Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / One Leg Up on Ways Israel Defended Against Iran ft. Shaiel Media 4-13-24

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One Leg Up on Ways Israel Defended Against Iran ft. Shaiel Media 4-13-24 · OneLegUpAlex Media

0:05
Here's your host, Alex Darren. Well. I just tweeted just a few
0:14
minutes ago Schielle been a frem on Twitter because he's actually on the ground of
0:21
sorts, with sources in the idef as. What we're seeing on our television
0:24
screens is so very real, isn't it. Thanks for joining me tonight.
0:29
Sure, let me clarify. I'm in La, so not really on the
0:32
ground, but yeah, I am talking to people on the ground. Yeah,
0:36
pleasure to be here. Thank you for joining me on short notice.
0:39
And what we've been seeing on our television screens is just it's horrifying. I
0:44
mean, Israel is under attack and when will I would start with this,
0:48
when with the left wing media, when with that side of the media just
0:52
say that, they're not saying that right now? I feel yeah, Well,
0:57
you know, it's it's so hard to figure out where these chain of
1:03
events started. Everyone is starting it at a different point based on where that
1:07
what they're comfortable with, you know. So a lot of it's really are
1:10
like, Ohwa's was under attack, and then people who are against Israel are
1:14
saying, yeah, but Israel attacked those Iranian generals in the compound of the
1:19
consulate in Damascus, and then Israeli supporters say, yeah, but they were
1:25
there supporting Hasbola, which has been attacking Israel for months, And then you
1:29
could go back in time. For I was going to say, the Mascus
1:32
thing is is sort of a non sequitor considering the fact that they did attack
1:36
you know, military members of Iran. Why is that a bad thing?
1:40
Why is that a bad thing for Israel to do? You know, I
1:42
don't understand that. Well, technically, Israel broke international law because they were
1:47
in a compound of the consulate, which is inviolate in accordance with the Vienna
1:53
Convention, et cetera, et cetera. Israel feels that Iran has gone so
1:59
far are in violating international law, that it is justified and doing this sort
2:04
of thing. And also there's a long history that Ron has a targeting embassies,
2:07
you know, from the American embassy during the revolution to the Israeli embassy
2:13
in Buenos Airis and many other embassies too. I actually went over a list.
2:16
There's at least twenty events of Iran attacking embassies. So Iel feels like
2:21
it's hypocrisy for Iran to hide behind vi Enna Convention. Which they've been flouting
2:25
for decades. Yeah, whether the way you think that's justified or not is
2:30
a question. But that's that's these rather positions. Wholl I was being a
2:32
little rhetorical because I don't think it's a bad thing to attack, you know,
2:36
Iranian generals. I really don't, especially in the time when Hamas is
2:39
still Now there's reports that the hostages might be dead. I mean, I
2:43
don't know if you could tell something about that, But look, Iran funding
2:47
all of this, and why shouldn't they be attacked. That's how I feel
2:51
about it. They should be. I mean, Marley speaking, it's not
2:53
even a question letter of the law. You know, it's a little bit
2:57
different. That's why people were concerned about it, or feigning concern about it.
3:01
Yeah, I mean as far as killing those people, I'm delighted that
3:06
any Iranians who are involved in organizing terrorism in the area are killed. Is
3:10
that the question of are the repercussions worth it or not? Right now,
3:14
we don't really know. I understand why they did it. They had information
3:17
on top officials at the same time at the same place that doesn't often occur.
3:23
One of the reasons they were so Brazens because they thought well As were
3:27
willing to attack on diplomatic grounds. So yeah, I think it is a
3:30
good thing, but it's gone troversial for various reasons. That's what I'm saying.
3:35
We can go all the way back to October seventh and say that this
3:38
has been you know, Israel has been defending their homeland, you know,
3:43
in many ways. But i want to ask you about the IDEF because I'm
3:46
still kind of puzzled how the Idea did not act when they knew Homaster was
3:50
going to attack, and yet here they're super I mean, they were shooting
3:53
down drones and everything. What's the difference between the two scenarios here. Well,
3:59
the different is that Israel knew one was coming and didn't know the other
4:02
was coming. You know, it's really that that simple Hamas had, through
4:10
various means, lulled Israel into a false sense of security. They acted as
4:15
if they don't want an escalation for many years. They helped Israel for many
4:19
years against Islamic jihad and lowering the flames with them playing a kind of game
4:26
of divide and conquer. There. They had exercises similar to that before that
4:31
didn't go anywhere in order to make Israel think that the movement of troops means
4:35
nothing, not that this similar from what happened in nineteen seventy three. They
4:40
had threded out the various collaborators that Israel had in Hamas and managed to kill
4:46
them or and Sinwar was surrounded by ow by people that he trusted when he
4:50
made the order. It was very much on a need to know basis that
4:54
there's a lot of a lot of issues here, and at the core of
4:57
it was the what people call the concept from the Israeli conception that Hamas wasn't
5:01
strong enough to cause this much damage. Now we look back like, oh,
5:05
how could they not know? But the truth is, if you ask
5:08
me on October sixth, or just about any other person who's following this,
5:11
could Hamas pull off an attack that would close that much damage to Israel,
5:15
we would have said no, we had no idea that Hamas was capable of
5:18
doing this. I think to some extent they were surprised that they're at their
5:24
effectiveness. And the reason is the Israelian military was not set up to deal
5:27
with this specific threat. I thought it was minor and the threat of droans
5:32
and missiles and rockets coming in from Iran is something that Israel has prepared for
5:35
in a massive way. It has all these systems set up just for that,
5:40
and in addition, it had several days of advance warning. So there
5:44
you go. Well, I retweated you because you have some insight on the
5:46
ground. Tell us Eli, you're in Hollywood, tell us what you're hearing
5:50
from ide up And how are you able to communicate with them at a time
5:53
where they're in high pressure situation right now to stop these drones and missiles.
5:58
Well, I'm not talking to anyone who's operating the systems, right I used
6:00
to work in intelligence. I know people who are in intelligence right now.
6:03
They're just waiting to see what happens. And yeah, so they were fairly
6:11
confident going into this. I had I put up a YouTube about this yesterday
6:15
that if anything is shot at Israel, they can handle it. But having
6:19
confidence theoretically and actually seeing it happen is different. So they held Everyone held
6:25
their breath for a few hours. I got a text from a friend in
6:28
the army when they were launched. Everyone heard about it like ten fifteen minutes
6:32
later, and they held their breath to see if all the preparations that they'd
6:36
made had worked, and they had they had the systems worked, that didn't
6:41
surprise them all that much. What really surprised my contacts is how much cooperation
6:46
and how effective the cooperation was from Israel's allies, So the United States,
6:51
but also Jordan, United Arab Emirates, other countries as well, Saudi Arabia
6:59
have help with this and as a result, a strike of at least two
7:04
hundred drones and missiles seems to have caused only a little bit of property damage,
7:10
which is amazing to my view. I say, keep praying for Israel,
7:15
because that's the results we want to keep having for Israel. Now you
7:19
have a whole YouTube channel, a whole podcast about the history of Israel.
7:26
Tell us how this is from a historical perspective as well. Why maybe for
7:30
those who don't want to believe why the homeland of Israel is so important,
7:33
tell us about it from your perspective. Oh, that's a wide question.
7:40
Well, I think from a historical perspective, it's nice to remember that we're
7:45
talking about two actors now, the Persians and the you know, Israelites that
7:49
have been in the Middle East and cooperated and thought in the past. For
7:56
the last three thousand plus years, there has been They both have deep roots
8:05
in the Middle East and have always been part of its wide tapestry. Israel
8:11
is the only homeland of the Jews. Doesn't mean Jews didn't live elsewhere,
8:16
but it's our only homeland. And you know, when people think that Israel
8:22
is some kind of Western plant or colonial invention, you know, history shows
8:28
otherwise. There's always been Jews there, and Jews are always taught about the
8:33
deep spiritual connection they have to the land. And there's nothing new about the
8:37
Persians being involved in this part of the world. You know, they took
8:43
over the land of Israel and in Biblical times as well, and they always
8:50
have had aspirations to be the most powerful nation in the Middle East, and
8:54
very often they have been. And that's what a lot of this is about.
8:58
They aren't particularly interested in the Palestinians, they aren't particularly interested in anything
9:01
aside from their own power. They use proxies in order to further their their
9:07
own power, and that's what we're seeing here. And Hamas and Hiszballah would
9:11
not be able to exist, at least not anywhere near the amount of influence
9:16
and military and political power that they have without Iranian support. And throughout history
9:22
also there's always been local actors who have resisted a colonial domination and imperial domination
9:28
of actors like the Persians, and these Raelites have been among them. Traditionally,
9:31
they've never been particularly powerful. You know, they had to fight off
9:35
the Assyrians, they had to fight off the Romans. But they've survived and
9:39
they've persevered, and the truth of this history hasn't changed all that much.
9:43
Well, I'll tell you what we are coast to coast. You're in Hollywood,
9:45
I'm in here in New York City, and coast to coast. Have
9:48
you seen is support for Israel actually increase in the last six months and well,
9:54
you said an increase even more as they are under attack right now.
9:58
Well, what I've seen is really a mess in terms of public opinion.
10:01
It's very difficult to track. You know, there's a lot of propaganda out
10:03
there, there's a lot of polls that aren't trustworthy. But I think in
10:07
the first few months of the war there was plenty of support for Israel.
10:13
To some extent, Israel lost a lot of it. And it's you know,
10:18
there were always the demonstrators who were against Israel, and Muslim countries were
10:22
against Israel. But they've lost a lot more than that through a sense that
10:26
they they are they've lost control over the war, that people are starving in
10:31
Gaza, that the military can have lack of discipline and be trigger happy,
10:37
and all those accusations have at least a little bit of truth to them,
10:39
which is what makes them damaging, even though they're often exaggerated. I think
10:45
that for most people, support for Israel overall has remained, but there are
10:50
a lot of doubts about what Israel was doing in Gaza, and I think
10:54
a lot of very pro Israeli people have doubts. I have doubts myself over
10:56
some of the things that Israel's done. Oh you know, I think personally,
11:01
while we have support in NATO, I think he's made some steps here
11:03
that are just not it. Actually, and maybe you disagree or room me
11:07
here, it actually harms the American jew because, unfortunately, when the optics
11:13
are out there, then you have those on the streets protesting very anti Semitic
11:18
things, and that puts American Jewish people in the arms way, don't you
11:22
think, absolutely absolutely? And I don't think that Nathaniel was all that concerned
11:30
about the image of Israel in the United States, about it about its ties
11:33
to the United States, and he tries to keep the minimum. He's very
11:37
worried about getting re elected. He's not concerned as much as he should be
11:39
about the safety of American Jews. It shouldn't necessarily be his first priority.
11:43
But nothing that he's thinking about about at all. And he's made a lot
11:48
of mistakes, and I think Nathaniel needs to go and to be replaced asap.
11:52
Now. The attack now has restored some support for Israel, but it's
11:58
very temporary, and I think that if Israel responds too harshly, it will
12:03
lose that. I'm not saying I shouldn't respond harshly, but that is definitely
12:07
something to take in mind. If Israel doesn't respond enough, it'll be perceived
12:11
as weak and it'll invite other actors to keep doing things like this. And
12:15
if he will response too much, it can undermine support from its allies and
12:18
get it involved in a regional war doesn't want to be involved in. I
12:22
am so glad you're saying this, because there's now a chance going around the
12:24
country. Hands off Iran. Where did I ran become the good guy?
12:28
I mean, I don't believe they're the good guy. We should not be
12:31
hands off I ran after attack like this. Come on, Yeah, I
12:35
don't think most Americans are really all that supportive of Iran. I think that's
12:39
a small minority, very vocal on social media. It's a small minority.
12:43
But here's what Americans are sensitive to, not hands off Iran. They're sensitive
12:48
to America being dragged into a regional war that the normal American, everyday American
12:54
doesn't want, not just the people demonstrating, and that's things to be very
12:58
concerned about that happens. The results can be very bad for Israel standing and
13:03
you know, human life, regional stability, it's a relationship to the United
13:07
States, everything. It doesn't want this to escalate. It doesn't look like
13:11
anyone does. But sometimes these things escalate because no one can be seen as
13:15
backing down. It's a game of chicken, and because we're losing the game
13:16
of chicken now as consequences too oh big time. It means that the terrorists
13:22
would be seen as stronger than the Israel and America combined, which we do
13:26
not want. Let me say that here on one leg up with Alex Skirt.
13:30
I'm talking with Shaiel and I'm so glad I have you for a few
13:33
minutes tonight as you're covering this. Has the IDEF lost any morale during the
13:39
six months? Meaning are they still strong in the fight or are they beaten
13:43
up in the sense of, you know, they don't know what the hostage
13:45
situation is, they don't know if they're gonna have support from even the media.
13:50
I mean, the idea's going through a lot right now. And how's
13:52
their morale heading into something like this. Well, the morale of the troops
13:56
was historically high in the first few months of the war, to the sense
14:00
that everyone who's commanding there said that they've never seen anything like it. You
14:05
know, we have a way of saying this in Hebrew moor alim. It
14:09
means poisoned. If you when you're really into the military operation where you really
14:13
want to serve in the army and do everything right, you're poisoned. You're
14:16
more on And that's what was saying him alim. The soldiers are poisoned.
14:20
That's a good thing. But now there's been a little bit of a change.
14:24
I wouldn't I wouldn't overrate it. There's been a little bit of a
14:26
change, not because of a little bit because of the hostages, mostly because
14:30
there's the sense that the government doesn't necessarily know what it's doing. The soldiers
14:33
no longer feel, and they definitely did at the beginning, that the politicians
14:37
are sending them on missions that will necessarily end the war and defeat the enemy.
14:41
I think that is there's so much hatred towards Hamas in Israel now and
14:45
so much motivation to defeat them that as long as the soldiers feel that what
14:48
they're doing is serving the cause of defeating them, they'll have high motivation.
14:54
But the sense that they're not going into Rafas, they're leaving hon units,
14:58
that the hostages haven't been rich turned, and that there's not necessarily a clear
15:01
plan to get any of those things achieved is definitely lessening morale. And then
15:05
you couple that with some other things, the fact that they've been fighting for
15:09
so long and many of them haven't gotten arrest. Now more of them are
15:11
having arrest because they've left Gaza, and something else, the fact that the
15:16
already population, the ultra Orthodox population in Israel is not serving in the military
15:20
and is resisting the calls from the IDF for them to serve. Is also
15:26
undermining morale in a sense of you know, we're fighting for these people who
15:30
don't want to fight with us, and that undermines unity. So who's just
15:35
close to fight with the IDF their own people in Israel right now? The
15:39
ultra Orthodox Jews in Israel, the men traditionally do not serve in the army.
15:46
Instead, they go to religious institutions and study the Torah and the religious
15:50
texts, and they've had an exemption. Recently, that exemption has been nullified
15:58
by the courts. The army has asked that they serve because they're missing soldiers,
16:03
and a lot of the Aready community leadership is resisting that with all they
16:10
can to avoid serving in the military. That undermines the morale of a lot
16:14
of the troops in the field, feeling that they're the ones who are sacrificing
16:18
and there are others who don't want to share in that sacrifice. That is
16:21
really an interesting development because you know, I know here in the city,
16:25
the Orthodox Jews sort of have their own communities and they it's tough for them
16:29
to integrate into the whole community is that's sort of what the idea of ispeheling.
16:32
Why aren't you integrating with us as we're fighting to protect the homeland type
16:34
of thing. Yeah, it's very upsetting to secular or national religious Israelis,
16:40
but a lot of the Ultorthodox consider it very important to their identity not to
16:44
serve and not to be integrated into society, which they ultimately see, as
16:48
you know, sinful and misguided. Ch Oh, my gosh, this is
16:52
you know, I was bar Mitz for twenty years ago, so all of
16:56
this is just hitting me and my Jewish roots very very much. So I
17:00
guess you would say, what about for you a night like this and you're
17:04
following it, You're updating your Twitter followers and your Instagram followers. Is there
17:08
some kind of exhilaration. Maybe it's not once exhilaration because you gotta follow Israel
17:14
under attack, But what's it like for you to do this up to date
17:17
as you're doing right now. Well, the night, as the night changed,
17:21
my emotions changed a lot. So the first couple of hours, my
17:26
heart literally sank. I was with a friend earlier and my friend said,
17:32
you look incredibly pale. I always looked pale, but a lot more pale
17:34
of it than usual, Like I lost all the color because I was concerned,
17:40
like all of us were concerned that all of these defenses that we've been
17:42
talking about in real time my night work, they've never been saturated saturate hit
17:47
before like this from and you know, it was terrifying. An hour later,
17:53
even before things had been shut down, people were talking more confidently that
17:56
the systems were working. Then one I got. Once I got alerts that
18:03
most of the things had been shot down and everyone was smiling and sending happy
18:06
messages, it turned from a deep nervousness to genuine exhilaration that, yeah,
18:15
that that that this had attack had you know, knock on wood, et
18:18
cetera. It's not over yet, but it looks like it's failed. It
18:21
looks like it's failed. I mean, you know, Iran might just want
18:23
to make it seem like they did something, and they've done that, but
18:26
it hasn't caused any damage. So yeah, it turned into exhilaration. But
18:30
when I hear that, when I heard that the attack had happened, my
18:33
heart sank. It was not as bad as the October seventh or anything like
18:37
that. It was the most I felt that in a while, you know,
18:41
so there are no there are no Israeli civilians impacted by these drones or
18:45
missiles. Then no nothing Yet all I heard. I don't know if anything's
18:49
changed, but all I heard. Last I saw was that there was damage
18:52
to an IDF based structural damage, nothing serious. Some things had landed in
18:56
open fields, which usually most things, and the rest had been shot down
19:02
by Israel and its allies. So that's just that's amazing, you know,
19:06
because all the reports were coming in. Oh I ran the attacking Israel.
19:08
We thought the worst in the very onset, and yet here we are.
19:12
You can smile, I can smile a little bit about this. That Israel's
19:15
even And I would say the Iron Dome's done its job. And as someone
19:19
who was in the military, did you ever get to visit the Iron Dome
19:22
or check it out a little bit? What's it like? It didn't exist
19:26
back then. I'm old. I'm old. There was no such thing as
19:27
Iron Dome in those days. May I think there were some plans on some
19:32
engineer's tables. I think that's about about as far as as it's gone.
19:37
Yeah, I have, I have, I have seen an Iron Dome installation
19:41
much much later, and I have talked to some of the people who designed
19:47
it and so forth. And when when Iron Dome first came up, I
19:51
was something that was talked about about endlessly. And of course we've seen it
19:55
in operation many times, but we haven't seen an operation are the Arrow three
20:00
system and the sling of David's system, or at least we haven't seen this
20:04
in this level of operation, and we were more concerned about that because we
20:08
don't know and they seem to have worked really well. Yeah, Cruise missiles,
20:15
ballistic missiles, those sorts of things from Iran is not something that Israel
20:18
has faced since it has those systems. The last time Israel faced ballistic missiles
20:22
shot at it from a sovereign country was Iraq in nineteen ninety one. This
20:26
is a this is a new new thing since we have these systems. So
20:30
that's what I was looking at. More. Iron Dome better known and worked
20:33
really well. But Israel has three tiers of system also has patriots, which
20:37
it doesn't take that seriously, but it has. Yeah, so it has
20:40
four tiers of systems only because I know they shut it down somehow got hacked
20:44
in October seventh and was not working, and no one under said why.
20:48
Yeah, well, the Iranian hackers made some gains during the war, took
20:53
over some Israeli installations. It looks like that might have been a mistake,
20:59
because if they had saved some of their AMMO for now, maybe they could
21:03
have screwed up these Raeli attempt to shoot things down. But Israel Is already
21:08
very aware of their strategies and the ways that they hack, and there were
21:14
hacking attempts here and it looks like they were completely thwarted. I know less
21:17
about that because it's completely classified, but I know that activity like that has
21:21
been going on, and I know that his has been quite successful. All
21:23
right, let me ask you this, How is the IDF maintaining a accelerated
21:29
rate of intel then maybe even the US has How does that? How does
21:33
the system? How are the two systems different in that regard? Well,
21:37
first of all, I want to say that American intel has had some incredible
21:41
successes lately. I've been kind of flabbergasted. For example, they told Putin
21:45
that Isis was about to attack, and they knew where it was going to,
21:48
where the attack's going to happen. All Putin had do was listened to
21:51
them. The Americans told the Israelis to yesterday that the attacks would be within
21:56
twenty four hours. The Israelis thought that it would be later, and the
21:59
Americans will right. The Americans have been right about many things, So I
22:02
would I don't And after Israel's catastrophe in October seventh, I don't know if
22:06
I would say Israel has better intelligence. Maybe I would have told you that
22:08
before. But Israel has great intelligence. It has a combination of Aman,
22:15
the military intelligence, and Mossad and Shahbakh. They the advantage. One of
22:18
the major advantages they have over the American system is that it's smaller and it's
22:22
much easier for them to work together and share things. They don't gather data
22:27
just to gather data. They gather the amount of data that they need and
22:30
they analyze it carefully. So it's it's sort of like the difference between a
22:34
massive corporation and a mom and pop shop. You know, the mom and
22:40
pop shop might have a much better handle on the details than the corporation does,
22:44
but at the end of the day, the corporation has a muscle that
22:45
the mom and pop shop does not. And they complement each other, you
22:51
know, they they when they work together, they work best. That's why
22:56
trust between the two countries is so important. Oh absolutely, And I know
22:59
that it's been rocky waters the last two years under the Biden administration, but
23:04
more so recently when you have in public, you know, buy and saying
23:10
support. But I guess bind closed doors are saying don't go after him as
23:14
much. I mean, he's giving that you mixed messages. I don't know
23:15
if you want to win on that. But does that that affects our trust
23:19
or the trust between both countries, doesn't it. Well. I'm quite a
23:26
supporter of Biden's and I think that Biden's gotten a very bad wrap regarding his
23:30
policy on Israel. And I don't know if I woul quote mixed messages.
23:34
The United States has been very clear that it supports his ruled into war against
23:38
Hamas and supports has ruin into war against Iran. What it has told Israel
23:42
on several occasions is that it doesn't agree with some of its strategies and some
23:47
of the things that it's doing. And I have to say, on most
23:52
specifics, the United States has been correct and Israel has been incorrect humanitarian Letting
23:57
a humanitarian aid is something that is really insisted on limiting for a long time,
24:03
which ended up being a big mistake. You know, undermined legitimacy of
24:07
the operation. US warned that that would happen. It told Israel to try
24:11
to wrap up the high intensity level of the conflict in late January early February,
24:18
and it did not, and then the war reached a point where you
24:21
know, it had lost its support. It told Israel to create a day
24:26
after plan that would lead to a Palestindian government. Israel did not adopt.
24:30
And that's the biggest mistake is real made because now Hamas is going back into
24:33
all the areas that the idea of evacuated and Hamas is going to take over
24:37
becaus A strip again. So the United States has given Israel a lot of
24:41
good Advince. By the way you're telling me things, the US media has
24:42
not told anybody. I feel like that's the case. They're not telling anybody
24:47
something like this. And to hear that you are a supporter of Bien and
24:49
a support of Israel, I guess to me, because I'm in the conservative
24:52
circles a lot, they don't always go hand in hand. But it's refreshing
24:56
to hear that you are a supporter of both. And I do think we
24:59
have to sport by in this effort to protect Israel. For sure, Where
25:04
what is what do you think he's thinking, because he's got to be the
25:10
thing. It's an election year, right, so he's got to be sort
25:11
of the optics have to be right on this. Is that what you're thinking?
25:14
Or is he gonna put sort of safety first over election? What do
25:17
you think he's gonna do with the next few hours here? I'm not sure
25:21
that that Biden feels like there's a major clash between his policy on Israel and
25:26
his electoral prospects. I think that in both cases, for both reasons electoral
25:33
and national security, he would rather have this war end quickly and have this
25:38
war end quickly with Israel on top, right, I mean, those are
25:45
good things for him in both. Oh, absolutely, so I think that
25:48
that whole thing of is he preferring, you know, voters in Michigan to
25:52
this, and that you know, at the end of the day, he's
25:56
more likely to lose voters by being too anti Israel then too pro Israel.
26:03
Although there's dangerous in both and I think that he's handling a sort of moderate
26:08
middle ground that honestly, I'm not sure would be that different if it wasn't
26:15
an election year. Now. He's made mistakes, but when you're talking about
26:19
a complex war in the Middle East that has so many factors, everyone's making
26:22
mistakes, right, ISO's made a ton of mistakes, some for the some
26:26
just because they didn't have the right information, some out of out of reasons
26:32
that I think in Nataniel has some you know, ulterior motives. Hamas has
26:37
made mistakes. You know, Iran's made mistakes, in the United States has
26:40
made mistakes. Everyone's made mistakes. But I don't think that Biden is selling
26:45
out Israel for any nefarious reason. And I think that while he does want
26:49
quiet for the elections, he would want to end this operation anyway. It's
26:53
actually not particularly common for the United States to allow Israel to have an operation
27:00
going on for this long. Traditionally, others, really operations have been shut
27:03
down more quickly. Now a lot of that hasppen with October seventh, and
27:07
you know the fact that Israel was attacked in a more severe way. But
27:10
I think all this would be happening anyway. This is this is what happens.
27:11
You know, Reagan did this in nineteen eighty two. You know Nixon
27:15
did this in nineteen seventy three, and that that's how these things work,
27:19
all right. You know you're a historian, you do the podcast, you
27:22
do the flog and whatnot. Can you tell us how frustrated you get when
27:27
either side just jumps to conclusions. Here you are, you have all the
27:32
history, you know, and you talk about it. I feel like,
27:33
though, when these things happen, even when October seventh happened, people lost
27:38
sight of this war between Palestine and Israel. And yes, I ran on
27:42
Israel to that extent has gone on forever, even before you and I were
27:47
born, right, So why do people just jump to conclusions to get the
27:49
hot take on social media? Is that what that's about? I mean,
27:53
there's there's so much going on, But yeah, I mean the truth is,
27:59
there's so much much to understand about the conflict that it's beyond the scope
28:03
of people who aren't experts. You know, and I know a lot of
28:07
people who are very active as on both sides, pro Israeli and pro Palestinian,
28:14
and don't really know the basic facts even though they invest a lot of
28:17
time in this because the things are very, very complex. But at the
28:21
end of the day, why is this is real matter? In the United
28:23
States? It's real doesn't really matter in it of itself. It's part of
28:26
a culture war. You know, as will represent something two people, it
28:30
really you know, it might represent values you like or represents values you hate,
28:34
or it's it's part of the endless American culture war about every single thing.
28:41
Everything has become politicized. What company you know, I'm drinking Starbucks?
28:45
That can be interpreted as some kind of great political protest. I just wanted
28:48
a latte, right, And that's every artist now is being accused of being
28:53
pro genocide, anti genocide. I thought they were canceling Lizo over something.
28:56
I don't even know what it was, but they're saying Lizo progenocide. I'm
29:00
sure you didn't even say a word about the conflict, you know what I
29:02
mean. So everything falls into the culture wars and as well represents things to
29:07
people. The history doesn't really matter, you know. No matter what fact
29:11
you bring to someone who hates Israel, they'll say that Jews shouldn't be there
29:14
to begin with, that their colonial settler whatevers. And then if you say
29:18
that that you know Jews were there earlier, they'll say, no, they
29:21
are Kazars, or you know, they're not really Jews, or you know,
29:25
whatever. Don't matter. What matters is what is represents? Does Does
29:30
it represent something that you hate? If so, everything they do is wrong,
29:33
it's represents something that you like, If so, everything that they do
29:34
is right. The facts really don't matter that much. I have a lot
29:38
of facts, but most people don't care all that much about the fact.
29:41
Well, tell me how you keep the middle ground? How do you keep
29:44
it balance them between your support of Israel but also calling them out, because
29:47
I mean, it takes a fine line to do that, I think,
29:51
you know. And as a podcast or even a lagger. Yeah, Well,
29:55
at the end of the day, everyone seems to hate you, and
29:56
then you have to figure out if you're comfortable the fact that everyone hates you.
30:02
You can get called a Nazi from both sides, you know, and
30:10
you get you know, a lot of right wing Jews call me uh self
30:12
hating jew, a coppo those sorts of things, and Palestinians say that I
30:18
kill children and I'm a genocide enabler, and you know. The nice thing
30:22
about it is, though, at some point, when you hear this stuff
30:23
so much it rolls off you. You know, you just get on.
30:26
You just get on with its type of thing, right. Yeah, so
30:30
it's it's liberal and you kind of speak your truth because you know that whatever
30:33
you say, you're gonna piss someone off. You know. And I'll tell
30:38
you a secret. When when when you go your own way and keep a
30:44
certain kind of integrity in terms of your opinions, a lot of people respect
30:48
it. You know, a lot of people. A lot of people who
30:49
hate your opinions respect it. People sometimes talk to me and they say,
30:53
you know, I hate everything you say, but I respect the way the
30:56
way you say it and the way you keep true to your opinion. People
31:03
don't necessarily like those who bend to them and do what they what they want
31:07
them to do. They want to bend, but after you bend, they
31:08
don't respect you, you know what I mean. So stay with your truth.
31:14
That's how you end up with the unique voice that people actually value.
31:17
Don't let people bully you into saying things that that you don't believe. And
31:22
yeah, so I can't go against Israel in the sense that I can't be
31:26
against its existence, but I also can't accept everything that it does. One
31:29
of the main reasons I don't accept everything that it does is because a lot
31:30
of the things that it does are self destructive. Right, just because it's
31:33
the one that's doing it doesn't mean it's not a mistake for its future.
31:37
So what I'm really worried about, I wouldn't even call myself balanced or anything
31:41
like that, because what I'm really worried about is is real future more than
31:45
anything else. And when I criticize this reel, it's because I think the
31:48
things that're doing aren't good for its future. Well it's uh, I just
31:52
think right now that now is indeed doing things to shoot himself in the foot
31:56
at Buddy's gotta get through this too, and I will support him to what
32:00
he's gotta do now. But at the end of the day, I know,
32:02
I see the political writing on the wall, He's done. Like you
32:05
and I can agree on that, he's He's definitely done. And shout out.
32:09
Do you have a lot of different voices on your podcast and like when
32:13
people listen in, do you do guests or do is it mainly your thoughts?
32:16
Yeah, I am I'm a loner. I just talk. I feel
32:20
questions from people and I answer them, but I don't invite people on.
32:23
I know I probably should. I get invited onto podcasts like this sometimes and
32:28
I talk. Yeah. I've always preferred to work on my own rather than
32:31
work with people. You know. I'm just that kind of guy. Yeah,
32:37
maybe I should bring on some more guests. Well, I'm glad to
32:40
have you as a guest tonight. And keep following the breaking news and keep
32:44
updating your followers, like, yeah, you gotta follower tonight, So thanks
32:47
for giving us updated. I know you're in Hollywood, but it feels like
32:51
you're on the ground because you're just firing off different updates by the hour,
32:53
it seems like. So keep on going, and I'm gonna post this up
32:57
molitarily. I just have Israeli Israeli TV on and my phone constantly buzzing with
33:02
text from Israel, and you might as well be there, you know,
33:05
as far as the information is concerned. Anyway, I'm not the one who's
33:07
in danger, but I have a lot of information. I was to say,
33:09
do you have family over there, because I do have a cousin that
33:12
lives here, So of course, when we first saw it in October seventh,
33:15
and then we saw it tonight. A loow. Some nerves do kick
33:19
up when you have family over there, you know, a ton of family,
33:22
ton of friends. Yeah, A good portion of the people in the
33:27
world I care about are in Israel. But I have to say no one
33:31
was as no one was hysterical about about this. They were concerned, but
33:36
no one was hysterical about this. I think after October seventh, which was
33:39
a national trauma, this this felt like with something with something that everyone could
33:43
could deal with. I didn't detect any hysteria or deep, deep concern from
33:49
people. Maybe when the missiles were shot at first, but overall, I
33:52
think everyone felt like we could handle this, and and Israel has all right.
33:55
Talking with Shaiao Ben from Academic under score La is his Twitter bound to
34:02
do better women and the host of Israel explained history of the land of Israel
34:07
and the liberals. Ion is very interesting, mixed there. And thanks for
34:10
joining me tonight anytime. This was a pleasure. Have a great night.