Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / One Leg Up With Shaiel Media on the IDF Rescue Mission and Resignation of Benny Gantz

Transcript

One Leg Up With Shaiel Media on the IDF Rescue Mission and Resignation of Benny Gantz · OneLegUpAlex Media

0:00
Here's your host, Alex Garrett. Hey everybody, I'm Alex Garrett. And
0:08
you know it's been an emotional weekend if you've been following the fact that the
0:12
idea uh, the Israeli Defense Army actually rescued four hostages from get this a
0:20
gods a journalist home. There were three hostages there and overall they rescued four.
0:27
And the journalist I trust to talk about all this is Shaiel Ben frem
0:32
Shaio Media. Welcome back to the Alex Garrett podcast Network. Thank you.
0:37
Always a pleasure to be on here with you. I want to start with
0:40
the gods of journalists. I mean, come on, the whole woe is
0:43
me that this free PALACEI movement is talking about once to neglect the fact that
0:48
even journalists are Prohamas sympathizers. That this is me off sheil, it's it's
0:53
it's very disturbing that a journalist is found to have kept three hostages. Is
0:58
that doesn't that disturb you adal journalists yourself? It disturbs me very deeply.
1:03
I wish I could say it surprises me, but it disturbs me very deeply.
1:07
Listen. Al Jazeera is a Katari government media organization where Qatar is the
1:15
lifeline for Hamas's existence. Al Jazeera is the official, I say unofficial mouthpiece
1:25
for Hamas to the entire world, legitimizing their numbers, their message. We
1:30
know that Al Jazeera members were part of October seventh, not surprised that they're
1:37
part of keeping hostages as well. They're just an integral part of the way
1:42
Hamas operates, not only how they get their message out, but also their
1:47
day to day operations. They're in there with them. This separation between the
1:51
two is kind of artificial, especially in Gaza. Well, this journalist specifically
1:55
I heard was a spokesman for the Hamas Labor Ministry. It just all sounds
2:00
very corrupt and very the terrorists are in but with the journalists. That's kind
2:04
of what the vibe I get when I read something like that. And now
2:07
the idea of one of this journalist's home is that what happened and they were
2:10
able to get three hostages out? Tell us what happened? I mean,
2:14
you have friends in the idea, but I don't know what they've been telling
2:15
you that. You know it has been told already, But tell us from
2:19
your perspective how this all went down this weekend. Yeah, so on Thursday
2:25
already Israeli military intelligence Shahbah identified the location of hostages, realized that with a
2:38
properly planned operation they could get these people out. So they very quickly built
2:47
models of these houses, took some elite units and had them train in storming
2:54
those exact buildings, so they knew what the weak spots were, they knew
2:58
where they were likely to face fire from. Then on Friday at eleven am,
3:05
when it looked like opposition wouldn't be as fierce as it might be on
3:08
other days, they brought soldiers in disguised as Arabs. If you've ever seen
3:15
fouda, that's how they often approached targets, And it was exactly like that.
3:22
Then there were drones circling the houses to wait for a moment when defenses
3:27
were low. Both targets had to be struck simultaneously, Otherwise we're talking about
3:35
a We're talking about about two hundred meters between the two houses. Both houses
3:42
inside the marketplace in a crowded refugee camp, so you had to strike both
3:52
of them. Otherwise the people in the other apartment would know and either try
3:57
to escape with the hostages or kill them hostages, so both were struck at
4:01
the same time. Nor Gamani was located on the first floor of a building.
4:08
The three guys were located on the third floor of a building. Our
4:14
Gamani was taken out easily. There was very little resistance. In fact,
4:17
she didn't hear any shots. The first thing she knew was when someone knocked
4:21
on the door and said, we're the IDF. We're here to rescue you.
4:26
It was more complicated in the other apartment. The individual, the soldier
4:31
no I should say the police commando who led the assault on the apartment,
4:38
was shot dead. There were other injuries as well, but the terrorists were
4:44
taken out before they could kill the hostages. Our Gamani was put into a
4:50
small armored vehicle that was drove into the center of the marketplace. A Hamas
4:57
terrorist was about to shoot a RPG rocket at them and was taken out in
5:00
the last second by grom so she almost was killed. She They managed to
5:09
get out though, without being fired at the other apartment because the delay was
5:14
not as fortunate. Their vehicle was shot at several times, but no one
5:18
was killed. Then the air force had to be brought in to clear a
5:23
path to them to a relatively secure location where a helicopter landed. You need
5:28
a special clearance to land a helicopter like that. That helicopter took them over
5:32
to Israel under a lot of cover, and that's when there were a lot
5:36
of casualties on the Palestinian side, because they engaged that vehicle with a lot
5:42
of firepower and the air force answered back with even more firepower. What I'm
5:48
hearing is that most of the people killed in the marketplace were combatants, not
5:53
civilians, but there were certainly civilians that were killed too. Some of the
5:56
pictures you've seen of civilian casualties are authentic, others not necessarily so. But
6:00
everyone came out safe and sound in terms of the hostages. One Israeli police
6:05
commando killed several soldiers, injured, no one too severely, and it's considered
6:12
one of the great idea of military successes of the last two decades. I
6:16
mean, it is a success to get four of them, and you know,
6:20
I don't know. Last time we talked, it seemed like they were
6:23
just dealing with Iran's assault on Israel. But have they been planning these rescue
6:30
operations, because this is the first time I've really heard of them successfully getting
6:32
hostages out. Have this been going on and not really been reported? What
6:36
you know, how successful have they been. It is one of the first
6:39
successful operations to get these hostages out. Okay, so this is the third
6:45
successful operation to get hostages out. There was one early on with Orizemagadish didn't
6:51
get too much coverage, but they got one hostage out very early on.
6:57
Then there was an operation in Rafa taking out two male hostages from an apartment,
7:04
very successful and got less profile than this, And then there was this
7:11
one with four. There have been other failed ones. The failed ones don't
7:16
get as much press coverage and some of them are censored. But there have
7:21
been attempts to rescue others and failure has either involved them being moved to another
7:28
place or in one case from what I've heard, two hostages were killed by
7:34
hamas during the attempts to release them. There's constant attempts to locate the hostages
7:42
and get them out daily basis. There's a unit in the Shahbakh and there's
7:46
a unit in the Idea who have no other job but to do that.
7:50
I don't know how often operations are actually launched I would estimate about once a
7:56
month or something like that. There's an attempt. We don't always know about
8:00
it. Now, I know Shao media has been covering all this, you
8:03
know, right to the very minute. So I want to get back to
8:05
a week ago when it once again Israel had to grovel to Amas. And
8:11
what I mean by that is I feel like Hamas is everybody by the you
8:15
know what, and that bothers me. It bothers me that Hamas has so
8:18
much say over what's going on in there, a terrorist organization, and it
8:20
does seem like Israel has to plead with them. That shouldn't be the case.
8:26
Tell me about the latest ceasefire though proposal, because Israel keeps coming to
8:31
the table right and Hamas keeps rejecting them as well. Yeah, so you're
8:37
you're right to be bothered because a lot of people are getting the wrong idea
8:41
of what's going on in the battlefield. They hear from the Israeli government and
8:46
from social media voices that are, you know, touting the government line that
8:52
is doing well. So those of us who are Zionists abroad especially have a
9:00
bit of a warped idea of what's happening. In the war, and in
9:03
reality, the war is not going particularly well for Israel, and that's why
9:07
right now the terms of negotiation are not particularly good for Israel, because as
9:15
much as Israel has succeeded in terms of taking over parts of Gaza and killing
9:20
a lot of terrorists, they haven't been able to achieve the major goals,
9:24
which are replacing and destroying Hamas, freeing the hostages, the seven hostages who
9:30
have been freed, accepted killing Sinhwar And the real thing that's been hurting Israel
9:35
more than anything else is the deterioration of its international standing, the suits in
9:41
the ICJ, the arrest warrants in the ICC countries, cutting off trade crises
9:48
with the United States, so on and so forth. Hamas isn't growing that
9:54
very much and waiting to see how badly Israel is damaged. Israel knows right
9:58
now that it doesn't have a chance to win anytime soon, and its international
10:03
standing keeps getting worse and worse. So that's why it's willing to come a
10:09
lot closer to the Hamas position than anyone thought. And Nataniel has been hiding
10:15
that and even pretended that the offer that he made was an offer made by
10:20
Biden, but that's not the case. The Israeli position right now is very
10:24
weak. Two things have made a little bit stronger in the last few days,
10:28
this rescue taking over the Philadelphia Corridor. Those are good developments. That
10:33
still doesn't make up for the other things that I talked about. Right now,
10:37
Hamas has the upper hand because it just doesn't appear clear how Israel can
10:43
win anytime soon without damaging its international standing even further. You know, I
10:48
want to say the hostages Yon being Israeli are Jewish, and am I wrong
10:54
to say that anybody who defends these kidnappings is anti Semitic. I feel like
11:00
they are. If they're defending the kiddemping of Jewish people, that's anti Semitic
11:03
at its core, and I'm not afraid to say that on this podcast or
11:05
on my social media. At this point, I'm getting fed up. Shah
11:09
Yah Yeah, yeah, no, I agree with you. I think anyone
11:13
who's supporting Hamas and their act of terrorism and violations of human rights intentional ones
11:22
unlike Israel where it sometimes does it unintentionally or not as a matter of policy,
11:28
but because they're committed against Jews, is being without a doubt anti semitic.
11:31
They're supporting terrorism, they're being anti Semitic. I don't think that if
11:35
any an organization was doing this to civilians anywhere else in the world, people
11:41
would be going around justifying it like this. You know, you didn't see
11:43
a lot of people going around justifying Boco Haram snatching a bunch of girls in
11:50
Nigeria, and this is pretty similar. All right. There are two other
11:54
facets that I think are are kind of working in tandem, though not intentionally,
11:58
the college campuses the UN are also variantly promoting anti Semitism by letting all
12:05
of this play out on their campuses and within the UN walls. I don't
12:09
understand why, especially the United Nations does not have Israel's back even during this.
12:15
It just ticks me off. And by the way, I lived across
12:18
the street than the UN for about the first ten years of my life,
12:20
So seeing that building now I see it in a different light. And believe
12:24
me, you're you're a New Yorker. Yeah, so, well, those
12:33
are two very different things the UN. We forget sometimes that the UN doesn't
12:39
really exist on its own. It's more the weight of international public opinion than
12:48
it is the United Nations and in the United Nations, countries have made various
12:56
deals to help each other try to achieve certain certain goals, and the Muslim
13:05
countries, the Arab countries have come to deals with other developing world countries to
13:13
demonize Israel in exchange for alliances on other issues. This is a problem that
13:20
Israel has had for decades. It's nothing new. It's actually unrelated to this
13:24
conflict. The conflict gives them more ammunition, but the problem is unrelated.
13:28
This has been happening for decades, regardless of what Israel does. Campuses are
13:33
different. It's a deterioration there that we never had before. It's true that
13:39
there's always been anti Israel activists on campuses in the United States, but it's
13:43
never been anything like this. In fact, there's never been political activism on
13:48
any campus like this since the protests against Vietnam, at least that I'm aware
13:54
of. I think in the nineteen eighties it was anti nuclear protests. I
13:56
don't think they reached this level. And this didn't just happen in a vacuum
14:05
for many years. Tatar and again we get to Katar, Saudi Arabia,
14:09
other countries have contributed vast amounts of money to the elite universities in the United
14:15
States, not coincidentally, the universities where we've had most of these problems.
14:18
We haven't had most of these problems in you know, state colleges and community
14:22
colleges. We have them in the elite universities, the ones where Tata and
14:26
Saudi were abdy to have spent a ton of money, and they've promoted classes
14:33
that demonize Israel and link it to a sort of philosophy of oppression that the
14:43
American left and the universities were already teaching very successfully. And I think that
14:50
along with the activity of foreign agents and troublemakers, perhaps hired by foreign governments
14:58
with knowingly or unknowingly, have created these protests. These aren't organic. There's
15:05
a lot of kids who are going along with it because it's the cool thing
15:07
to do, but it didn't become the cool thing to do organically. There
15:09
are a lot of people who are doing this intentionally. Well, let me
15:13
ask you this, because you're in UCA, You're you're on the coast in
15:16
La so I'm sure you cover you saw it was going on UCLA. I
15:20
mean, they wouldn't even allow Jewish students to uh pass basically checkpoints. That's
15:26
that was that was the most hurtful, really thing to see and upsetting thing
15:33
to see. Just like here in Colombia, they wouldn't even allow Jewish students
15:37
to come back to campus. They were so letting the pro Palestine and Promace
15:41
movement run their campus. It's very disturbing. Do you hope, Chayelle,
15:46
that these campuses face backlash we mean, allow no donors anymore, or loss
15:50
of donors, loss of funding. Do you hope that happens? I mean
15:56
yes, but not in order to destroy these universities in order to change their
16:03
priorities. I think that there's a lot of people who are against say that
16:07
they're against these protests and say that they're pro Israel, but their real intention
16:12
is to sabotage and hurt the university, something that they've been wanting to do
16:15
for a very long time because they're woke or whatever. And we have a
16:19
danger here turning against these universities, wanting to defund these universities, et cetera,
16:26
which a is not something you do in a democracy and b America.
16:30
One of the reasons America is so powerful and so great is because we have
16:34
these wonderful institutions. You know, Yale and Harvard and Columbia, UCLA,
16:38
Berkeley, et cetera. Are wonderful universities. They're some of the best universities
16:42
in the world. We don't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
16:45
We want maybe to cut funding for a while in this way or that
16:48
way so that they do better. But we want them to remain strong,
16:53
powerful universities and teach values that are good for America and good for our society.
16:59
Not teach them to hate America, not teach them to hate Israel,
17:02
not teach them anti Semitism, not teach them to support terrorism, but continue
17:06
to teach all the wonderful the things they do, you know, when it
17:08
comes to science and history, maybe not in them at least right now,
17:12
philosophy and so on and so forth. So they have to be very careful
17:15
what we're asking for here. We want them to crack down on this activity,
17:19
but we don't want them to lose what makes them great universities. And
17:23
maybe fire professors along the way they're spouting all of this stuff in the classroom,
17:29
and terrorist professors absolutely, And you know, I've been talking to some
17:33
people, a lot of people starting a homeschool their kid, even at the
17:37
high school elementary level, because they're worried it's all trickling down. And I
17:41
guess it is right. So this is a wide reform that has to happen,
17:45
not just at the college level. Yes, we have a serious problem
17:52
here that starts at very low, low grades in many schools. I saw
17:56
that in Portland they're trying to teach kids in kiddergarden about Palestine and and and
18:03
all this stuff. We need to we need to get this stopped. And
18:08
it's not just about Israel. Hatred of Israel has to do directly with hatred
18:15
of the United States. When you're taught that the United States is an evil
18:18
country, a colonial settler, colonialist country that's built on genocide and built on
18:23
Jim Crow and slavery and all these things, and its foreign policies evil,
18:29
you start to hate your own country. You start to hate other democracies,
18:33
you start to support America's enemies. This is something that the United States really
18:37
needs to deal with. It's it's going to end up weakening us, and
18:42
it's also going to end up spurring fascisms. People don't want their kids to
18:45
be like this, it's a very dangerous thing. It far transcends Israel absolutely,
18:52
and that's that's why I say, beyond being Israeli, these are Jewish
18:56
lives we're talking about. That's that's really at the heart of it. And
18:59
and and why this is such a heated issue beyond the state of Israel,
19:03
the people of Israel, Right, that's what we're talking about here. I
19:06
would say the soul of the soul of America is at state. I would
19:10
say it's more than Jesus, Yes, yes, with the whole on the
19:15
whole. It's it's like where one it feels like we're on the doorstep of
19:21
it completely ruining the fabric of the country and we can't have that. Uh.
19:25
Now, elections, will they determine this. Everybody's saying it's the biggest
19:29
election ever. And I know last time we talked to you were very pro
19:32
Biden. Has that changed it all in the way he's reacted to all of
19:34
this or is it still kind of Do you feel like he's doing a decent
19:38
job at all of this handling of Israel and and the and the conflict and
19:41
even what's going on in the college campus. Personally, I don't, but
19:45
I want to hear your thoughts on it. Yeah, I think we all
19:48
wish Biden was doing more, but he's He's doing a lot in terms of
19:57
he had a task force to deal with anti Semitism. He had a task
20:02
force to deal with this. He supported Israel with weapons, He's provided veto
20:07
power, He's negotiating a ceasefire, he sent carriers to deter Iran. He
20:15
just gave intelligence that helped with these rescues. The Biden reministration is doing a
20:21
hell of a lot for Israel and for American Jews, and most importantly,
20:27
really it's what's standing between us and what I believe is the Trump administration that
20:33
would be a threat to the very fiber of our democracy and our society.
20:40
So I don't think that the Biden inistration is doing anything particularly wrong. So
20:44
I wish he was doing some things differently, absolutely, but the alternative is
20:48
absolutely horrifying. And for Jews, it will not be better if we're under
20:55
the dark authoritarian man with criminal tend to sees who I don't think harbors us
21:03
any good intentions at all. Well, I know he's criticized Netanya, who
21:07
I mean, I remember last year he actually complimented Hesbela and the terrorists over
21:11
net Ya, which just blew my mind. Did Trump you remember that,
21:15
Chail? I absolutely do remember that. And I also have noticed that he
21:21
keeps saying very bad things about liberal Jews, that they're not real Jews,
21:26
they don't support Israel, they hate themselves. He's trying to divide us.
21:32
I also hear a lot about how he admires Hitler. I am not a
21:38
fan, and I think that now that the American right is becoming more anti
21:45
Semitic and more anti Israel, they're linging up with the extreme left, Trump
21:49
is going to be tempted to be less pro Israel. He's already not particularly
21:56
pro Jewish in terms of Jews that don't slavishly follow his policies. And I
22:00
just think that even if none of that was true, he would turn America
22:06
to a dark, authoritarian direction that's never been good for juice. We're better
22:11
off under middle of the road liberal democracy than anything authoritarian. Our history shows
22:17
that over and over again. So you don't see a hope for the Abraham
22:21
Accords to happen again? Right? Is that what I'm hearing? Because I
22:23
loved what he did with the Abraham Accords kind of united the Middle least at
22:27
that point, didn't it. I think the Abraham Accords are vastly overrated.
22:33
In fact, I would say the Abraham Accords have failed. I'm not going
22:37
to lie and pretend that I was against them at the time. I wasn't.
22:40
I was for them. Everyone was for them. In retrospect, they
22:45
were a real problem. Not because they pursued better relations between Israel and the
22:49
Gulf States, that's great, but because they bypassed the Palestinians. There was
22:55
a Trump plan for the Palestinians, but it wasn't serious. It wasn't a
22:59
go with any actual Palestinian leadership. Instead, a plan was offered where Israel
23:06
didn't have to do anything, was going to continue to build settlements, and
23:11
it made Palestinians feel like pursuing anything diplomatic was pointless. That there was no
23:17
one to talk to. The United States is completely on Israel's side. Israel
23:22
has no intention of talking to them and creating a state. Ever, the
23:23
Palestinian authority is unable to achieve anything through diplomacy, and that really played into
23:30
Hamas's hands. And one of the things that happens in international relations is that
23:37
when a country or a group feels ignored by the political process, they will
23:41
often go to violence in order to get people's attention to their plight and regain
23:48
their seat at the table. And that is what the Palestinians have done in
23:53
the most horrifying way possible. They've done this before in the first thing to
23:57
Fado, when they felt that the plos be marginalized. It was kind of
24:00
predictable in a way, and without the Abraham Accords and without the Trump Plan
24:07
may not have happened. The best way to have avoided what happened, this
24:10
is an un popular view, would have been to be talking through the Palestines
24:14
and the Palestine authority for the last few years and trying to resolve this directly
24:19
and with Arab states. You can hear a lot of this on Chielle's latest
24:25
podcast, I know he posts a lot. He said his newest show has
24:27
how at Israel Rescue with the hostage and that what it means for the war
24:32
and talks. I'm sure you cover some of us in these different podcasts you
24:36
do and whatnot vlogs for child media on Patreo. Now the debate's coming up,
24:41
but I'm glad to have you before the debate because I feel like the
24:45
verdict and Israel might be the two big talking points that both try to cover
24:48
here. Right, So what's your advice, you know, for either of
24:52
them when they talk about these different issues, because they're both to me of
24:56
equal points, maybe not not too many, but to me, they're both
25:00
equally important how they're talked about the debate? Right? What was your question
25:03
again? I kind of missed this something there. What's equally important? So
25:07
I would say the verdicts that came down in Manhattan and then of course what
25:11
happened in Israel might be one of two of the biggest talking points that hopefully
25:17
get covered the debate. Are you hoping to see those two get equal time
25:21
or do you think the verdicts are going to dominate every part of that debate?
25:23
What are you thinking there? Well? Do I think Israel is going
25:26
to be in the debate? Is that what you're asking? Yes? Or
25:29
be a prominent part of it. I feel like it should be, but
25:30
maybe it won't be. What are your thoughts it will be? It will
25:34
be normally in American elections when there's so much on the line and there's so
25:41
much drama regarding well, this is a normal election to begin with, you
25:45
know, these trials and all that. You would think that Israel would get
25:48
no attention. But because the war has been so prominent and the demonstrations have
25:55
been so prominent, they're probably the number one foreign policy issue right now.
26:00
I would say they overtook Ukraine because of the domestic rip percussions and all the
26:04
demonstrations and so on and so forth. And everyone is very curious what Trump
26:10
is gonna say. We know what Biden's gonna say about the war. We
26:12
hear him all day long talking about the work. We're not really sure what
26:15
Trump is gonna say. He he says different things depending on his mood,
26:19
and that will be asked for sure, more than one question. I think
26:25
we're gonna hear questions about the war itself, and we're gonna hear questions about
26:29
the demonstrators. And I what were your advice to be to both candidates when
26:33
dealing with us? Obviously trum gang go up there and criticize American Jews.
26:37
That's just not gonna work, right, So he's got to find a different
26:38
approach. Trump's job is really easy. I don't know if he's going to
26:44
do what he needs to do for me from his perspective, but it's very
26:47
easy. He needs to focus on the demonstrations. The demonstrations look really bad
26:52
for Biden. They make the Left look bad, they make immigration look bad.
26:57
They played to all his strengths. He sometimes waivers and doesn't do what's
27:03
best for himself politically, but I think on this his instincts will serve him
27:07
right. He will focus on how these are demonstrators, they're Biden's demonstrators.
27:15
Some of them are immigrants, They support terrorism, Biden's you know, lawmakers
27:22
like AOC and Tlabbar support them. You know, link it to Biden,
27:26
link it to immigration, link it to terrorism, link it to the Democrats
27:30
being weak on crime and all that kind of thing that placed his strengths.
27:36
Now, when you say that you personally believe that. Also, do you
27:37
feel like that's all linked and they going against Biden here in twenty twenty four
27:42
do you personally feel that also? I don't feel like any of this is
27:47
because Biden's doing anything wrang but that doesn't change anything. If there's a sense
27:52
of chaos from the left, that is good for the Right's that's just how
27:56
things work. That's what happened. In nineteen sixty eight. When Ubert Humphrey
28:02
ran against Nixon, there were demonstrations anti war demonstrations. They were against Hubert
28:07
Humphrey, who was the Democratic candidate, but they were still linked to him.
28:11
And Nixon ran on a ticket of law and order. And if there's
28:15
anything that Trump learned from that campaign, he often talks about law and order.
28:19
He remembers what Nixon did, he remembers how Nixon won. He's going
28:23
to pannel that and it's going to work. I'm not saying it don't necessarily
28:26
mean he'll win the elections, but it's a winning topic for him. It's
28:30
a losing topic for Biden. Brighten doesn't really have a strong leg to stand
28:36
on here because he will criticize the demonstrators, but he can't go after demonstrators
28:41
too much because some of his base agrees with them. So he's got a
28:45
real problem. And Trump can easily go against them because everyone in his base
28:52
is against them. The war's a bit more complicated for Trump. I think
28:56
he has a lot of supporters now who don't like Israel. I think a
28:57
lot of people on the MAGA side have kind of flipped, but not enough
29:02
for him to just turn against Israel. So there, he's probably gonna say
29:06
some garbled things about being pro Israel, but his focus, if he's smart,
29:11
will be on the demonstrators and I think he'll be asked about it,
29:15
and I think he's going to hit a home run with that one. That
29:18
might be some of his strongest performances in the debate. That's my prediction.
29:22
Well, we'll have to see now that as far as leadership goes. Right
29:26
now, we saw a college in because there was an emergency meeting today and
29:30
Betty Gantz, one of the big real advisors to NETNA, who has resigned.
29:36
You don't think the US played a role in that, right, that's
29:37
just their internal compl going on. Or did we play a role in something
29:41
like that? The US played a role in that. Yeah, they definitely
29:48
did play a role in that, but not the deciding one. I think
29:53
that what the United States wanted to do when they revealed the Israeli offer of
30:00
May twenty nine to Hamas, what they wanted to do was to keep guns
30:04
in the government. They don't want to remove guns from the government because they
30:10
know for those who may not be familiar with what he's been doing for Man
30:12
Yahoo, Danny Gunz Is the head, was the head of the biggest opposition
30:18
party. When October seventh happened, then there was a major call in Israel
30:25
for all the parties to go into an emergency unity government. He agreed.
30:30
Yeh Lapede, the other big head of the opposition, did not dance,
30:33
went in, didn't get any portfolios, so he's a minister without portfolio.
30:37
But what he did get was an appointment to the war cabinet, and he
30:41
became, along with Yov Gallan, to Defense Minister and Benjaminathaniel the Prime Minister,
30:48
one of the three major people shaping this war. So him leaving and
30:52
the most moderate voice among them, so sorry. Him leaving means that the
31:00
moderate side of the government loses a lot of power and the extreme right wing
31:06
side of the government gains a lot of power. And up until now,
31:10
the two more extreme right wing voices in the government, Betalo Smotrige and Itamar
31:15
ben Vere, have had a sort of a veto power in the government.
31:19
But now they'll have a lot more of a shaping power in the government.
31:23
And that's important and just as important as the fact that they're going to have
31:26
a shaping power is how much damage this will do to merit to Israel's standing
31:32
in the world. Because benverin smote, which are radioactive, the world has
31:37
identified them as bad actors, and the more power they have, the easier
31:41
it is to demonize Israel, put sanctions on it, make it pay costs
31:45
internationally. Benny Guns was a fig leaf, not a particularly effective one,
31:51
but a fig leaf on this government. And now the government stands naked in
31:53
front of the world as an extreme right wing one, and that's going to
31:56
have some serious repercussions. If I'm wrong, didn't he beat Natanello a couple
32:00
of elections ago or am I thinking of someone else? You're thinking of someone
32:05
else? Yeah, you're Lapede and Natalie Bennett. Bennett is currently out of
32:10
politics. He'll be coming back. Yeah, you're Lapede is running another party
32:14
a little bit smaller, beat him together and formed a coalition government for a
32:19
year and a half that was more moderate and in my opinion, a much
32:22
better government, but it fell. Part the reason that it fell was because
32:27
it relied heavily on Arab votes and a lot of Israeli voters didn't like that,
32:31
and that led to Nathaniel regaining power. And we both talk about this.
32:37
We don't know if is going to survive the next election. I personally
32:39
don't think he will, right, it just seems like he won't. Well,
32:44
one thing I've learned in life is to never write off Benjamin Nathanielle I've
32:50
often made that mistake in the path. Oh, he has no chance,
32:52
He's done now, he tells, no, never write that guy off.
32:58
He's doing a little bit better in the polls than he was before, and
33:00
if it's up to him, he will wait until he's doing a lot better
33:07
before calling elections. Wow. Yeah, so he's smarter than everyone else.
33:15
He knows the system better than everyone else, and he may be able to,
33:20
one way or another survive. I wouldn't put it past him. Well,
33:25
I want to look at the US Congress, because we just mentioned a
33:29
little while ago the I see the you know, International Criminal Court, and
33:32
I believe that the House is going to sanction the ICC. Uh did that
33:37
surprise that they came out to sanction them? I mean that's uh. I
33:42
know it's a right right leaning house now, but to go in the foreign
33:45
affairs like that. What were your thoughts on that, Well, I wasn't
33:50
surprised. It's uh, it's an attempt to out maneuver Biden and show that
33:55
he's weak on Israel and kind of divide the Democratic Party, get some get
34:02
the pro Israel Democrats to vote with it, get the anti Israel Democrats to
34:07
be outraged embarrassed Biden by showing that he's not willing to do everything possible to
34:13
support Israel. So you know, they're looking for weakness on the on in
34:21
Biden's administration and they found it. If they pass this puts pressure on the
34:24
Democrats to pass it in the Senate too. Biden doesn't want that, so
34:29
he needs to if he's gonna stop it, it's gonna make him look bad
34:32
before Jewish voters. They're trying to get Jewish voters and other pro Israel moderate
34:37
voters to jump ship and support Trump, so it serves their interests. Sanctioning
34:45
the ICC in terms of actual policy is meaningless. The United States is not
34:51
part of the ICC, so it doesn't fund the ic C in any way,
34:55
so it's it's symbolic. What it shows is the United States is against
35:01
a major institution that even though Israel has a lot of problems with how that
35:06
institution is being run. Is an institution that's meant to preserve international law and
35:09
prevent genocide. So Biden doesn't want to be sanctioning this organization. He thinks
35:15
it's enough that the US isn't isn't part of it. Yeah, so this
35:21
is all politics. It's fairly meaningless. Biden doesn't want to do it because
35:25
it jeopardizes his relations with some of his allies who are very heavily invested in
35:30
the ICC, countries like Germany and France and Spain and countries like that.
35:35
He doesn't want to start an entire front with them in order to make a
35:38
symbolic point to defend Israel. That's what it's about. Intriguing. Well,
35:45
I have to look more into that now. As we're talking. You just
35:49
mentioned Germany, France, and of course this week was D Day and a
35:52
little bit off of off topic, although I guess on topic because you know,
35:58
D Day helped eliminate that global at the Semitism known as Germany. Any
36:04
thoughts on the eightieth anniversary of D Day as we just passed it this week,
36:08
Yes, Well, you know, I think anyone who loves the values
36:14
that America stands for and the values that democracy stands for. Looks at that
36:19
generation, the generation that defended all these values, that was willing to leave
36:24
its leave their lives, and you know, American farmsteads and small towns throughout
36:30
the country in order to liberate Europe. And then look at how little Americans
36:36
are willing to do today in order to defend democracy. And it's incredibly depressing.
36:42
It feels like we're in a generation where people will say, yeah,
36:45
you know, I kind of value democracy, but we have some inflation,
36:49
so maybe I'll vote against democracy, or yeah, I kind of value democracy,
36:53
but I don't want to be taxed higher, so I'm not going to
36:55
want to send money to the Ukraine to fight Russia. No one's willing to
37:00
bear any sacrifice today for their values. And because a lot of people don't
37:06
believe in the United States, don't believe in democracy, don't believe in our
37:08
institutions anymore, they don't believe it's worth paying any price to defend and our
37:15
enemies are willing, and by our enemies, I mean ron China, Russia
37:20
are willing to pay a lot of prices to promote their values. And undermine
37:23
us, and if we're not willing to fight back, we're going to end
37:28
up losing our democracy, losing everything that's dear to us. And by the
37:30
time we realize the mistake we have made, it will be too late.
37:36
And you know, Colin Powell once gave a speech about D Day, and
37:40
he said that the United States, the only thing they asked for in exchange
37:46
for the sacrifices that they made, the only land that they asked for were
37:51
the cemeteries in order to bury the American dead. It was the generation that
37:55
was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for democracy. And I will wish we
38:00
hadn't lost that, oh man. And and to hear some of these guys
38:04
one hundred plus years old still defending democracy and what they fought for us pretty
38:08
inspiring, isn't it. They're they're better people than us, my friends,
38:13
they just are all right. While you're in California, I gotta ask this
38:17
because my not conspiracy side of the brain, if you will, But my
38:22
thought was, I mean, Gavin Newsom's still out there in California governing,
38:27
but I feel like he wants a more national platform to maybe take the White
38:30
House one day are you seeing that in his behavior? Yeah, Gavin Newsom
38:36
decided long ago that he's going to be president and and and wants to be.
38:40
I don't I don't see it. I think that the days of a
38:45
sort of kind of smartmy privileged white boy like Newsom taking the White House for
38:52
the Democrats are gone. The coalition now is too too fractious to dent city
39:00
politics oriented. I think that his appeal, which would have been great in
39:06
the nineteen eighties, is just not that relevant anymore. It may be enough
39:09
to win California, but on the national stage, I just don't think he
39:15
has the right image. And I also don't think his achievements in California are
39:22
particularly impressive. I mean, I live here and things are going you mean
39:25
wearing not wearing a mask while everybody telling you to wear well, while telling
39:30
anybody else to wear a mask. That's not electable. I didn't know that
39:32
show up. Yeah. Yeah, but but you know, California has had
39:38
some real issues with more than that, with its budgeting, with its education
39:44
system, with the homeless, corruption, there's just there's It just doesn't feel
39:52
like also election too, which is also a big black mark. I didn't
40:00
even went to recall. Right, that's kind of a black mark on his
40:01
record if you think about it. Well, it's not that hard to have
40:07
a recall here, and people organize recalls in order to be submerge politicians often
40:13
when they're powerful and popular. So I don't know if anyone takes that all
40:17
that seriously, and I don't think it's an indication that Newsom is deeply unpopular.
40:22
I think, you know, if they ran today, probably win again.
40:25
But he hasn't done enough of a good job, and he doesn't have
40:30
the right profile to move to the national stage. So I could sort of
40:34
see Newsom becoming, you know, the next peat Buddhajidge and having a seat
40:37
at the table uh in the government as a cabinet cabinet secretary or something like
40:44
that. But President, I think that's a step too far for him.
40:47
Well, we'll have to see. I'm so glad we got a chance to
40:51
catch up, Sail, and you know, he talk so proudly of America.
40:54
I have to ask where your family growing up Blue dog Democrats are very
40:59
involved. Did they help in still these values in you? I gotta ask,
41:02
Yeah, Well, I grew up in Israel. I didn't even grow
41:05
up here, but both my parents are American. My mother is from Queen's
41:09
my father is from Brooklyn. They both were moderate Democrats. Yeah they were,
41:16
I guess they were blue dog Democrats before that concept existed. They voted
41:20
for Reagan, but then they voted for Clinton, voted for Gore, both
41:25
pay Trump. So yeah, I got those values from them. And I'm
41:32
an American citizen. I vote in the elections here. I'm also an Israeli
41:37
citizen. I vote in the elections there. I take both of my nationalities
41:40
very seriously. I'm very patriotic, and I feel that both the countries that
41:46
I am a citizen of are horses for good in the world. But we
41:50
can't be complacent about that, and we have to make sure that they continue
41:52
to be forces for good in the world and that they continue to be democratic.
41:57
So I feel very passionate, not only about patriotism, but about the
42:00
right kind of patriotism, a patriotism that makes your country better so it could
42:04
contribute to the world around you. And yeah, I absolutely got those values
42:07
from my parents and the rest of my family. Well, I'm a Queen's
42:12
guy myself, living actually Curly and Queens. As we talk so there's that
42:15
connect. Are you a mes family. I'm actually mar of a Yankee fan,
42:20
believe it or not, that happens. Well, Shaio, it's been
42:23
always a pleasure to catch up with. Do you follow him at Shaio Media?
42:27
And you also run a podcast. How's your podcast been going? Before
42:30
I let you go? My podcast is called History of the Land of Israel,
42:35
and there I do trace the entire history of Israel from the dawn of
42:38
time, so literally the Big Bang until I'm planning to get to today.
42:43
Right now, I'm at King David, so yeah, join me for that
42:47
that journey. I hope to be doing that for many many more years.
42:52
And I have shale beIN Afrime Explains Israel. That's my YouTube channel. And
42:57
follow me on Twitter too, Sorry as you mean there all right? Shio
43:00
That is at shio Ben on Instagram and Twitter as well. Find him there
43:06
Shall thanks so much, and then come on back anytime you invite me.
43:10
I'm here. Always a pleasure. Keep doing what you're doing, Alex,
43:14
Thank you, God bless you and be well. We'll keep in touch you
43:16
too. Talk to