Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Ben Weinthal | Fox News Digital & Jerusalem Post Reporter Speaks on France's Macron Pinning Nationwide Violent Riots on Iran War

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Ben Weinthal | Fox News Digital & Jerusalem Post Reporter Speaks on France's Macron Pinning Nationwide Violent Riots on Iran War · Sid & Friends In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ben, I guess it's afternoon for you. Boker Tov here
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: in New York City. Where exactly do you live in
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Israel these days?
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: I'm in Jerusalem, capital of Israel, Sid, and it's great
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: to be back on your show, and congratulations on being
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame. You've always been
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: a force of nature on radio and off radio, and
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: it's terrific to hear the news about your inductions.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you, Ben. You were there in the early
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  Speaker 1: days when I started to make that transition, which is
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  Speaker 1: a weird word these days, I know. I made that
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  Speaker 1: transition from sports to politics, and you were integral early on.
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  Speaker 1: And I remember you would call me. First of all,
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  Speaker 1: we often talked about Merkel. And you said, Sid, what's
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  Speaker 1: going on in Germany with the immigration issues? You know,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: it's going to look like Pakistan a little bit. I
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  Speaker 1: remember all those phone calls, right?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, yes. You were ahead of the curve on that.
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  Speaker 2: when you were asking me about mass Muslim immigration into Germany,
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  Speaker 2: and now we're seeing, you know, Muslim American political candidates
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  Speaker 2: in the U.S. who are stoking the same type of
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  Speaker 2: anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories that I experienced in Germany.
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  Speaker 1: Yep, and you would also call me and tell me, Sid.
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  Speaker 1: I have more documents that can prove that Iran is
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  Speaker 1: not complying with this Obama-Kerry deal. I mean, I remember
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  Speaker 1: at one point you said to me, and this was
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  Speaker 1: early on, the deal had just gotten done.
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  Speaker 3: You're like, Sid, I have like 55... 55 different documents
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  Speaker 3: that prove that Iran is not complying. That's why it's
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  Speaker 3: so ridiculous to think, even with Trump, who I love dearly,
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  Speaker 3: love him dearly, you can never do a deal with
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  Speaker 3: these people. You were at the very top of the
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  Speaker 3: curve way back when with Obama and Kelly.
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  Speaker 1: Weren't those the conversations?
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  Speaker 2: I do. I remember reporting for Fox and the Jerusalem
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  Speaker 2: Post back then that intelligence reports in Germany and across
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  Speaker 2: Europe showed that Iran was zealously working on a nuclear
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  Speaker 2: weapons program and wanted to build nuclear missile warheads. The
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  Speaker 2: evidence was overwhelming. And now Trump has internalized that and
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  Speaker 2: launched two wars against Iran to destroy that.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think happens with Iran? You know, look,
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  Speaker 1: I loved Midnight Hammer. You know, we did an amazing job.
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  Speaker 1: We really knocked out any of the real capabilities to
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  Speaker 1: build a nuclear weapon. That was even before Operation Epic Fury.
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  Speaker 1: But I was good with Epic Fury, too, and wiped
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  Speaker 1: out 40 of their leaders, including the Ayatollah. But the
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  Speaker 1: truth is... The last couple of months has been up
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  Speaker 1: and down. We've been stuck. I know the ardent Trump
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  Speaker 1: supporters talk about how we're strangling Iran economically and this
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  Speaker 1: is all working in our favor. I don't really see
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  Speaker 1: it that way. I've had these conversations with Katie McFarland
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  Speaker 1: and John Katzmatidis. I don't see it that way. I
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  Speaker 1: think the last couple of months we've said a lot
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  Speaker 1: of nice things, but we're kind of stuck in the mud.
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  Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on the Iran conflict?
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's the 800-pound gorilla question in the room that
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  Speaker 2: everyone's struggling with. My sense is the economic warfare campaign
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  Speaker 2: that was launched by Treasury and Trump is creating a
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  Speaker 2: lot of discontent among Iranians within Iran. At the end
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  Speaker 2: of the day.
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  Speaker 2: Experts have been telling me, some of whom were born
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  Speaker 2: in Iran, that the Iranian population with loads of regime,
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  Speaker 2: their total contempt for this Khamenei regime, the new supreme leader,
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  Speaker 2: that that population could launch a new revolt and topple
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  Speaker 2: the regime.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I know that sounds great, and
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  Speaker 1: you're a much smarter guy than me, Ben, much smarter. No,
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  Speaker 1: they can't. The last time they tried to do that, 50,000
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  Speaker 1: of those people were mowed down in the streets, murdered.
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  Speaker 1: Unless the United States or Israel or some Arab country
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  Speaker 1: is going to provide Iranian civilians with guns, they can't.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. I agree with you on that point. The U.S.
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  Speaker 2: And we're seeing armed Iranians in the south. I just
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  Speaker 2: wrote an article about this for Fox News who just
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  Speaker 2: assassinated a female Iranian commander and other leaders in a
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  Speaker 2: southern province. But at the end of the day, you're right.
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  Speaker 2: If the West wants to see the regime toppled, they
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  Speaker 2: have to. That is, the U.S. and other countries have
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  Speaker 2: to arm Iranians in Iran.
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  Speaker 1: Let's get to Macron, who I think is a pussy.
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  Speaker 1: I know that's a rough word, Ben, but you're used
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  Speaker 1: to me. You've been dealing with me for 20 years.
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  Speaker 1: He's one of the weakest leaders in the world, and
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  Speaker 1: it's no surprise that France has basically been taken over.
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  Speaker 1: What started as a student issue has nothing to do
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  Speaker 1: with students the last couple of days. Nothing. You know,
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  Speaker 1: you've got these anarchists, and you've got Antifa, and you've
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  Speaker 1: got pro-Hamas. You got Palestinian flags in the streets. You
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  Speaker 1: got people looting and robbing. They are not students. You
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  Speaker 1: got an NFL game there on Sunday. I have no
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  Speaker 1: idea why Roger Goodell is still playing that game between
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  Speaker 1: the Steelers and the Saints. It's a mess. And in
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  Speaker 1: your article, you talk about why you think that's the case.
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  Speaker 1: And it does come back to immigration. Yes?
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  Speaker 2: Yes. That's a big piece of it. I mean, my
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  Speaker 2: article for Fox News the other day, I wrote... I
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  Speaker 2: reported on how Macron is trying to gaslight Americans and
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  Speaker 2: the French public by saying Trump's war, the Trump-Israel war
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  Speaker 2: against the Islamic Republic increased gas prices in France, and
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  Speaker 2: that's what's fueling discontent. That was part of his argument, which,
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  Speaker 2: according to experts, is just nonsense and stills. It's largely about,
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  Speaker 2: as Trump said, migration and also a very large, French
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  Speaker 2: or Muslim French population that's really not interested in reforming
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  Speaker 2: their school system. I mean, look, 24 schools are ransacked,
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  Speaker 2: more than 2,500 people taken into custody. These so-called French
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  Speaker 2: students and leftists and pro-Hamas voters ransacked a synagogue in Paris.
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  Speaker 2: And they also burned Jewish stores in Marseille. And they
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  Speaker 2: didn't focus on the Muslim stores during these riots because
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  Speaker 2: they said, no, those are our allies. Let's focus on
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  Speaker 2: the Jews.
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  Speaker 1: Well, when you say they didn't focus on Muslim stores,
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  Speaker 1: you're being kind. They didn't touch one of them. As
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  Speaker 1: far as I know, they did not touch one Muslim store.
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  Speaker 1: Is that not correct?
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  Speaker 2: That's my understanding, too.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that tells you all you need to know about
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  Speaker 1: what's going on there. So how do you think this
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  Speaker 1: thing ends?
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  Speaker 2: Macron got a 15% approval rating, the lowest, I think,
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  Speaker 2: of any politician in the West. And I remember New
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  Speaker 2: York when we used to say in the 70s when
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  Speaker 2: Howard Cosell said the Bronx is burning. And then Koch
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  Speaker 2: came along and tried to clean it up with new
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  Speaker 2: housing and then Giuliani imposed order. And right now what
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  Speaker 2: we're seeing is all of France is really burning.
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  Speaker 1: Right. All of it. It's interesting because you just mentioned
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  Speaker 1: New York, and you remember Koch and Giuliani. So your history,
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  Speaker 1: you were a New Yorker. You did live in Germany.
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  Speaker 1: Now you're living in Israel. But you were here at
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  Speaker 1: one point, right?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yeah. I grew up in New York. I
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  Speaker 2: went to college in New York. You know, I lived
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  Speaker 2: in the Bronx and Pelham Bay. Yeah. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Give me the biggest difference, Ben Wienthal, between living, I
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  Speaker 1: forget if you were in Munich or Frankfurt or Berlin.
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  Speaker 1: Where were you in Germany?
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  Speaker 2: I was in Berlin.
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  Speaker 1: Berlin, that's right. The biggest difference between living in Berlin, well,
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  Speaker 1: they hate the Jews. Trust me. They have a Holocaust
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  Speaker 1: museum there. I know they do because my wife ran
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  Speaker 1: the marathon there and stopped there one day. They hate them.
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  Speaker 1: The difference between living in Berlin and now living in Jerusalem.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, well, it's night and day. I mean, there's no–
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  Speaker 2: this anti-Semitic movement that we see in Berlin and across
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  Speaker 2: Europe is nonexistent here because I'm in a Jewish state.
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  Speaker 2: People take terrorism here seriously. They don't allow for– They
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  Speaker 2: don't have a high tolerance for Islamic animated terrorism. Israelis
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  Speaker 2: cracked down on that, as we saw in response to
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  Speaker 2: October 7th in Gaza. I was in Gaza four times
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  Speaker 2: as a reporter. I embedded with the IDF, and I
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  Speaker 2: saw what the IDF did to root out Hamas terrorism.
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  Speaker 2: The Europeans allow Hamas operatives, including in Germany, to function
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  Speaker 2: and raise funds. It's really clinically insane.
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  Speaker 1: So you've got a big day coming up on Tuesday.
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  Speaker 1: As you're talking to me, I swear to God, Ben, Dr.
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  Speaker 1: Ophir Falk happens to be the senior policy advisor for
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  Speaker 1: Bibi Netanyahu. Just WhatsApp me. And it's a story. He
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  Speaker 1: says there are 800,000 Israelis with voting rights living abroad.
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  Speaker 1: Left-wing NGOs are bringing them in droves. So what are
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  Speaker 1: we talking about here? You can fly to Israel if
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  Speaker 1: you're an Israeli living in New York and vote. But
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  Speaker 1: it looks like most of the anti-Bibi folks... By the way,
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  Speaker 1: today happens to be Bibi Netanyahu's birthday. Happy 77th birthday
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  Speaker 1: to Bibi. But it looks like the left-wingers... applying to
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  Speaker 1: Israel just to vote against him. What do you think
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  Speaker 1: happens on your big election day coming up on Tuesday?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I'm immersed in right now. I'm doing
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  Speaker 2: some reporting for the New York Post on that. And
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  Speaker 2: the polls here are notorious for being unreliable, like in
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  Speaker 2: the U S right. With Trump, everyone thought Trump in
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  Speaker 2: the first election and then the second election, um, third,
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  Speaker 2: in any event, um, the election is probably tending to
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  Speaker 2: another stalemate. Neither bloc, the opposition bloc, and Netanyahu's bloc
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  Speaker 2: are going to secure a majority of 61 seats so
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  Speaker 2: they can control the Israeli parliament. So we're going to
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  Speaker 2: be in a period of stagnation. That's what everyone here
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  Speaker 2: is you know, the diagnosis right now for this election.
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  Speaker 2: But it's hard to say because, as I said, some
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  Speaker 2: of the polls are unreliable. As you mentioned, Sid, and
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  Speaker 2: it's an excellent point, that a lot of Israelis, some
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  Speaker 2: of whom are, you know, many of whom, I should say,
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  Speaker 2: who live abroad are flying back to Israel to vote.
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  Speaker 2: There seems to be a lot of energy coming from
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  Speaker 2: that sector. Voting started today at the military outposts in Syria, Lebanon,
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  Speaker 2: And in Gaza, which is quite interesting, the first round
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  Speaker 2: of voting, diplomats have been voting too. But there's a
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  Speaker 2: big question mark over this election. Arguably, it might very
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  Speaker 2: well be the most important election in Israel's history next Tuesday. Agreed.
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  Speaker 1: Last one. So you gave me credit, you and I,
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  Speaker 1: having these conversations, Miami Radio, 15 years ago, when you
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  Speaker 1: were living in Berlin, talking about the Muslims. And I
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  Speaker 1: don't say radical Islam. I don't say Islam. I say
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  Speaker 1: Muslims everywhere. You know, I said this a hundred times. Hamas,
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  Speaker 1: they're Palestinians. You know, this nonsense that the Palestinians are innocent. No,
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  Speaker 1: they're not. Hamas, they may be radical, they may be progressive,
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  Speaker 1: they may be murderous, but they're Palestinians. Same thing with
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  Speaker 1: radical Islam. They're Muslims. All the issues, the majority, I
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  Speaker 1: should say, the majority of issues around the world are
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  Speaker 1: caused by Muslims. Is that not true?
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  Speaker 2: Well, in the Middle East, That's true. And in many
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  Speaker 2: Western European countries, you're seeing, you know, revolts, terrorism attacks that, yes,
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  Speaker 2: are the result of Muslim terrorists, including in the U.S.
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  Speaker 2: It's a major problem. You have a population of over
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  Speaker 2: one billion Muslims. I'm not making a sweeping generalization that
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  Speaker 2: they're all terrorists, but a significant constituency within in Muslim-majority
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  Speaker 2: countries by Islamist terrorism. And there's been enormous amounts of
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  Speaker 2: tolerance for these communities in Europe. And I see Italy,
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  Speaker 2: we didn't mention Italy, which is interesting. I see the
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  Speaker 2: prime minister there is cracking down. She deployed 500 troops
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  Speaker 2: into Italy to stop the rioting among what appears to
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  Speaker 2: be Muslims in Italy. What Islam needs to undergo as
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  Speaker 2: we discuss the Reformation, some type of major reform. I
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  Speaker 2: talked to one scholar here, an expert on Islam, who
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  Speaker 2: speaks Arabic and Israeli. He told me it's going to
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  Speaker 2: take 500 or 1,000 years for this nonsense to go away.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think I'm going to make it. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: I'm in pretty good shape for almost 60, but I
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  Speaker 1: don't think I've got 500 years left.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: We'll see. Ben, it is so great to catch up
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  Speaker 1: with you again, and I want you to come on
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: this show all the time now. No worries. talking again
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: because you're so smart and so great. So thank you
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: for joining me from Israel today, and have yourself a
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: great day. In fact, let's talk Tuesday on Election Day.
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  Speaker 1: How does that sound?
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  Speaker 2: It's always a treat to be on your show, and
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  Speaker 2: I learn a lot, too, and I love listening to
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  Speaker 2: you in Israel. I can get you on ABC as well.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you. I have a lot of listeners this morning.
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  Speaker 1: They are listening.
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  Speaker 2: You're right.
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  Speaker 1: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Netanya, all over. Ben Weenthal, you're
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: one of the all-time greats.
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  Speaker 2: You're a popular guy here in Israel. I can tell
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: you that.
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  Speaker 1: I know.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: I know a lot of folks who know you.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's great.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Maybe one day I'll run for prime minister there. If
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Trump goes or me, one of us who knows. And
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  Speaker 1: we'll talk on Tuesday. I love you, buddy. Thank you
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: so much.
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  Speaker 2: All right. Take care. Bye-bye, kids.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Bye-bye. Ben Weenthal right there writes for Fox News, writes
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: for the New York Post, used to write for the
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Jerusalem Post when he lived in Berlin, Germany. You can
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: hear the crackle. That is from the connection because he
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: is in Israel this morning. It's kind of far, 7,000
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: miles away. But what a great conversation and what a
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: brilliant guy, Ben Weenthal.
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: Thanks for listening to Sid and Friends in the Morning.
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: You can hear Sid and Friends in the Morning weekday
• 14:58
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• 15:01
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• 15:16
  Speaker 4: and X. See you next time for a new episode
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: so you never have to wonder.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: What the heck is going on here?