Israel is doing everything possible. It's all dirty Hamas. It's the dirty Palestinians fault. Beloved, Israel has done nothing wrong. So in the Biden administration's mind, what we pushed back, we asked politely in the beginning, and we got slapped across the face. And then we cried. And then we did as we were told, right. And the Israelis think, yeah, that was no pushback. We told you bitches what to do. And then you walked out like our dogs and did exactly as we ordered you. So I just as we showed you these clips, I want you to keep in mind that whenever anybody is in power, right, whether it's Trump or Biden, they say Israel is right about everything. Israel is the greatest. The Palestinians are wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Terrorists, etc.. But when they're out of power, they go, oh yeah, we were lying the whole time. No, Israel is the one blocking all the ceasefires, blocking peace. They never wanted it in the first place. So don't make the mistake of believing either Democrats or Republicans when they're in power, because that's when they're being bribed by the Israeli lobby. Yet another deal blown up So. Miller also recounted what happened in May of last year, in 2024, when Netanyahu seemed to really change his approach entirely. So he had signed off on a proposal for the release of the remaining hostages in three separate phases that would essentially culminate in an end to the war and a withdrawal of the Israeli troops from Gaza. And then, just four days later, Joe Biden gave a speech revealing the details of this proposal, fearing that Netanyahu might retreat or might change his mind if it wasn't announced publicly. Okay. We told the government of Israel only an hour or two before the speech because, frankly, we had spent the last few months seeing the government of Israel at times try and sabotage an approach to get to a ceasefire. And we were determined not to let that happen here. It boxed the Prime Minister in and made it very difficult for him to walk away from it. But in the hours after Biden gave the speech, as you can imagine, as you guys probably remember, Netanyahu's office began leaking messages suggesting the proposal laid out by Biden was not the same as what the prime minister had agreed to effectively, embarrassing, humiliating Biden. And by the way, Biden allowed it to happen again and again and again. He couldn't get enough of it. He might have, like, a humiliation fetish, but that's exactly what happened. Then in July, when Hamas made an offer that Negotiators thought was good enough to finally secure a ceasefire. Netanyahu changed the terms again. That's not me saying it, although at the time I did say it. Now you finally have Miller admitting it, even though he lied to the American people when Biden was in power. Take a look. Over the course of July, we got bogged down in other issues. The government of Israel came back with its insistence on keeping troops in the Philadelphi corridor. That maybe was the most frustrating of all, because we were so close to getting a deal that could have certainly brought hostages home and maybe ended the war once and for all. And then we presented a proposal to bridge those differences. And the Prime Minister accepted that proposal. And the proposal was very clear about when Israeli soldiers would withdraw from Philadelphi. Somehow it managed to leak that he told the families of hostages that Israel would never withdraw from Philadelphi, which of course was a complete contradiction of the position that he had taken. It's almost as if you can't trust the Israeli government, right? Matthew Miller but, you know, you couldn't say that out loud. Then Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that he tried to persuade Netanyahu and the rest of the cabinet that the IDF could quickly retake the Philadelphi corridor if needed, and that securing the release of the hostages who might not survive much longer was more essential. But he was overruled, and the government voted in favor of a decision advanced by the Premier for Israel to remain along the border. Because this isn't about the hostages, it's about the Greater Israel Project. Fast forwarding a bit. Actually, let me give you a chance to jump in, Jake. Okay. So real quick on your answer, notice he's saying, look, guys, we could just lie to them. We could say we're going to give the Philadelphia quarter back, and then we'll get all of our hostages and we'll violate the peace treaty like we always do. Like that's just as an obvious aside in this story that Israel never tells the truth, and there's just a matter of, do you break the deal before or after? Right. You make the deal. And what's second interesting part of that is that Netanyahu said, no, I want to lie ahead of time, not afterwards. Why? Because he doesn't want the hostages back. Because if he has the hostages back, then he has no excuse to stay in Gaza. And he desperately needs an excuse to take Gaza. So that's why he's saying no to every peace deal. He's lying at every turn. He's betraying every promise. Right. Because it was never about self-defense. I mean, come on. They had a stand down order for six hours. Are you kidding me? On October 7th, you know, you can get from almost anywhere in Israel to the border Why Matt Miller's comments are offensive in about 45 minutes with a helicopter. And you stand down for six hours. Okay. So now this is super important. Matthew Miller and almost all the former officials act like they didn't have a choice. - I know. - And that's so telling. - And insulting. - Right? Because what they're saying is, well, yes. Now I'm telling you, the Israelis lied about every part of this, right? And they made us look like fools. But he makes it sound like they had no choice at all. Well, you did, though, Matthew, didn't you? Couldn't the president of the United States say no? You're going to do what we tell you to do. Otherwise we're going to cut your funding, or you lie to me one more time, or you lie in public one more time about a peace deal, or you don't get our American hostages back, and we're going to cut off your funding. But it's so obvious, even after the administration is over, to people like Matthew Miller, they think, no, we don't have that choice. America must serve Israel and everything they want. We must give to them. So you see how we were, how we were bamboozled. - There was nothing we could do. - But why? Why? Matthew Miller was a State Department spokesman. He doesn't have to worry about reelection. So why did you like. I want to understand why there is this deference to anything and everything Israel wants. And then you have these, like, pro-Israel groups getting all huffy and puffy when I say that our government is controlled by Israel. I mean, how could you argue otherwise at this point? Matthew Miller in these clips, it's a confession, an implicit confession. He doesn't even recognize to this day that the US government was totally controlled by the Israeli government, because the US government would make a suggestion. - Israel would say, no. - Slop it down. Right, slop it down, and aggressively and humiliatingly. And then we would go, okay, then we'll do what you want. - Here's more money. - Here's more money. Here's exactly what you want, and we'll lie. And Matthew Miller is now admitting that we'll lie to cover up your crimes. We'll lie about you betraying us. Forget the Palestinians, but betraying the peace process. Betraying, getting our hostages back. So, Matthew, aren't you admitting that you were working for the Israeli government instead of the US government? Yes you are. You just don't realize it. So according to Miller, Netanyahu straight up told him, straight up told him that Israel would be at war for decades to come. And when we say at war for decades to come, understand us, the US taxpayers Netanyahu admits Israel will be at war for decades will be bankrolling it, of course. Take a look. The Secretary was laying out all of our concerns to the Prime Minister and to the rest of the War Cabinet. And he said, without a plan for the day after the conflict, you were going to be dealing with an insurgency in Gaza forever. You have continued instability in the West Bank. You are making it impossible to realize the dream that the State of Israel has had since its founding. You're going to be bogged down here fighting this war for years and decades to come. And the Prime Minister said, you're right. We are going to be fighting this war for decades to come. That's the way it's been. That's the way it's going to be. Congratulations, America. You have a genocide to pay for for decades to come because you think they're going to be done after Gaza, after they slaughter enough Palestinians in Gaza and take over the the strip. You think they're going to be done after they build all the illegal settlements in the annexed West Bank? They're coming for Lebanon. They're I mean, they've already been coming for Syria. They've been annexing land in Syria. Who knows what they're going to do with Jordan. Greater Israel project. It's not a joke. It's in the Likud party's charter. They don't just say it out loud. It's not just in their charter. They are putting action behind it. And Netanyahu has said that they're going to take Judea and Samaria and that they he believes in a greater Israel, and that's his mission. And he has said from the river to the sea. And then he has done from the river to the sea. But Matthew Miller thinks as a spokesperson for the State Department. He is not allowed to disagree or criticize Israel and that is super telling and pathetic. Finally, that decades comment is telling in a way that I don't want you to miss because they Israel keeps claiming every time they start a slaughter of different Arab lands, Palestinian lands, they start a war, etc. They always say, what self-defense? Oh, they're gonna wipe us all out. Oh my God, it's self-defense right now. In 1967, it wasn't self-defense. They bombed all the Arab countries. And now this is two years after October 7th, and they're still slaughtering people in Gaza. So, wait, if it's self-defense, how do you know the war is going to go on for decades? Do you think there's going to be another attack? How do you know there's going to be another attack decades from now? No, what he's saying is this has nothing to do with self-defense. We are going to do a multi-decade war against our neighbors until we grab enough land that is Greater Israel. So again. So when when he says that and he says we, he is saying, America, I am going to make you pay for all of these wars that I am going to continue for decades on end, and then I'm going to get your corrupt congressmen and your moronic media to tell you that it's self-defense and make the American taxpayers. - Build their empire. - Yeah, build our empire for us. Commit genocide for us. Pay for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians so we can grab more land. I already know it. Because I'm telling you ahead of time, this is going to last for decades. And he. To be fair to him, he said it in the 1990s. He said, we want these wars with Iraq, Iran, etc. And he got exactly what he wanted. Look, I need I need Western countries to hear me when I say this, okay? All the Western countries, the United States, Europe, especially Europe. Okay. I don't want to hear any whining about the islamification of your country because of mass migration as you aid and abet or at best case scenario, just remain silent at what's happening in the Middle East because Israel wants to build their empire. Okay. The mass displacement that we've seen in the Middle East is the result of us going into countries, bombing countries, overthrowing governments that Israel doesn't like. All of that stuff has led to mass migration of Muslims. You think they want to go to your stanky ass country? No, I think they would rather be in their homeland, but they can't live in their homeland because it's been bombed to smithereens. That's the reality of the situation. So if you don't want the islamification of your country, how about you stop aiding and abetting Israel in their disgusting land grabs and empire building? - How about that? - Yeah. Look, look. Some people, of course, want to live in lovely European countries. Look, Europe is awesome. I love Europe, but it makes me so angry that people are blind to what's happening. Right. They think they're so high and mighty. They think they're so great. And it's like, oh my God, we're being invaded. No, you are aiding and abetting the destruction of these countries. Where do you think people are going to go? What do you think is happening with the Palestinian people right now? So let me give you a quick example. So Israel's been agitating for regime change in Iraq. They got us to do it. Congratulations. And this is not speculation. This is all Israeli prime ministers Netanyahu, Sharon saying we want America to attack Iraq. Iraq is our number one enemy. Now they're saying Iran is our number one enemy. We want you to attack Iran. And they have said this for different countries in the Middle East. And they want. They've been trying to destabilize the Assad regime for a long time in Syria. Now, the Assad regime was terrible and dictatorial, right? So it had plenty of its own problems, but they were looking to destabilize us so they can grab western Syria. They destabilized it. They did grab western Syria. They have western Syria as we speak. But what was the consequence of that? It pushed that entire war and that destabilization pushed Syrians into many countries. Other middle eastern countries. Other European countries. My parents hometown in Turkey was near the Syrian border. Now it is filled to the rim with Syrian refugees. Yeah, that's what happens. People get displaced. So when you see the displacement of endless numbers of people from various Middle Eastern countries, ask yourself, why is this happening? Because I guarantee you people aren't just deciding. They're going to leave everything they've known in their homeland and invade your country. That's not what's actually happening. If you want that to stop. Okay. Whether you're in Europe or whether you're in the United States. Stop voting in favor of politicians that put Israel up on a pedestal and put their own people down, put their own people second. Because if you're going to do the bidding of Israel, you're going to keep getting mass displacement of people in that region of the world. That's the reality of the situation. Israel never suffers the consequences. Everyone else does. Yeah, that's the reality of the situation. And look, there's a simple rule that Anna just said. Whether you're here in America or anywhere else, if you see a politician putting Israel above your own country, that's super weird. That's really strange. - Vote them. - Out. And you should know that they're not working for you and that they're working for a foreign government. And you'd be nuts to vote for them. So if a politician is in here in America, almost all of our politicians are legally bribed. So the Israeli lobby, AIPAC, is the head of it. But there's tons of groups have legally bought almost all of our Congress. So but so that's why they work for Israel in Europe. If your politicians are doing it, you should wonder why. Why did they get bought? How did they get bought? Are they being pressured? Are they being blackmailed? But bottom line is, no matter why they're doing it, if any politician anywhere says I put a different country above our own, obviously they should be fired. Obviously, every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.
CNN Conservative IMMEDIATELY REGRETS Challenging Ana The Young Turks Aug 27, 2025
TYT's Ana Kasparian called out CNN's Scott Jennings for regurgitating Israel's talking points on a double-tap strike on a hospital in Gaza. Ana Kasparian and Wosny Lambre discuss on The Young Turks
Transcript
Ana spars with Scott Jennings As Netanyahu said in a statement today that this was a tragic mishap. Yeah, I think they said also, six terrorists were killed in the attack. We've heard. How do you know? I know it's BS because of the IDF's internal documents, which indicate that. You know, for a fact. - Killed. - There. You know for a fact that there weren't any terrorists. I'm not going to sit here and regurgitate the lies from the Israeli government as they're conducting a genocide. I kind of got into it with Scott Jennings on Abby Phillips CNN show last night, and I kind of wanted to revisit some of these moments. Some of the highlights before we get to the first clip was any thoughts on that fiery moment? I just the guy's smugness of how do you know? Again, they've released their own internal stats that claim that 8800 of the deaths are confirmed Hamas fighters, when we know all they do to confirm that you're a militant is that you're over the age of 16 and you're male. Yeah. So we know that it's probably like we know that it's probably much lower. They've been just killing people indiscriminately. Like, let's be generous and say it's like a third lower. I'm gonna I'm willing to say that it's probably two thirds if we're being honest, but let's just say it's a third lower than that. That means the civilian casualty rate is higher than 83%, and that means it's like 88%, 89%, 90. Like that's so when we know that's already their civilian casualty rate. And you come here and tell me that they done tripled it on this kill like that. They've tripled their accuracy rate for killing Hamas that they've done the whole war. Nonsense. Yeah. Not only that. Here's the thing. When it comes to something as significant as taking people's lives, killing them. I'm going to need a little more than a notoriously deceptive military telling me, oh, they were militants. Oh, okay. I'm a supermodel and a billionaire. Like you can't just make that statement and accept or think that we're all going to accept it and regurgitate it like propagandists like Scott Jennings do. Okay, like I need to see some evidence. And, you know, to the credit of the Associated Press in a story that I covered earlier, they report, yeah, Israel is saying this, but they haven't provided a shred of evidence at all. And in fact, of the people who were killed in that double tap strike here, here's here are the names. Here's what they did, like hospital worker, medical driver, like just five journalists. It's just such BS. And look, Israel got away with it in the very beginning and in the middle And all the way up to like, maybe last week, but not anymore. I mean, we never bought it, but the whole of the US media just kind of went along with the lies. So with that in mind, let's go to our first lengthy video. Ana lays out Israel's intentions I guess, this is where I just kind of lay out everything that needs to be laid out in regard to what Israel's real intentions are. I don't believe for a second that those journalists were not targeted. I think journalists are being targeted in Gaza. They're not allowing international journalists to report on the ground to enter the Gaza Strip, unless, of course, they're being accompanied by IDF soldiers. And hundreds of journalists have been slaughtered in Gaza. Every single time it happens, Netanyahu comes out and says, oh, it was a mishap, and the United States just forgets about it and moves on and continues providing more bombs. I do consider it a genocide when you have humanitarian aid workers being slaughtered, when you have every single hospital bombed, when you have the entire Gaza Strip leveled, that's not a war, a war. If you do targeted strikes and you go after the combatants. 729 magazine, An Israeli publication, obtained IDF documents showing their data shows that 83% of the people slaughtered in Gaza are civilians, 83%. Let me say it again, 83%. How are you going to call that a war against Hamas? Let's just note for the record that as I was making my point about how Israel should be doing targeted strikes instead of leveling the entirety of the Gaza Strip, this is what Scott Jennings face looked like. Just I mean, look, when I'm on these types of panels, even when I do Piers Morgan Show, I try really hard to not do this annoying thing that other panelists do where, like. I can't, I can't, I can't stand it. If I really, really want to make my feelings known, I just interrupt them and then I talk over them. It's the more honorable way of doing it. But, everything I said is verifiable. Everything. There were a bunch of foreign doctors at that hospital who were told that they had a mandatory training, and had to leave the hospital and were told they couldn't go back that day. So essentially, the Israeli military knew that all of the foreign doctors who were there to administer medical care to sick, dying, suffering Gazans were made to leave for some fake training program. They all said, like this was a fake training program. They knew all the foreign doctors were going to be gone. And then they struck the hospital straight up. It's like, what do you call that besides targeted? Like, there's no there's no other way to put this. And then of course, he gets caught on camera and it's like, oh my bad. Which, you know, with the Israelis it happens that there, you know, anytime it's caught on camera, it's like, oh man, that was a big mistake. And every time it's not, it's like, oh, we got 100 Hamas guys with that strike. It's crazy, the coincidence and how that's been working out. Well, initially after that video went viral, you know, you had Netanyahu basically saying that it was a mishap. And then after that, the IDF got upset at him because it made the IDF look bad, like they made a mistake. And then all these like the storyline about how six combatants were killed came out. I just it's so brazen, it's so obvious that it's a lie. Everything that comes out of the Israeli side is a lie. Unless they provide evidence, which typically they don't. I'm not going to take what either side says at face value, but I'll take the evidence. And with the Israeli side, they just feel they're they're above it. They don't need to provide evidence. We should just believe everything they say. Take it at face value. So, you know, in the middle of this debate, the topic of the West Bank came up. And I think it's important to remember the West Bank, especially as, you know, the Israel defenders pretend like they care about the hostages and that this is all about the hostages. Take a look. Why is Israel annexing the West Bank, which of course, is not governed by Hamas at all? Why are Israeli settlers allowed to just run Palestinians out of their homes, Jennings ignores West Bank issue build thousands of illegal settlements? West Bank has nothing to do with Hamas. Why is Israel annexing it? Why did Netanyahu say that? His stated goal in an interview with I24 News, an Israeli publication, say that he has a religious need to pursue the greater Israel? I'll let Scott answer quickly, and then we've got to go. Go ahead. Go ahead. Scott. My view is this the hostages have been there for almost 700 days. There's a reason that Hamas is not. - Going to answer her question, though. - I don't know. I don't work for the Israeli government. It certainly sounds like you work for the Israeli government. Okay, there are no hostages in the West Bank. And he knows that. He knows that. Was. Yeah, that's I mean, again, they don't they can't really defend anything that they're doing, you know. I was talking to Producer Taylor before I came on, and I was like, you know, like, Zelensky can come up here and he can sell a narrative, right? Like he could be like, look, these guys invaded us. We need these weapons to defend ourselves. Like. Like the army. The Russian army was over there. Now they're over here. They're encroaching on our territory. Day by day, like this is what we need. And it's like, all right, they can just make the case for the war that they're trying to prosecute on its face. The Israelis and their defenders, they just can't. All they can say is. But Hamas, they can't be like, well, Hamas is about to, you know, they're this close to breaching this security perimeter or, you know, this many citizens are in danger because this thing that Hamas has or they just got a new weapon or they the there's there's nothing. It has nothing to do with the defense of the Israeli people or Israel as a sovereign nation. Like they don't make that case. It's just slaughter. Like that's it. It's there's nothing else there. It's just slaughter. And, you know, ethnic cleansing by any other name, like it's it is what it is. Like they're trying to drive this population out. They're talking about sending them to places like Sudan, which, by the way, is in a civil war, crazy war zone. So they want to send them to another meat grinder. It's just obvious. Like, they're like they they push a bunch of people out of a town. There are no hostels, no militants there, nobody there. They demolition dynamite, detonate with explosives, controlled explosives of schools and colleges and universities and hospitals and mosques and like, like, what do you call that? Like, that's not a war. You're not fighting against Hamas when you do that, like you're just basically trying to erase these people. That's exactly right. And it's not just about the West Bank. It's not just about Gaza. I mean, they want to annex, I mean, look into the Greater Israel Project, okay. It goes beyond, obviously, Green Line Israel. It goes beyond Gaza and the West Bank. There is a reason why you see Israel at this very moment, annexing parts of Syria, taking full advantage of the fall of Bashar al Assad. Okay. I just don't accept that the Israeli government gives a damn about the hostages. In fact, the family members of the hostages say out loud on a regular basis that their government doesn't care about the hostages. And that's what disgusts me about all of this. I mean, to what end? How many people will Netanyahu and the IDF slaughter in their quest to dominate the Middle East? And why are the American people forced to Pay for their empire building through blood and treasure. I really need to know that I need them to answer that question. I'm not interested in building their empire. Okay. Two more videos real quick. So the topic of the starvation came up, but Scott Jennings brought it up specifically in regard to the hostages. And I had a rebuttal. Let's take a look. When you block humanity, the Gaza Strip for. Three months. Straight, it not only impacts the Palestinians, which I know you couldn't care less about, but it also, obviously is going to impact the hostages. They're going to starve to death as well. You're saying Israel is starving the hostages? - I'm saying. - Yes. When you block humanitarian aid for three. Blocking humanitarian aid Months. Where do you think they're going to get the food. From? Max? - Israel. - What a joke. Are you blaming Israel for something? Yeah, yeah I am. He was shocked. He was shocked. I can't believe someone's blaming Israel for something. It's the. They've never done anything wrong. Ever. Are you kidding me? Israel? No. They. They couldn't. And Israel commits war crime after war crime after war crime. They blocked humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip for three months straight. What do you think happens to everyone in that territory, including the hostages? Is he stupid or is he just pretending to be stupid? Okay, I'm never going to get invited on CNN again if I keep going like this, but it's just I can't. - I can't hold back, I really can't. - It's the smugness for me, honestly. Just this like the incredulity like, I, I like Israel is starving. Yes, they've they've said that they said this stuff on TV, not like cranks or like, you know, some like political talking heads, like people high up in their government are like, no, we're going to starve them. We're going to cut food off. We're going to cut aid off. We're gonna starve these guys malnutrition, these guys to death. That's what like they said this, that these aren't idle threats. They've said this publicly and gone out and executed it. Absolutely. In fact, just yesterday there was a video of a Likud party member. I don't know what her name is. She had terrible makeup like, and then like super, super long, straight hair. That's all I know about her and what she was advocating for. She was actually furious that Israel was being a little bit apologetic after doing that double strike on Nasser Hospital, killing five journalists and medical workers and first responders. Right. And she was like, how dare you? We should be proud of this. We want revenge. This is revenge, and we shouldn't be ashamed of it. It's like, wow, okay. And you know what? It's amazing because they say it out loud all the time. And yet the American people are supposed to believe their intentions are different. No, I'm going to believe people when they tell me who they are and what they intend to do. And they are, in fact doing what they say they're going to do. Okay. Final video. I'm not going to lie, the reaction to this or the lack of reaction to this, made me very depressed all last night. Pretty much all of today. So I finally brought up, what I find to be a gross injustice. And it has to do with a an alleged Israeli pedophile. Take a look. The problem with Trump, though, is I think crime is the cover story. I think this is a power grab, and the reason why I say that is because CNN panel ignores Israeli pedophile story look at the specific examples of crime that he allegedly wants to go after. I mean, just recently his FBI did a sting operation in Las Vegas, and they managed to catch through the sting operation, eight separate pedophiles that were trying to have sex with minors. Okay. One of those pedophiles is an Israeli government official who his government allowed to fly back to Israel after he had been charged in that sting operation for using technology to lure a minor for sex. And when it comes to the immigration issue, he loves to go after the undocumented immigrants, but not the employers employing the undocumented. You mentioned that Trump. You described it as a cover story. But I think it's also worth noting that Trump has been talking about doing this. So no, no, no comment on the fact that there was an Israeli government official trying to rape American children. And we just let him go back to Israel? No. Oh, okay. I just there's been a blackout on that one, though. That's a that's been a concerted. You won't find that in the post. You won't find that in the times. You won't find it on MSNBC. You won't find it on CNN. You will not find that anywhere of the major news outlets, like the people that have covered it, have been places like tight and, you know, places like Dropsite and like the sort of points breaking points all the like sort of independent media, you know, like pod bros, like those kind of people have covered it. The major news outlets have completely been like, we're not touching that. It makes us look terrible. It makes our government look complicit in it. It's like it's crazy. Because they are because they are complicit in it. So let's just be clear. This is why I say we can't think of the government as an entity that protects the people. We have to think of ourselves as individuals who protect ourselves from the government, literally at this point. So the big message here, and if you, by the way, to all the corporate media that has provided cover for a disgusting pedophile. The big message to the American people by our government, by our corporate media, is that Israeli government officials are free to come here, do sex tourism and victimize Demise miners. And then they get to go home and never have to worry about facing prosecution for their disgusting, loathsome crimes. And yeah, it does make Israel look bad. Israel loves to harbor pedophiles. CBS, by the way, in 2020, actually did a big exposé on that convicted American pedophiles flee to Israel, in some cases just charged. They haven't even been prosecuted yet. You know, in some cases, they don't even have to be Jewish. They'll convert. And then they find a safe haven in Israel. First of all, what kind of country do you want to be? Israel. Seriously, what kind of country do you want to be? All right. Fine. You want to slaughter the Muslims? I find that disgusting. But let's put that aside for a second. Really? You want to be a magnet for pedophiles? That's our greatest ally. No. Thank you. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets its wings. Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.
Grayzone Day: Where does Greater Israel end? by The Grayzone Aug 28, 2025 #TheGrayzone
Watch Max Blumenthal, Katie Halper, and Jeremy Loffredo discuss the brutal history and present day ravages of Greater Israel with host Sabby Sabbs at the first Grayzone Day at Icarus Fest in Rutherford, NJ, August 23, 2025.
Transcript
All right. All right. Welcome. Welcome. [Applause] This is the Greater Israel panel. And first and foremost, I want to introduce our panelists. First up, we have Max Blumenthal. He's the co-founder, excuse me, the founder of The Grey Zone. [Applause] We have the lovely Katie Halper. She's the host of the Katie Halper Show and co-host of Useful Idiots. And last but not least, we have Jeremy Lefredo, who is a journalist with the Brazil. [Applause] So, and Sabie Sabs, thank all of you for uh coming. So, for the past two years, the world has watched a live streamed uh genocide. Uh corporate media continues to say this all started on October 7th. This erases the displacement of Palestinians, of course, prior to October 7th. We're going to start with Max. Max, what would you say is the best way to debunk this narrative that it all started on October 7th? Well, there there's there's a thing called history that Zionists seem to be allergic to these days. And it's very easy to debunk it if we go back to the second aliyah of Palestine, which is when the ideological settlers arrived in 1897. Just read any account, including mainstream Zionist accounts from that point on, and read the memoirs of David Bengurion. Read the memoirs of Heim Whitesman. Read uh the letters of Arthur Rupen who helped found Tel Aviv and you will see. Read an iron wall by Zev Jabatinsky where he acknowledges that the presence of the Zionist settlers will not be welcome in Palestine as they were unw as settlers were unwelcome by the Zulu of South Africa by the Native American Indians of the Americas that they will have to form an iron wall of bayonets in order to repel the Native resistance. That's what we're saying. we're just from coming at it from a totally different angle. That's why they're committing genocide in Gaza because the resistance continues uh where it has been quelled elsewhere or defeated in South Africa or or the um the settlers have been essentially defeated in South Africa. So Benjamin Netanyahu recently visited a settlement called Ofra which is strategically located east of the Ramla Ber district in the West Bank and cuts off Ramla from which is the administrative supposed to be the administrative capital of a Palestinian state from the west of the rest of the West Bank and it is on the road from Ramla to Nabilis. So it cuts Ramala off from Nabilis. And Israel has announced plans to construct settlements in E1, which is the last part piece of land, I've been there many times, that connects East Jerusalem, which is which is supposed to be the political capital of a Palestinian state, from the rest of the West Bank. And Netanyahu openly declared, "I am here to show you that I will prevent a Palestinian state." Uh I think he may have visited the same settlement back in 2001. I could be wrong. When he's his famous comments were leaked about America being a thing you can move easily. A week before Benjamin Netanyahu announced that greater that he feels a deep spiritual connection to greater Israel. He feels a deep spiritual connection to something. But Benjamin Netanyahu has no spiritual connection to anything because he is secular. He is essentially an atheist. But he's just making this appeal to the settlers because they're the lynch pin of his coalition. There's no future for him. And really, there's no future for the self-proclaimed Jewish state without them. This is something that's always been acknowledged by Israeli leadership. The Labor Party as well, Ahud Barak also said in the 1990s when he built far more settlements than any other prime minister in Israeli history, including Netanyahu, he said, "I feel a deep spiritual connection to the settlers." 1967, Shimon Perez when sent to Sebastia where the settlers had taken over this small little outpost and he was supposed to remove them. He went with a the poet of labor Zionism, Natan Alterman and they were there to convince them to leave and then they said that when they got there they were so moved by what they saw that they let them stay. So this is the future. The future of Israel is greater Israel. And if we go back to what is greater Israel, where where does it start and where does it end? Well, if we go back to the original map of what was supposed to be Israel, and I think this was the Jewish National Fund map from 1913, it's between the Nile and the Euphrates. And the Israeli flag if they really wanted to represent Judaism would have been a manora. But they took this other symbol and put it between two lines. One to make it look like uh to feel a tallet which is what you know the prayer cloth that we wear. But also what are the lines? It's the Euphrates and the Nile with this Jewish symbol between it. So greater Israel can they have conquered the Sinai and they were pushed back. They are conquering the Golan all the way up to the suburbs of Damascus. Right now there are what are considered holy sites in Jordan. When Anna and I were in Iran, we visited uh the the a tomb, the supposed tomb of Sarah Bat Asher, the granddaughter of Jacob. They would they could push that far and claim that this is biblical territory. The Bible is their claim. So where does so greater Israel can extend as far as they can push it with military force and it's extending into our own society, which is something we'll be talking about. Why was UCLA just defunded at its advanced mathematics center just lost $500 million? because some uh students made Zionist billionaires angry, made some of Netanyahu's cutouts angry, and they told Trump to cut the funding. So, Greater Israel is is here. And that's why I think this title is really appropriate for this um this panel. And it puts the lie, the history of greater Israel puts the lie to the notion that October 7th came out of this vacuum of anti-semitism and Jew hatred and that the genocide that is taking place is a direct and exclusive response to the Alexa flood attack. October 7th was a volcano of rage erupting against the most direct victims of greater Israel. Speaking of uh military force, uh we have seen Israel also brutalize journalists. Uh they have killed a number of journalists in Gaza and uh Jeremy Lefredo has direct experience with dealing with the brutality of Israeli soldiers. Jeremy, could you tell everybody about what happened to you when you were arrested in Israel? Um, on October 2nd, on Yeah, October 2nd, Iran fired 200 ballistic missiles into Israel. Um, Operation True Promise 2, I believe it was. And um I covered uh where the missiles had fallen and I went to um Nevatim Air Base um in the Negv desert and I spoke to some Bedwin communities who um heard and saw and felt um these um missiles around them because they near air base and that was the target. And these are Palestinians. These are um these are Israeli citizens, but because they're not Jewish, they don't have the bomb shelters that they have in Tel Aviv, um in Jerusalem. Um and they had to hide under bridges, um under an overpass. um children and uh women because they're not Jewish and because they're Muslim and they live in the desert, they were hiding in drain like storm drains um from these uh missiles. And I was driving down, I was speaking to them. I noticed that I could not like if I wanted to document any actual damage of Israeli military infrastructure, I would have to be inside. I would have to go in this air base. It's a 0% chance. Um, so I don't go in the air base. I just talk to the people who heard it, um, who saw them, um, document what happened with them. And then I went back up north towards Tel Aviv, um, and I found, um, a crater about a thousand um, feet from the MSAD headquarters. And, um, I just uh, I just documented. I just uh pointed my camera around, showed how close it was to MSAD headquarters, showed the destruction. Um, also kind of um pushed back on the the lie that um there were no missile impact sites in metropolitan areas. Um the Iron Dome worked um you know, perfectly, etc., etc. Um so between the impacts in the NGV desert and then also the the impact in Tel Aviv um we at the Greyzone published a report showing these things and a few days later I was driving through um the West Bank on my way up to uh the Janine refugee camp which was in the middle of a 10-day complete siege where they um shut off the water. They weren't allowing food in or out. um they weren't letting people leave their houses. Um and so I was on my way um north to Janine and I got to a military checkpoint in outside of Nablus and they took my passport. Um they took all I was with a few other journalists and they pulled us out of the car. They shackled us, handcuffed us, blindfolded us, and put us in the back of a IDF Humvey um and drove us to some compound um back towards um Jerusalem. Um this is actually um the Russian compound was it? Not not yet. It was like this was like holding um and they uh it's actually it's in it's it's E1 like that's where this is and when this military police compound headquarters was built in like 2008 um settlers in the West Bank actually went there and celebrated the construction of this place of this police headquarters because they saw that this was the beginning of what's happening now. This is the beginning of cutting off um East Jerusalem from uh from the um the from Ramala and the West Bank and um so they all celebrated the the um the construction of it, but it's shrouded in secrecy. There's only like three photos on the internet that exist of it. Um we were all in holding. They let everyone else go and then through like I was in a holding cell and through the wall in the in this um police headquarters I I'm hearing my own voice. they're watching my my report. Um, so like I I'm like thinking like, okay, they're they're like really looking into me. They're they're finding things, etc., etc. Um, finally after hours and hours, maybe it's 1:00 a.m. They tell me I'm uh I can speak to a lawyer. I answer the phone. Um, she says, "Mr. Lefredo, what did you do? They're accusing you of giving information to the enemy during wartime." And I I said, "What? You know, what are you talking She speaks broken English, too. So, this is a really poor way to communicate. Um, she says that the is the officer in the room with you. I said, "No, he she said, "This is what's going to happen. They're going to bring you to prison now, and I'll see you tomorrow in court probably." Um, and at this point, um, one of the intelligence officers has his hand on the phone as if to say like, "If you don't stop this conversation, I'm going to hang up." Um, so that was the that was what I was afforded in terms of legal um, assistance before I was even, you know, before I wasn't charged with anything yet. They just suspect something of me and I'm not even allowed to really talk to a lawyer without being overseen by some intelligence agent. Um they reshackle me, they rehandcuff me, they put me in an unmarked cop car, leave the West Bank, go to the Russian compound in Jerusalem, um which is a pretty infamous um prison for security detainees, almost entirely Palestinian, of course. Um, and I was, you know, they they gave me these little like um feminine pink rubber sandals. They they took my boots. Um, then they threw me in this um little cell with no windows. Um, concrete. It was, you know, it was solitary confinement. It was it was that's exactly what it was. Um, and every maybe 30 minutes you have Israeli guards peeking through laughing at me just maybe even just to see like why is there a white American in here? This is so strange. Um, and then the next four days I was in and out of court maybe once a day, then brought back to my my um my solitary confinement cell. And they were charging me with giving information to the enemy during wartime, which carries a penalty of 25 years to the death penalty. So like I'm I'm thinking even if they go really light on me, 10 years in prison is like that's insane. Um, and I didn't do anything. I I did nothing wrong. I am a American journalist and my own government isn't helping me at all. The US embassy send one person to one of my court hearings and said, "Listen, I'm not here to help you. I'm just here to observe." Um, so they're doing literally nothing for me. Um, the during the State Department briefings while all of this was happening, um, they said absolutely nothing about an American um, journalist being detained. My father was calling um the embassy saying, "You're gonna do anything for my son? He's in prison. He's a journalist." Um they didn't do anything. And finally, um, one of the nights I was in there, they take me out of my cell after subjecting me to 3 hours at least of the screams of one of the other detaininees. Um, yelling, crying, um, Israeli Hebrew demands like to the to the detainine right in the cell next to me. And as soon as it's done, plane closed, police officers come to get me and bring me out to the West Bank at like maybe maybe 10 p.m. to interrogate me. Um, I get there and I'm thinking like, where are we going? How long am I going to be there? Do I get to go back? Because at this point, I'd rather be in my cell. And um, they ask me questions, you know, do you do you love Israel? Um, now you will. Yeah. Um they ask me if I'm familiar with um with the importance of a government military censorship office. Um, and I say, you know, I am, you know, I'm not trying to poke or or like cause problems here, but I am saying like truly, yes, I did go to school. I had professors, but no, I in America, we have, you know, something called the first amendment, and we don't have like a true formal military sensor where every journalist needs to go through in order to get their stuff published on the internet. Um, it just doesn't that's not something I am familiar with. And um, they're asking me questions, they're playing semantics with me. So, you do you did know we have a military sensor? Yeah, I knew, but I didn't know this. And like, so they're they're trying to catch me in a lie. Um, and eventually the judge in one of my court hearings says, "What do you what's the what is the the information you have?" Like, what what against him like warrants him staying in prison while we figure out if he's guilty or not? Like, what is it? And they told the judge that it's secret. And this is like the prosecutor are just um intelligence agents like that there's no that's the police are arguing um against me in court and um the judge thankfully was like I not really did not really accept that as an answer like we can't lock this American journalist up indefinitely um while you tell me the stuff you have against him is secret like this is it's not going to fly with her thankfully. Um, they let me out, but they still took my passport, my computer, my phone, and they said, "You can leave under the condition that you come back to this compound in the West Bank for interrogations whenever we say." I I didn't really have a choice. I said, "Of course." And they took my shackles off. It was wonderful. Um, and over the next 10 days I go to the West Bank for interrogation um, three or four times. I think it was four times. Um, some of the interrogations lasted eight or nine hours. Um, and it's just they're asking the same questions over again. Um, they're trying to catch me up in a lie. Uh, they want them to be this long. They'll take a hourong lunch break, leave me in the room alone, then come back and start again. Um, the last day they asked me a few questions and finally it seemed like they're not going to get anything out of me. I'm I'm just like there's nothing. I'm worried when they have my phone and my laptop because I I know there's nothing actually illegal in there. No terrorist material, but like what are they going to, you know, consider terrorist material? I have been sending, you know, money every now and then via PayPal to people in Gaza. So, like, are they going to look at that and say, "This guy's a terrorist. You're sending money to terrorists." Um, maybe some memes or photos on my phone, they would consider that, you know, illegal. I don't know. You know, it's just I know there's nothing wrong, but you don't know what they consider wrong. Um, and then finally, um, they called my lawyer and they said, "Tell Mr. Lefredo to book a book a flight and then send us the information." And I booked a flight. The fastest I've ever booked a flight. took a flight and um they just went in communicado. They never answered. Even till now, they have never answered. Um they they call it, my lawyer calls it kind of an informal deportation. They don't want to face the political repercussions of actually deporting an American journalist. So, they just like quietly tell the lawyer to tell him to leave the country, you know, if he knows what's best to leave. And they're leaving my case open um as a way to dissuade me from returning. So like if I go to Bengurian right now, I have an open, you know, aiding the enemy during wartime case investigation into me and I would be, you know, detained immediately. Um, and that's a that's essentially in short um how I was treated by the Israeli military and the Israeli state as an American journalist. I was paying for, you know, I was paying for my shackles. I was paying for the, you know, the the blindfold. They were making fun of me endlessly. Um, dragging me around like a like a dog around the prison like a I I was not on all fours, but I was like dragged by my shackles or by my handcuffs, pulled. I had to keep up with like I can't walk any stairs. I can't walk quickly. Um, it was really really dehum dehumanizing and um um um an experience where I learned a lot about how they think of um of Americans who don't support Israel. And what happened to Jeremy is just one example, right? Like we've seen a number of videos that I think that have woken a lot of people up if they were not aware of what Gaza was or what the West Bank was. They definitely are aware uh today. And that brings me to the United States, the pro Palestinian protest. Uh this is something that happened right after October 7th. A lot of people rose up. I think that first big protest in DC had over 500,000 people. There were many of you who were in this room that were present at that protest. Those protests still continue today. Recent reports show that support for Israel has declined in the United States. I think it's at a historic low last time I checked that data. So, we want to ask uh Katie Halper here. Katie, could you explain the significance of these protests and some of the things that you saw on the ground and then we'll come back to Max for uh the police force. So, I guess the the protests of course are a sign that anti-semitism is alive and well. Just kidding. Um, no, the protests are really inspiring. And u just before I I touch on this, I wanted to just u piggyback on some points that were made by Max and Jeremy, if that's okay. Um, but you know, it's interesting you mentioned the pink slippers, which made me think of the great Joe Arpaio, Sheriff Joe, who was pardoned by Trump, who would also make prisoners wear pink um in an attempt to, you know, humiliate them. But so it's a it's it's true when they talk about shared values, there are shared values. they're like shared values of sadism um between Israel and the US. And you know, in terms of your first question, Sabi, about the pushing back on the propaganda that this all started on October 7th, uh I co-sign, of course, everything that Max said. But a couple more points I want to make. One is that one of the favorite Hazbara talking points is of course that Israel pulled out of Gaza and look what they did. This is what happens when you pull out and you let them govern themselves. Uh, and of course that's a big lie because they didn't pull out I mean they did pull out uh troops but they didn't stop controlling everything in Gaza, right? So they control Gaza's airspace, their water, who goes in and out, their no-go zones. You have to get permission to get life-saving medical treatment and um even you know Dove Weinass who was Ariel Chiron's adviser at the time of the disengagement called the disengagement formaldahhide political formaldahhide which served to freeze the peace process. So that's an important thing I think to remind people of when they regurgitate the talking point about uh Israel pulling out of Gaza. Of course, there's kind of a larger question of and I struggle with this a lot too. Who's convertible? Who who deserves not deserves who it's worth wasting our time trying to to persuade? Because there are some people who we will never reach and we can leave that leave them to be their you know miserable delusional Zionist selves. Um there are probably some people who can be reached and I think that is a question of of strategy and organizing. But the other thing I would bring up is that um you know people who claim this is all about October 7th and all about Hamas. My a relative of mine actually who blocked me on Facebook. He told me he's like I love you but I'm blocking you on Facebook. And I wasn't even fighting with him because I never go on Facebook. It was mostly that I would post one of my videos from my show on Facebook. my relative would respond and then all my other followers would respond to him and like attack him rightfully. So, um but he then emailed me and he was like, um I guess you were right in parenthesis or extreme left on Israel. And the thing that changed his mind actually was seeing No Other Land because Nother Land people probably know is the Academy Award uh nominated uh winning documentary by an Israeli and a Palestinian director which of course because it's Academy Award-winning why would you be able to see it anywhere? So it's almost impossible to find but that shows what happens in the West Bank and it's before October 7th. And so obviously anyone following this knows this already, but it is a useful thing I think for people who are not following this to just point out. So they were killing people and terrorizing people before October 7th and they were doing this in the West Bank uh where Hamas is not in power. So there are lots of I think useful things to bring up to people. But in terms of the protest movement, I think that it's you know, yeah, it is uh support for Israel is at an all-time unprecedented low. Uh I think that's encouraging. It's it's always hard because public opinion moves before policy moves and that can be frustrating but on the other hand policy doesn't move without public opinion shifting. So I think that's something to be uh you know excited about. Another issue though is that you know there's this um Tony Greenstein who some of you I'm probably I'm sure have read he wrote the book um uh Zionism during the Holocaust and he points out that like if if Zionists stop supporting Israel today like Christian Zionists and Jewish Zionists stop supporting Israel today nothing would change in terms of US and Western support of Israel because he actually calls Jews the moral alibi. of imperialism and Zionism. So that's another I think question like it is it's exciting that there's a protest movement. I actually think there's much more potential for movement in terms of influence coming from the right than from the left because as we all know um what is it democra uh Republicans fear their base democrats uh have contempt for them disdain them whatever um and so that there is the question is like what can we do with this all-time historic uh unprecedented low level of support and uh I do think that you know the crackdown is evidence though of its power you you don't really bother cracking down ruthlessly on things that you don't fear. Uh, obviously there's a lot of repression here in the States. In England, it's insane. I mean, England makes us look like the land of the free, home of the brave. Uh, I know it's a funny it's a good that's always a good punchline. Um, and you know, I actually know I'm working on this documentary about Jewish Holocaust survivors who are speaking out against the ongoing genocide. you know, the ones who say never again for anyone as opposed to never again means we have the right to kill a bunch of people who had nothing to do with uh killing us and somehow that's going to make us safe. Um I didn't realize this by the way until I started working on this and never again was also a slogan for Kahani. I didn't realize that. So it's kind of fascinating. Uh really shows you like the split in the in the over the use of that term. But um one of the people I interview is this fascinating character. His name is Heinrich Zabner. He actually wrote a really great book called A War Like No Other about the IDF. He's an Israeli who is still a citizen, but he doesn't live there anymore. He's in England. And he spoke at a protest uh in front of the Israeli ambassador's house residence in London. and he said not even in a cheering way um but in a kind of diagnostic prognostic way that Israel wasn't going to be able to defeat Hamas, the Houthis or Hezbollah. And this guy's 79. He's the son of survivors who weighed like 70 pounds when the camps were liberated. And uh he was arrested for saying that under like the terror law. So he was arrested for saying that he has um cancer and a heart condition. He wasn't given his medications. He wasn't allowed to uh speak to his wife. Uh they were I mean it was a total sham. And of course he doesn't even like to talk about it because to to talk about this while a genocide is going on seems almost like ridiculous. Like you know he's not he's not being self pitting at all. And of course as he acknowledges what happened to another person who is Palestinian, they don't even know the person's name was like far worse than what happened to him. I just think it speaks to how uh much crackdown we're seeing now. And again, that is a it's terrible, but it's a good sign. It's a sign of something scary, but it's also this a sign that there's something good that's happening that they feel the need to respond to. Another character I interview, Steven Capos, who's 87, was at a protest and uh he was brought in for questioning because he committed the crime of like laying flowers down uh uh at a monument to recognize uh killed Palestinian children. So, I'm glad the the Met Police are are are on the uh hunt for terrorists like Steven Coposh. Hi, Bash Sner. Wow. Wow. Um, oh, and really quickly, the other thing I'd say is that I mean I would go to I've been to a bunch of the encampments in New York City, and you see a lot of uh terrorists in the form of people wearing like kipas, uh, obvious anti-semmites, raging, self-loathing Jews, you know, doing stuff like having like Shabbat and um, you know, I remember you interviewed those kids who chained themselves to the fence at Colombia or Barnard. and you go, they're like chained to the fence and you go up and they're all they're all wearing keepas and you're like, "What do you major in?" They're like, "I major in Jewish studies. I major in Jewish studies." I'm like, "Oh, man." Raging anti-semitism. I know. Yeah. One of them actually is an Israeli actually. He's he's No, he's American and he moved to Israel to be a settler and then he realized it was then he became a conscientious objector. Now he's at um at Colombia. He was a good friend of um um Masan Al what's his name um no uh Masan not there was um the two Colombia students first there was um Mahmood Khalil and the other one was Mosan something I can't remember his last name good friend of his the sec the guy who was arrested in Vermont um Masamawi Masamandawi uh and he's amaz he's I mean his story is incredible because he's now of course uh a major advocate for ceasefire and he went from being a settler to someone who sees Israel as a fascist state. So, uh, but yeah, those are the kinds of goons you have to look out for. And I brought my dog, too, so you know, it's safe if I brought Bucky. I think what's interesting is, um, some of us have heard this type of criticism that why should I concern myself with global affairs when we have issues here in the United States? But I think that when we think about what happened to Jeremy and we think about the pro Palestinian protest, that brings me to the police state and and Max, I want you to give some insight here uh in reference to what's happening in DC or what happened in DC recently with the police state and where that really comes from. Well, it comes from the the crisis we've been talking about. Uh it it's a result of the drop in public opinion and it's going to it's going to be exposed and be forced into our faces more and more in the coming months and years where more and more of the public would like to see a a a poll. I think it may have been a yuggov or a Pew poll showed a majority of Americans want Benjamin Netanyahu to be arrested when he comes here next. and they didn't poll anyone on concrete shoes um or other options, but I bet those numbers would have been pretty high. Those of you from Chicago know what I'm talking about. Yeah, Brooklyn, too. Okay. Or um what happened to Alan Dersuit's first wife? Um look that up. There is a poll showing that the percentage of dem Democrats or self-identified progressives under 35 who support Israel, it's almost zero. It's almost like in the margin of error. Like none of them support Israel. If they were a young Democrat who really supports Israel and its current incarnation and what it's doing in Gaza, they have gone over to the Republican party because that's their main issue. If there and so the crisis is brewing in the Democratic party, there's a DNC meeting coming up where there is a resolution on the table being supported by many, many delegates to block weapons to Israel. And Ken Martin, the DNC chair, is trying to replace it with some hollow, empty Biden language about like pining for the children of Gaza while doing absolutely nothing and supporting a two-state solution. So that crisis will erupt at the DNC. Like we're going to see that. We're going to see that in congressional races. Democrats are going to get primar. Hopefully there's a primary for Richie Torres and someone is running against him independently up in the Bronx. But I think he's going to be the next uh he he's going to be a victim of his own hubris and being willing to uh go out in freezing cold weather in his underwear and eat mafongo if Apac asks him to. He will literally do anything for Apac and he's going to pay the price. So, but mafongo gapilta fish mafongo. Yeah. Yeah. Kosher mafongo. But for the most part, we are under occupation, a kind of occupation and we a political occupation. And we are mostly powerless to do anything about it. And we the more and more people are burning with rage about the final solution they're witnessing in Gaza. So many just normal I meet so many normal people who are asking me what they can do. like my but my my normie friends who like I went to college with who have like would see the grrey zone as anathema are asking me like how can we get aid in like what can we do it's become a thing like who knows they might even have like a we are the world fake like Bob Geldoff concert but like there won't be any of the talent from the 80s it's going to be like what do we have now I I don't even know what contemporary music is because I'm not a massochist But uh like Bad Bunny um basically we're powerless. And so the more that we exert force to change the situation, the more we are we're going to see the nails, the Freddy Krueger-like nails of the state, which has been heavily infiltrated by the Zionist movement come out. And we did see that as uh Sabi alluded on the streets of DC where a truck displaying protected speech, a billboard. I mean, you see this all over DC. Basically, there's these guys who run these businesses where they own these billboard trucks and they rent them out to any political campaign. It'll be like stop resolution C4 and like no one even knows what it is. But this truck said, uh, you know, feed the children of Gaza. Israel is starving Gaza. The driver was arrested. The driver had their computer and all devices seized. They're under investigation. They just got out of jail last night. The whole scene was sealed off. And it was part of Trump's federal occupation of DC. It wasn't just capital police. It was ICE. And ICE is not enforcing that. They're not an immigration enforcement. They're basically a deputized thug squad of Proud Boys and Gustapo who are trying to normalize the concept of secret police in our society to crush disscent. This is just the first stage. This is the inception of something much bigger. And look at what they're targeting. At the same time, I was at the location of that billboard truck like 3 weeks ago or two weeks ago when this amazing protest that if you're in DC, you should visit. It's a encampment outside the main media offices of Fox News, uh, News Nation, C-SPAN. It's at 400 uh, North Capitol. Uh, incredible group. The people who did the encampment outside Tony Blinkin's home, Kibutz Blinkin, are doing this. I spoke at their opening event and I met a young woman who told me her ailing mother was in the car couldn't get out and she is being sued by this organization Betar this uh extreme kind of ludnik pro-settler fascistic street organization um which is more influential than they get credit for and they were supplying the faces of uh and names of students who were green card holders and visa holders to the Trump administration to grab and deport. They kind of claim credit for Mahmud Khalil. Um, but don't be modest cuz we're both on their list too, right? As people who can't go to to uh Israel. They don't want us to go to Israel. Haven't Have you seen that? They put you on their list. Betar. Oh, yeah. They they came up with a list of people who should not be allowed into Israel. I Adrien Rich and Tony Jut who uh I'm pretty sure they'll be successful in given that they're dead. So, yeah. I I couldn't I probably couldn't go anyway because of the whole Jeremy situation. So, I'll probably be going back on the back of a Chinese motorbike with uh Alcasam Brigades if I ever go back in there. I think the YouTube stream just got cut. That was a joke. I'm going to make to make aliyah. No. Um I Anyway, this woman tells me her mother is being sued by Betar because she was she was part of a um uh pro they're protesting at a city council city hall event city council event. Betar thugs and goons show up, including one particularly notorious woman who's always carrying an Israeli flag and waving it in people's faces. I actually was slapped with her flag at the inaugural peace ball while I was entering. And she claimed that this woman pulled her flag and therefore committed a hate crime. And a I believe it's a magistrate judge or a federal judge has ruled that this woman actually attacked a Jewish symbol by supposedly pulling this flag. And now we're seeing in a court has effect effectively declared that it is illegal in the United States to um to vandalize or burn or even pull on an Israeli flag while it is legal and first amendment protected speech to burn an American flag. And this perfectly encapsulates the situation we're in and the repression that is to come. So we see what's happening in the UK with Palestine Action, a group that has never committed violence, uh actually opposes violence, exists to oppose state violence, being prescribed as a terrorist organization and grandmothers and grandfathers who go out to where declare their support for Palestine action are hauled off by riot police during protests outside Westminster. That is coming across the Atlantic and Americans are not going to stand for it. If there's one thing that people hold dear in this country that does make uh us a at least better than the European fake democracies is the first amendment and Americans are just not going to stand for that. we and so we will see more and increasingly the bottom dropout of Israeli support on the right as well where all the so-called free speech warriors are being exposed as the biggest hypocrites in our country. The flag thing that you mentioned by the way reminds me of Germany which I don't think they succeeded but they were attempting to make swearing loyalty to Israel a requirement to become a German citizen. uh which was interesting because they didn't make swearing loyalty to Germany a requirement. Well, in Germany's biggest uh media conglomerate, which does all of the pro-Israel propaganda, they own Build and all the tabloids, Axel Springer Group, they make their employees sign a oath of loyalty to the special relationship with Israel and the transatlantic relationship with the US, which is code for bomb Russia and accept that the Nordstream pipeline will be bombed by Ukraine or Jake Sullivan or whoever. At least they admit that they have this special genocidal relationship, Germany and Israel. Yes, shared values. Yeah, exactly. This is true. Uh, speaking of free speech, this is a big one. I think a lot of us have been talking about this for I don't know how long, but it seems like several years. Uh, I don't know if everyone has seen this, but Benjamin Netanyahu just recently, this past week, is asking for censorship of social media and an algorithmic change uh to favor Israel. Uh so again uh Israel is having a lot of control here over US politics but he made that uh request publicly and he said it in English which from what I understand means he was speaking directly to us. I want to start to Jeremy here and then we'll go to Katie. Uh Jeremy as an investigative journalist how do you feel about the censorship? Does that make you any you know somewhat worrisome when you're reporting on certain issues in particular about Israel? I just want to talk real quick pig back on what's happening in DC. Um Trump just said that he's going to review the the visas of you know, you know, 55 million visas or something like that. And in the language at the very end, it's like we're going to check, you know, visa status, you know, did you overstay your visa, did you do X, Y, or Z, uh have you ever um provided um any vocal or any support for terrorism? And so it's like it kind of stuck that in at the end, but like we all know what that means. That means what are you saying about Israel? So it's, you know, like you think the MAGA people think that they're getting these um these, you know, mass deportations, but then you look at the fine print and they're really looking for critics of Israel. Um and I feel like that's exactly also what ICE is doing in DC because they're supposed to be looking for, you know, illegal immigrants. You know, they're looking for all these things and they're arresting the driver of a of a Palestinian uh protest vehicle. that has nothing to do with um what we thought it we were told it was about. Um but uh in terms of censorship um Julian Assange has this quote where he talks about I'm going to butcher but he essentially says um censorship is cause for celebration because it shows that the power structure is so weak that they have to think about um they have to care about what people say and think. um that like just the the fragile, you know, the thoughts or the tweets or um this that and the other, it it could affect their hold on power. So like when we see um the censorship regime is so crazy right now, it does like of course it's um unsettling, but at the same time, it just shows that they know they're losing um their their grip on the argument. And I mean, and even more so, this isn't in America, but like in in Gaza, I mean, when you have 200 and something journalists murdered, that's that's that's a form of censorship. That's, you know, censorship enforced by, you know, rocket fire. Um, so, and they know that, you know, those journalists are, you know, they're reporting what's going on in Gaza. And if you know the West or whoever sees their reporting, they're going to be exposed and they're going to lose their grip on power. So censorship is just a cause for celebration in so far as um it's proof that they they really what we're saying and what we're thinking um really it does affect them, right? I think it's important for people to understand as well is that uh when it comes to the censorship in particular about Israel, there are journalists and commentators that lost their jobs because they told the truth about what Israel was was doing and they weren't willing to capitulate to the corporate media narrative at that point in time. And and one of them was was Katie Halper. And Katie, I'd like for you to tell everybody about what happened to you uh at Rising. Yeah. So, I mean, and I should say I'm I was really really really like lucky and privileged compared to others who have lost their jobs because I had other shows that I was hosting. So, it didn't like ruin my livelihood. Um, so sorry to everyone who sent me all that money thinking it did. I'm just kidding. I didn't get any money. Hi, Putin. Um, or cutter. Um, but yeah, it was it was I was actually what's fascinating about that story, I think, is that this was at Rising at the Hill, which you know, brands itself and uh pats itself on the back for being a show that allows you to speak outside of the normal constraints of corporate media. And of course, that's true until you talk about Israel. And all I did was make a video defending Rashida Tale, who said that Israel was an aparttheid state. And it's not very hard to make the case because literally all you have to do is like quote international law, the UN, uh a bunch of Israeli leaders, uh former prime ministers and South African, uh apartheid, anti-aparttheid luminaries and activists. So I I did that. I did a monologue based on that. They shot it, they recorded it, and then I got a call that the higherups didn't want to run it. And I was like, "Oh, okay. That's interesting." And in fact, I did get a little hint because after I recorded it, Robbie Save um came in. They like called him in to say like, "Oh, and by the way, uh Apac and Israel say like they had to provide, they don't usually do that, provide like a counter to someone's monologue. Uh but I guess they were trying to cover their bases and then that wasn't base covering enough. Cover their asses really." And that wasn't ass covering enough. So they just pulled it and then I pushed back. I mean, I didn't even I wasn't even that aggressive about it. I was trying I was like, "Maybe what if you run it, but then you show something afterwards." Um because I thought it was important enough to get it out there and I wasn't being like that precious or like striden or principled about it cuz I just thought it had a lot of good information. So even if they had to have some, you know, schmuck come on afterwards to make a counter argument, it wasn't going it was fine. Like let them try. And then they were like, "Oh, oh well they, you know, we don't always um take pitches. We pass on pitches all the time, but like this isn't a pitch process. You literally write a monologue, they put it into the teleprompter, errors and all, and then you read it and they release it. Like that's the process there. So, I was like, "Okay." And then I got a an email telling me I no longer had to come back. I was no longer needed. Uh which was nice of them. And they wish me best. That was so nice. I felt really seen by that [ __ ] [ __ ] But um well, and what was funny is that like so I was a I was a regular unpaid weekly guest for like two years. Um and then I was an occasionally an occasional guest anchor and I was going to become a regular anchor and that is paid. But I thought it was interesting that they couldn't even tolerate me as an unpaid like person there. Um like we will not accept your free labor anymore. Uh that's how toxic it was to say that it was an apartheid state. And of course, you know, Briana Joy Gay was in this awkward position because she was there and she very bravely defended me and basically called them liars. She did a monologue because she was a regular host there and I know she was conflicted and she said she was conflicted. I'm not like violating her trust. She said this publicly. She was conflicted about staying and she said, you know, the Hill is saying that this was a stylistic choice. Like no one believed that for a second. I think like my biggest haters were like, "Come on, you can do better, Hill." Um, and then she said she would talk about Israel and of course what happens is that she wound up getting fired a couple years later. Um, but the cool thing is that I do want to thank uh, Democracy Now because when they reported on Briana Joy Gay's firing, they said this this comes two years after Katie Halper was fired and um, they showed my Twitter picture and my Twitter picture has me now it has me and my new dog Bucky, but at that point it had me and my parents dog Bodie. So Amy Goodman like cuts to a photo of me carrying my parents adorable dog. So thank you to thanks to the hill indirectly. They made Bodie a star. Um and I I just have to give a shout out to Lette and Tan who are here and they are dogsitting Bucky and they know about Bucky because I talk about Bucky on my show. Uh sorry that's I just have to bring in for all the dog lovers. That's the it's great. This is a greater Israel greater dog panel. But um that's uh yeah, I mean again it's such a low price though compared to people who lose their livelihood. The price I paid was so low and it's also I mean it's not even doesn't even deserve to be in the same sentence as what happens to uh journalists in Gaza uh or in Palestine ranging from you know uh Anatal Sharif to Sharin Abuakle Shin Abuak. Of course, it's useful to bring those examples up as proof that um Israel is not, shocker of all shocks, the only democracy in the Middle East. Uh they do not have the most moral army in the world. And what's fascinating is what's that woman's name? Um Bana Grina or something. She's on CNN. By Yeah. She loves She's like talks about the rape hoax all the time. Somehow she just dropped a new children's book. Have you seen that? No. Oh, this is wild. Okay, we should have first of all, she's married to Peter Orzog, who is like the guy who wrecked the economy under Obama or one of them. And she is a CNN anchor, uh, who just released a book called like it's it's something about like teaching children to be brave to stand up to anti-semitism. And it's blurbed by the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, who has said that there are no civilians in Gaza. There is no distinction. It's being promoted by Jonathan Greenblat, Israel's chief sensor in the United States. And guess who else blurbed it? Tony Blinken. No, no, no. That's No, but close. Jake Tapper. Of course. Did a Can you imagine like a Muslim in the media like Oh my god. You know, just doing anything like that and not losing their job. Yes. Right. Exactly. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. Right. How to teach your kids to stand up to Islamophobia or anti-Palestinian racism? they'd be fired in a second. But she she she blurred by someone who called for like the killing of Jews. Like that's what I Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Um right. That is a And by the way, this is like this is what they're allow this is what they're kind of doing now as children are being slaughtered in droves and starved to death. This is what they're doing is whining about the most privileged people who some of the most privileged people who've ever existed in history, Jewish Americans, and what they have to endure in their private schools. I mean, that's what they're doing. They're so delusional. It's it's so discrediting, and they need to be like just called out to their faces for being such entitled, delusional, genocidal [ __ ] faces. You're being too kind, Max. No, but so Bian Bana was a big um mass rape hoax uh cheerleader. So always talked about the uh rape being used as a weapon by Hamas. And what's so fascinating about these people is it would be one thing if they talked about that, but then also talked about the documented on video rapes of Palestinian hostages. Uh but they don't. So, it's not even like they fell for a hoax and they at least are care about sexual violence even when it happens to Palestinians. They are not falling for a hoax. They're perpetuating a lie knowingly. And then they're choosing to ignore documented rapes that the Israeli media covers. I mean on video on Yes. documented rapes on video. That is a gang. This one in particular was a gang rape that led to the hospitalization of someone. And this was not like you did not have to do a deep dive into Israeli media to cover this. This wasn't just in Harets. This was in mainstream Israeli media. It was big enough news that a member of the Knesset said it was asked rhetorically if it was legitimate to insert sticks into people's rectums. And his answer was yes. And then a rabbi responded to this by blessing one of the rapists. And we all know that there were these right to rape protests. And and then just imagine for a second, just for a second, if there were video footage of the equivalent of this done to an Israeli hostage by people from Hamas and then you had an imam sanctioning it and then you had sanctioning as a thumbs up, not so awkward that sanction can mean opposite things. Anyway, you had a a imam giving it a thumbs up. I know that's not actually what happens in Islam or any religion, but whatever the equivalent is of a, you know, blessing it. And then you had a member of Hamas saying it's legitimate to insert uh sticks into people's rectums. Like Jake Tapper and Dana Bash would be talking about it non-stop. They would like do a I don't even know. They they would shut down like all media would have like a moment of silence or something. The the Empire State Building would be way Jake Tapper would like embed with an F-35 pilot to bomb a refugee camp. Yeah, basically. Yeah, that that that would happen. and and and sorry just some a quick detail. I mean this uh happened in the state tan torture center on camera and Israel's Israel's uh right-wing grassroots basically the supporters of the Likood le government staged riots across the country in support of the soldiers who perpetrated the mass the the actual mass rape that documented on video broke into an army base like staged an insurrection. No one was arrested or punished for that and the soldiers were let go and then they were made into national heroes including the one Mayor Chhatrit. Look up Mayor Shhatrit. He's like a national hero in Israel because he violated the Palestinian prisoners rectum. This is a society and he's like a TV star, right? He like made the the rounds on TV like late night TV shows.