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So, in response to three of our service members being killed in Jordan, the US has now launched strikes in two different countries, as of course, comes on top of the strikes we had already launched in Yemen, so we are now bombing three different countries. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan did a little media tour this weekend to try to explain how we got here and what the plans are going forward. He says, we are not finished with these strikes yet.
Let's take a listen, well, George.
Part of the purpose of the strikes, the central purpose of the strikes has been to take away capabilities from the Iranian back malte is in Iraq and Syria that are attacking our forces and from the huthies that continue to threaten red sea shipping, and we believe they had good effect in reducing degrading the capabilities of the militias and of the Houthis, and as necessary, we will continue to take action.
So do you expect more retaliation for the strike against US forces and Jordan earlier this week.
Well, the first thing that I would say, and you noted it at the top of your program, is that this was the beginning of our response. There will be more steps. Some of those steps will be seen, some may not be seen, but there will be more action taken to respond to the death of the tragic death of the three brave US service members. And we cannot rule out that there will be further attacks from Iranian back militias in Iraq and Syria or from the Houthis.
We have to be clear O eight about that. The President, in being clear eight about that, has told his military commanders that they need to be positioned to respond to further attacks as well.
So he says this is the beginning of our response. He also says, hey, we can rule out that our people are going to continue to be attacked. And we've had something like over one hundred and sixty attacks attempted attacks on our service members in the region, which raises a whole host of questions. One of those questions being aimed at Jake Sullivan by Kristin Welker. Hey, you guys said you didn't want a wider war. Now here you
are bombing for three different countries. Aren't we kind of in that wider war situation?
Yet?
Let's sake, isn't His response?
Is the United States already in a wider war in the Middle East?
Jake?
What the United States is doing is responding to threats as we see them, with significant but proportionate force.
But has the war? Has the war expanded in the region?
Jake?
Well, first, we don't accept that what's happening in the Red Sea, for example, Kristin is entirely tied to the war in Gaza because the Huthis are attacking shipping that has absolutely nothing to do with Israel. So there are connections among these things, to be sure, but these are distinct threats as well that we need to deal with on their own basis. So in the Red Sea, we need to deal with the threat to commercial shipping, and we are doing so with the coalition of countries in
a rock and Syria. We need to deal with threats to our troops and we are doing so, including with the strikes the president in order.
To Friday Night, I am sager.
I'm not sure I've ever seen someone look so incredibly dead inside because he knows what he's saying is total nonsense. This idea that oh with the Hohu zero, this has nothing to do with Israel. Please, first of all, take them out their well, like they're telling you, this is about Israel.
Not to mention.
We know, as I've said many times, as pointed out by many analysts, during the period when there was a brief six day ceasefire, guess what, their attacks almost completely stopped, and the attacks on our service members from these other regional militias completely stopped. So this is all about what Israel is doing in Gaza. And then I don't know how you did. You bomb three countries not to mention what's happening in the run, not to mention Israel and Lebanon,
not to mention even what's unfolding the Ones Bank. And you're going to pretend like, oh no, it's all contained, it's all fine, there's no wider war. Here, like, how stupid do you think that we are?
One thing that really bothers me about this? Can we put the map please up on the screen, just to show everybody where the three countries and all the strikes that were conducted. This was in Iraq and in Syria. It excludes the strikes that happened in Yemen. Is what you can see, Crystal, is that it took about a week for US to respond and to bomb these supposed IRGC command headquarters of these militias that are tied to Iran. By all accounts, it just seems like some command huts
and others were bombed and some low level militants were killed. Okay, great in terms of a response. But here's the thing, by their own accounts, on the ground, everybody knew that the response was coming, and so the high level commander and others, the people were responsible for launching the drone on American service members, they're long gone, they're back any run. But guess what, our people have nowhere to go. They're still stuck on the same damn base. So they all moved.
We telegraphed what was going to happen.
You know, people responsible and all that long ago absconded or you know, went underground or whatever. As we continue our response and our troops are still in the same base, in the same barracks, with the same defense systems which failed, you know, whenever that drone and stack happened on American service members, or the same bases where missiles were able
to get through, they remain sitting ducks. That's I mean, that's why we can't obscure all this in terms of the response and the tit for tat nature.
It's not a game.
Already three Americans are dead, and it's like, well, they know exactly where we are. We don't have the luxury to go underground or to go elsewhere. Our presidents, our leaders and everybody else is just like, well, you know, you got to have this base in Syria. Case isis, which has been dead for several years. It comes back and it's like, what what are you talking about? Why don't we just leave? Why don't we go back? These guys were Army reservists. Why were they there in the
first place? Anyone want to tell them that, like anyone would tell any of those family members. We're asking me, like, hey, what the hell was my daughter doing in Jordan, what we should support it for? What reason? Can anyone justify this to me? No, No, that's the problem.
They can't even explain to the American people what actually is the purpose of these people being in the region other than to serve as sitting ducks and you know, potentially demanding some sort of escalatory response. I mean it's always like, you know, this lack of agency over the US, like, oh, we're just getting pulled in, Like we have no other choice, We're just getting pulled into this escalation.
Yeah.
Number one, you don't have to be there. Number two, you have complete control over what your response is. And number three, you even have US officials admitting they know the whole source of this conflict and the escalation is what's going on in Gaza. But rather than dealing with what is very clear the issue where there there is no de escalation until that.
Problem is solved. I mean, that is the bottom line.
So, yeah, you're absolutely right what they told the Israelis is like, this is just the beginning of the response. We're going to do more, because of course the Israelis like want us to get into some hot regional war and get dragged in completely. So we're time to worry. We're going to do so much more. We're giving which this I mean, I support trying to avoid an escalatory
response from Iran. That's the reason why there was a lag, as you point out, to allow them to get sort of their critical leaders out of the way so that we can just like show our.
Strength through our bob exactly.
Well, and that's the thing I mean, And that was completely revealed, and it's the same logic applies here, completely revealed. When Biden was asked, so are the strikes against the who he's working? Yeah, and he says, and I quote, are they working? No?
Are they going to continue?
Yes?
They know this isn't.
Going to degrade their capabilities or de escalate or do anything on the sort. They just have this foreign policy blob mindset where it's like they hit us, so we've got a sh we're strong and hit back, even though you know it's not going to end the conflict, it's not going to de escalate the conflict. It's only going to put our service members more at risk. And so it's complete insanity to your point, let's put up the latest. There were more strikes targeted the Huthi's just in the
past days. US and Britain carried out large scale military strikes on Saturday against multiple sites in Yemen controlled by Houthi militants. According to a statement from those two countries, Those attacks against thirty six hoothy targets at thirteen sites in northern Yemen came barely twenty four hours after the US carried out a series of military strikes against Iranian forces and the militias they support at seven sites in
Syria and a rock. There were eighty five targets in Syria and a Rock that were struck on Friday, as the map that we just showed demonstrated. So the policy makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. And so you increasingly have, I mean hardly a day goes by where you don't have some SoundBite from some US OFFI dead eyed US f fish like Jake Sullivan trying to deny what's obviously absolutely obvious before anyone's eyes, that this has already spread into a wider war.
And some of things. It's like we're just doing this to feel good.
Like you said, we gave them enough time that all the people were look, we either kill them or we don't.
It's like what is the point.
Also, you know, I don't know if you know this, we use B one bombers actually in these strikes. They cost sixty thousand dollars an hour to fly sixty one thousand dollars and they flew all the way from America to a rock and back.
That's like a thirty some hour round trip.
This single strike cost millions of taxpayer dollars for what reason. And it's like I can never just get around the fact that we just seem to be playing like risk for the purpose of it, like it's a game, as if we're like, well, we gotta show them we're strong here. And it's like there are real people whose lives were I.
Mean they were ended.
There were still people in critical condition in hospitals who were injured by this.
Okay, so then we have a decision to make.
Are going to kill the people who are responsible and actually kill them, or we're going to go down to the diplomatic road. I personally, I'm going down the diplomatic road because I don't want to put more of these people in danger. But instead we don't kill the people who are responsible. We kill like their deputies, deputies, deputies, brother or whatever.
Happened to be the last idiot who was on the base.
After a week and our people are still there and remain in danger. How how can you possibly say you're doing this, you know, to support the American service members, to defend, avenge them, whatever, or to ensure that more death will not occur.
All of this lives.
You said, though, Crystal is downstream of a ceasefire, and I'm curious your thoughts on the latest updates because I'm personally sased on what is happening.
Yeah, so, as we've been reporting, they've been ongoing ceasefire talks being mediated by the US guitars involved were happening for a while in Paris, and we got conflicting reports yesterday. Originally there was a report that Hamas had rejected the terms of the temporary ceasefire because they wanted a complete ceasefire in exchange for release of all the hostages that they're holding, and some number of Palestinian hostages being held by the Israelis would also be released. Put this up
on the screen. Then Hamas came out and said, no, no, no, we have not rejected the terms of the ceasefire. This is c nine guys, if you can put this up on the screen. Hamas denies rejection of the hostage ceasefire deal, says they will deliver answers soon. According to report, the terror organization is set to demand an increase in the
number of Palestinian terrorists released from Israeli prisons. So some of the reporting I've seen is that there is a split between the Hamas leadership and Gaza and the Hamas political leadership outside of Gaza, where the political leadership will is willing to accept what would be roughly a two month temporary ceasefire, whereas the military leadership on the ground wants to be more hardlined and say no, we don't accept this unless there is a commitment to a complete
cease fire. That's what's being reported on the Israeli side.
There's also huge questions. We'll get into a little bit more of the dynamics with net Yahoo and then these psychos, I mean they're all psycho, but they're you know, extra psycho Smo Church and Ben Gavie like actual you know, terrorists that are part of this government who are saying they're willing to blow up his government coalition if he accepts any sort of a hostage exchange deal that would lead to significant release of Palestinian prisoners that are being
held net Yahoo has at time signaled openness to the steal, at times poured cold water on it. So it's also really an open question what's going to go on on
the Israeli side. But you know, if the US actually wants to avoid further escalation into an even hotter, even broader war than what we're seeing, some sort of ceasefire agreement is what we need to be aggressively pushing and what we need to be using our sway and influence with the Israelis in order to achieve that is the real way and they know this, by the way, that is the real way to achieve security for our service members, to stop the bloodshed in Gaza and be able to
get in some significant humanitarian aid so people are no longer starving to death and dying of communical diseases, etc. It's also in the interest of Israeli security because long term, the longer this horrific bombing and humanitarian situation unfolds on the ground in Gaza, there is no doubt that you are birthing more and more and more people who are committed to hating you and violent resistance. So the crazy thing, Sagur is that it's not like US officials don't know this.
Tony Blinken even said he knows there's no military solution to Hamas, so it's like, what are we doing here, Biden Metz, he knows these strikes aren't working. Jake Sullivan is at pains to try to explain how this policy makes any damn sense, Like they all know that the policy is insane. It's not going to accomplish the things that they claim to want to accomplish, and yet it's like they can't help themselves but to continue down the same path.
Though that they at least behind the scenes, are trying to push forward. So apparently Secretary blink And they just happened moments ago, just landed in Riod in Saudi Arabia to try and to push for the peace framework in Gaza for the ceasefire. It remains unclear to me though how much influenced Riod actually even has over the ceasefire in terms of pressure on Hamas. I believe Qatar is the one, you know, where a lot of this is happening. As he said, I guess We're just going to wait and see.
Period.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, listen, this ties into US domestic politics too, because we may cover this tomorrow. You know, the House is putting forward just like Israel Aid with no certainly no conditions, but also even no pay forward to the tune of fourteen billion dollars. The Senate has a separate package that they're pushing. It would be very easy for the White House to say, no, you're not getting any of it unless you all are serious about the ceasefire
and net yahoo. Right now, all of his interests are in the direction of being swayed by the you know, the extremists who don't want any sort of ceasefire ever, who want to ethnically cleanse Gazo, want to resettle the entire Gazza strip, I mean, are out there actively talking about it. All of his political incentives lie in that direction.
So if the US isn't willing to come in with some sort of force and apply some sort of pressure that we have plenty of given our financial support for this country over a long period of time, then it is more likely that you're not going to be able to come to some sort of ceasefire deal that the conflict is not going to end, and that our service members are going to continue to be at risk. At the same time, Biden Di, I'm interested in Sager's reaction
to this. There's a big debate over whether this is meaningful at all. Put this up on the screen, Biden, just on the day that he was traveling to Michigan, a state with a significant Arab American population, Asian executive order sanctioning for Israeli settlers over West Bank violence. He says that violence in the West Bank has reached quote intolerable levels. The sanctions I'm reading from this article from the BBC, they block the individuals from accessing all US
property assets in the American financial system. Violence in the West Bank has spiked since some months launched an unprecedent attack on Israel in October seventh. Some three hundred and seventy Palestinians have been killed in the West Banks since then in the West Bank guys. According to the UN, the majority of those have been killed by Israeli forces, but at least eight of them have been killed by
Israeli settlers. The UN said, and as I mentioned no accident that this what I would consider a sort of like symbolic gesture of caring about the rule of law and violence against Palestinians comes on a day when Biden was traveling to Michigan. The Arab American Institute quoted in this article of pointing out that support by Arab Americans for the Democratic Party has plummeted from fifty nine percent
that was in twenty twenty to just seventeen percent. These sanctions can't be applied to American citizens, although some of them are thought to be involved in the violence. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US does believe the sanctions will have an impact on these four individuals and expects Israel to do more to hold accountable those responsible for settler violence. What do you think about this move, Soger.
I mean, it just seems look, it seems rather toothless. At the same time, it is having a It's two things. Obviously,
it is the correct decision. I think if that is going to be the state of US policy of saying that we are pro to state solution, then you can't be endorsing or not having sanctions on the West Bank, especially because I don't know if people know this, there are American citizens who are inside the West Bank who are currently being prevented from actually passing into Israel, which is israelly violation of the US visa law that we currently have with them because we have anyway in terms
of our citizenship. Much of this is downstream of the overall settler policy. Now, the actual sanctions that have been put into place, as you said, are only on for people. Clearly they should probably be extended to them to a much larger group of people who are involved in the overall action because it is a direct content prevention of stated US State Department policy going back at least two decades.
The thing is is that even with the four as you said, it is still receiving like maximalist pushback inside of Israel. Yeah, because it is being denounced as anti Semitic. But it does actually show you the extension of the power of the US Empire because they can cry all they want, their banks are still complying with the order right now, because if you want to do business with America and you are in violation of OPAC, you will get your.
Ass handed to you in the global financial system.
Yeah, and so a few things about the specifics of this Executive order, and I think your points are all really well taken there. I mean, first of all, let's just keep in mind every one of these settlements is illegal under international law and contravention of US state longstanding US let's base.
Start with the US policy.
It is against US, it is against US policy.
It also is considered, you know, a blanket around the globe illegal according to international laws. So both of those things are true.
So when you have a.
Policy that's just aimed at four people who you know were directly violent and inciting violence against Palestinians, it's almost like a tacit, like, well, the settlements themselves are okay, but there's just a few bad apples that we.
Want to go after. That's number one. Number two.
I think it's very telling that of the three hundred and seventy Palestinians who've been killed in the West Bank since October seventh, eight of them were killed by Israeli settlers. Now, there's been cute, massive violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, and that has ramped up post October seven.
Even before October seventh, this.
Was one of the most violent years on record in terms of settlers settler violence against Palestinians, but the overwhelming majority of Palestinians are being killed by the government. So there's a sort of a sort of feint here or an idea here that you know.
The government.
Government's official policy isn't these settlers and isn't being person zu the government's ends aren't being pursued by the settlers who are continuing to violently push Palaestines off of their land, when in fact, for decades, under both right wing and supposedly liberal prime ministers, the settlements have continued to expand, and this has been official government policy of the Israeli government, And oftentimes when settlers are engaging in violence against Palestinians,
they are being backed up by the IDF. In fact, Saraille recall that part of why they were caught so unawares on October seventh and the response with such shit to protect their own Israeli citizens on October seventh, was because the IDF had been moved from that part of Israel, near Gaza to the West Bank in order to protect these settlers. So, but to your point, it doesn't mean the fact that it's like toothless and doesn't really do anything,
and it's just sort of a symbolic, pathetic gesture. Doesn't stop the Israelis from completely freaking.
Out about it.
Net Yahoo responded, Israel takes action against all law breakers everywhere. What a bunch of bullshit that is, and therefore there is no need for unusual measures on the issue. That's from Netanyahu's office. Put this next one up on the screen. Ben Gevie reacted, or to the US officials to rethink present Biden's wrong about the citizens of the State of
Israel and the heroic settlers. Those who are attacked, those who are pelted with stones and attempt to hurt and murder them are the heroic settlers in Judea and Samaria their name for the West Bank. But this one, keep this up on the screen is really incredible. Smochurch is
basically calling Biden anti Semitic. He says the settler violence campaign is an anti Semitic lie that enemies of Israel disseminate to smear the pioneering settlers and the settlement enterprise and harm them and thus smear the entire state of Israel.
So you know the fact that this is like policy is sort of pathetic ass covering some sort of you know, stop to attempt to win back some portion of the Arab American population, which certainly is not going to happen so long as we're you know, backing the net Yaho government in every other way. That doesn't mean that the Israelis aren't going to completely freak out about it because they're not used to being checked by this administration in any way whatsoever.
Well, I think they're not really check it used to getting checked by the US government.
It does demonstrate again to me that.
You know, the arm of the empire is long, and you know, like I said, just because you can bitch and moan, but your banks are going to have to cut your ass off if you want to do business with us. And this is again, this is where I have to come back to. This is Israel. It's not Russia. It's not China. Russia has got a lot of oil, it's got a abilitary base.
China is the same thing.
I mean, they may not have as much oil, but they have a lot of industry.
They can build their own things.
This is a tiny little strip of land which relies predominantly on exports and imports in order to keep their economy functioning. So when you're in that situation, you need to maintain ties with the global financial system, with everybody with You need the Red Sea to be functioning, and all these things to have the basics of the modern Israeli way of life, which is like a first world
European standard. It costs a lot to bring all these things in and in that then you need the support of the European Union, the United States, Russia, and China, and are you're beginning to lose support. And you know, with all of these actors even here, for America to put sanctions on the West Bank, it may be, as you said a couple of people, it's still a pretty extraordinary It doesn't happen, you know, all that much in
modern history. So for that to for us to be in a part where this is being imposed and the standards and all that are being set, the overall showdown is going to happen at some point, because at a certain point, let's say with the ceasefire, we're going to have a two month seaspire. Let's say that happens and the Israelis are torn about whether to restart or not, it's still going to come down to the fact that the United States policy and the Arab policy as well,
is to demand a two state solution. And then the question will come to America and others, are we going tom imposed sanctions on people who are in direct violation of overall American policy under Biden?
That may not be. The answer may not be yes, but the answer may be yes sometime in the future.
And as we have seen now we have the Clint administration and dealt with this problem and forward like this is you know, the Carter administration, the generation before.
Them, This is not going away.
And so when you open these types of things as policies for them as a country, it is genuinely existential.
There was a remarkable interview with Inamar Ben Gavier by the Wall Street Journal, which had a lot of pieces which are quite noteworthy. Now, as I've been pointing out, he and Smotrich are willing to throw their weight around Netna who has you know, is barely holding on to power by his fingertips, and it's becoming increasingly impossible to keep this coalition together. Israeli's overwhelmingly want Netnaho gone, and he basically is just there as long as the war
goes on. Which is why he wants the work to go on and definitely put this up on the screen. They lay out in this Wall Street Journal piece the headline Israeli firebrand driving netanyahuo further to the right and of our Ben Gavier spells on his plan for resettling Gaza that would be a cleansing during a rare interview and says Trump would be better for Israel than President Biden.
I mean, that's shows you how crazy these people are, is that he doesn't think that Biden has gone far enough when this man has given unconditional support, rushed weapons there, circumvented US policy in order to do so, etc. Etc. But he thinks Trump would even provide them an even freer hand. It wouldn't even do the little like symbolic hand ringing that Biden does. Basically, But what they write here is Ben Gavier told the Wall Street Journal net Yahoo is quote at a crossroads and he has to
choose in what direction he will go. He's got enough support, Ben Gavier does in the ruling coalition to undermine Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rule, and he says he is willing to use it. In his first interview with a foreign news organization since joining the government. Ben Gavier warned he would oppose any deal with Hamas that would free thousands of Palestinians held for terrorism or end the war before Hamas was fully defeatable Hamas, there is no military solution
to Hamas. As their own policy makers, I've said this has probably only strengthened Hamas for the long term. An increasing portion of Israelis they write, especially on the right, instead of you the October seventh attack as a chance to start a new course for Israel by resettling the battlescuarred enclave. Ben Gaverer laid on his own plan for Gaza, which would repopulate the devastated coastal strip with Israeli settlements
while Palestinians would be offered financial incentives to leave. That was part of what was outlined at that ethnic cleansing resettlement conference that ivered recently that we covered here on the show recently as well. Ben Gavier also said he thought the Biden administration was hampering Israel's war effort, and said he believed Republican presidential Canada Donald Trump would give Israel a freer hand to quash Hamas. Ben Gavier's approaches
gaining popularity, wants a fringe idea. A small majority of Jewish Israelis now fully or somewhat support the establishment of Jewish settlements inside Gaza, according to a poll conducted by
Tel Aviv University last month. So Sagar, he is actively threatening to blow up the net Yahoo coalition if any sort of a ceasefires agree to, Which is why it's so important that you have the US willing on the other side to use some sort of leverage and actual power in order to secure and end to this because I mean, this is a disaster for Palestinians and for Israelis. It's a disaster for us, for our interest in the region, for our service members, etc.
Yeah, we're just going to wait and see what happens.
That's why we're highlighting that interview is because if we do have a ceasefire, he very much could move and he could blow up the government and then who they all knows what comes next, truly have no idea.
Yeah, that's right.
At the same time, the media continuing to cover themselves in glory in their coverage of this conflict, and some truly shocking pieces were published over the weekend. That we had to take note of. This first one is just I genuinely can't believe they published this. Put this up on the screen wall Street Journal. Welcome to Dearborn, America's jihad capital in Moms and politicians in the Michigan city side with Hamas against Israel and Iran against the US.
This whole piece is insane. I mean, they smear this American city, which has a majority Arab American population outside of Detroit, as being full of terrorists and gie hottists. Of course, there have not been any terror attacks or incidents in the city of Dearborn. Furthermore, they smear this entire city, of course, based on the actions or words
of a few. They also use things like protest chants to try to claim they're supporting Hamas or supporting terrorism, etc. Here's a line from it they say open support for Hamas is spreading. Since October seven, similar protests have occur in major American cities featuring pro g hottest imagery, chants and slogans. Rallies are now also expressing support for the Iran Bakhoufi's who are lobbying missiles at Israel and trying
to sink commercial vessels in the Red Sea. What's happening in Dearborn, they say, isn't simply a political problem for Democrats. It's potentially a national security issue affecting all Americans. Counter Terrorism agencies at all levels should pay close attention, so Sager, as if it's not enough to level this racist smear against an entire city, they also want to call in the FBI and CIA to make sure to investigate and surveil the residents of this city as well.
Yeah, the thing is is if you're going to say it's an America's jihad capital, that you're going to provide evidence of the vast majority of the people in the city actually support terrorism. And as usual in this conflict, like when you actually look at it, they are people who are supporting a Palestinian state or who are protesting against these really military campaign It's the exact inverse of saying, like any criticism of Israel is anti Semitic, because it's
conflating religion with a conflict over land. It's like, that's what actually drives me the craziest about this entire thing. I mean, and I know I'm dispassionate because I don't particularly care who controls the land or whatever, and you can look at it through more for our you know, in terms of interest. But the conflation religiously with land over a centuriled conflict which is far less old than
the actual religions themselves does nobody good. And whenever he cites, you know, supposed evidence or any of these within there, he highlights like a few leaders or moms or others, and doesn't talk about the actual population. We spoke to the mayor who was popularly elected. He says, I'm concerned about civilian casualties in Gaza, and that's why I may not support Biden. Okay, that's not terrorism. You can agree or disagree. Again, it is a totally legitimate position I
think to hold in US politics. And so yeah, it's a smear. There's no other way to say it. And you know, you could flip it and just say, I mean, what if I, you know, I live in a in a neighborhood with a lot of Jews, a lot of people who are very pro israel I sent you a picture about the gay Pride flag with the Israeli with the Israeli flag super imposed on it. What if you were to say that these people are all dual nationals
and are not real American citizens. You cannot say that, you know, like, yeah, they support it, Okay, that's fine.
You know whatever.
You're very juiciar, but you cannot smear them without actually knowing their character and what they call for. Now, accusations of dual loyalty are I think legitimate. If we're talking about individual actors who have in the past said that they have a direct allegiance to a foreign country, fine, but you cannot say that to an overall group of people, especially when you do not have evidence about it.
I mean, it's absolutely outrageous. The mayor did respond and put this up on the screen. He said, it's twenty twenty four in the Wall Street Journal, still pushing out this type of garbage, reckless, bigoted, Islamophobic. Dearborn is one of the greatest American cities in our nation, fastest growing city in Michigan, home to the number one travel destination in Michigan. That's the Greenfield Village, Henry Ford Museum, home of the Ford Motor Company.
Coffee, food, food culture.
Capital of Michigan, and among the most diversities in Michigan. This was so egregious that even President Biden was like, all right, I gotta say something about this one, especially as he was heading you know, to Michigan, and like, is at least somewhat aware that this has become a massive issue, potentially terminal issue for his presidential campaign. Put that up on the screen. Issue this sort of like
weakned you know, no place for hate thing. Americans know that blaming a group of people based on the words of a small view is wrong. That's exactly what can lead to Islamophobia and anti Erab hate. And it shouldn't happen to the residents of Dearborn or any American town. We must continue to condemn hate in all forms. And there's also an element of this saga I think that's quite central to this.
I mean, it.
Really is such a post two thousand and one flashback. There's the use of fear to try to you know, bolster the national security state. There's the you know, just smearing of entire groups of people. There's the conflating of free speech and political dissent with terrorism and support for terrorism, which is completely you know, outrageous and insane, so just absolutely disgusting and wild that this was able to make it to the pages of a prominent newspaper, and I.
Mean I looked into it.
It's from the Middle Least Research Memory, which is an organization. You're indeed, this is all like goes back to, you know, some of the some of the g hot watch days of early two thousands.
So it's not actually all that surprising whenever we consider it.
Yeah, anyways, kind of crap was used to justify an expansion of the surveillance and security capabilities of the state that will never be rolled back and only get expanded further.
So that's amazing, very rare. If you read it.
He's like, oh, in National Security, FBI and all these other people should take advantage.
I'm like, listen, we watched it all happened.
The post nine level security state pivoted after the Iraq War and after the so called terrorism and using Entrappman and all of this. How do you think that Whitmer kidnapping case or whatever you want to call it actually came to occur. They got a lot of practice and snaring and and trapping a lot of people. And now
this is my personal favorite. I've always hated Thomas Friedman because he's like a good reasons for that somebody, you know, the Big Bang Theory, that show is very popular, and somebody said, this is a dumb person's idea of what a smart person would talk. So that's kind of how I think of Thomas Rereadman. He is a dumb person's idea of what a foreign policy intellectual would look like. And his more excent column highlights that. Let's put this
up there on the screen. He says, Understanding the Middle East through the Animal Kingdom.
Oh, that's going to go well.
Now, keep in mind that this is the man who has often talked about his excitement and insight into Middle Eastern politics by talking to taxi drivers while he's abroad, notoriously, of course, the best people.
To tell you about what's going on.
Let's go to the next part here to explain the situation, he says, the US is like an old lion. We are still the king of the Middle East jungle, more powerful than any of us to go actor, but we are a tired lion. That's why other predators are no longer afraid to test us. Iran is like a parasitoid wasp is to nature. Now, is there a better description of Lebanon, Yemen? Syria and Iraq today they are the caterpillars.
The irgc is the wasp, the hoho these hesibla hamas cut up hasbula are all the eggs that hatch inside of the host lebanon Ye and Syria nic rock and eat it out from the inside out. We have no counter strategy that safely and efficiently kills the wasp without setting fire to the whole jungle. Now look, I get what he's going for. I guess that said I would generally avoid animal metaphors whenever we're talking about people and others.
But the other thing is, this doesn't even make any sense, this idea of parasitoid wasp old lions.
First of all, those don't exist in the same place.
But second, I mean, why can't you just describe the situation for what it is.
Why don't we have to use the animal kingdom metaphor at all?
Why we're like, well, the US is a preeminent hegemon in the region or regional power, it has diminishing influence. Iran is a rising hegemon which has satellite states much like Europe. It SARTs like Russia does in the post Soviet Union. It's not a difficult concept for people to understand, and I would act say that I would come away from this if I knew nothing even more confused about the situation.
So it's not even a particularly helpful explainer.
Yeah, not to mention, not a great idea to compare human beings to insects and vermin at a time when the ICJ and the US Court just plausibly found that israel'ski being genocide. Just gonna throw that out there, Not really a great idea. He closed that column by saying, sometimes I contemplate the Middle East by watching CNN. Other times I prefer Animal Planet. Okay, imagine you said that about Africa. Yeah, well, how would people like that? It
should be the exact same reaction. I think Ryan tweeted like, first of all, it seems like he was like on shrooms or something when he wrote this. And second of all, how the hell did any editor not look at this and be like, you can't compare human beings to animals, let alone insects, and think that this is going to be okay? Not to mention on top of like, outside of the racism and the detail humanization, this doesn't make any goddamn sense howl. Was there no one at the
New York Times, which supposedly cares about racism. How did no one look at this and say, you know what, maybe let's cut this one out and try for a different a different draft that doesn't compare human beings to watching the Animal Planet. Not that watching CNN is a better choice in terms of understanding the Middle East.
Actually that's worse. It does appear to have been deleted.
But they haven't so I'm on his byline. It is no longer there. It was available yesterday. That's why we had those screenshots. So maybe they did take it down.
I think when I looked it up yesterday it was hard to find, but it was still there. They sort of like buried it under a bunch of other columns.
It is no longer there under his byline. It was yesterday whenever we were preparing for the segment.
At the same time, CNN's own staffers are calling them out for what they described as journalistic malpractices. According to report from The Guardian, we can put this up on the screen. This is pretty wild, so CNN staffsa As Networks Pro Israel slant amounts to journalistic malpractice.
The majority of News.
This is according to one stafford that they interviewed, since the war began, regardless of how accurate the initial reporting has been skewed by a systemic and institutional bias within the network towards Israel. Ultimately, CNN's coverage of the Israel Gaza war amounts to journalistic malpractice, according to accounts from six CNN staffords in multiple newsrooms and more than a
dozen internal memos and emails obtained by The Guardian. Daily news decisions are shaped by a flow of directives from the CNN headquarters in Atlanta that have set strict guidelines on covers. They include tight restrictions unquoting Hamas and reporting other Palestinian perspectives while Israeli government statements are taken at face value. In addition, every story on the conflict must be cleared by the Jerusalem Bureau before broadcast or publication.
The Guardian here basically confirming the reporting of Daniel Boguslaw at the Intercept, which we covered at the time, that CNN has made a conscious choice to root all of their Israel coverage and Gaza coverage through the Djuri slam Burero, which is subject to this IDF censorship regime, and so every story that goes in comes down on the other side with the you know, language downplayed and Palestinians dehumanized,
and of course Israeli government statements are immediately greenland and included,
Palestinian perspectives downplayed or erased altogether. There was a piece in here because you know, we've covered there have been like last week I covered the how Jeremy Diamond, one of CNN's reporters, stumbled on they actually drove him through a desecrated cemetery and he was like, hey, what the hell is going on with this and caught them in a complete live So I don't want to say they haven't done any valuable reporting, but apparently those on the
ground reports, which have at times been fairly solid, are vastly downplayed on the US version of CNN, And you know, everything else that gets rooted through this Jerusalem bureau is just you know, classic, Like the language for Israelis is very evocative, it's very visceral. The language for Palestinians is you know, killed in a blast, no lay in assignment, et cetera, et cetera, as we've shown before, so really confirming what the intercept showed before.
Yeah, I mean, look, once again, it's one of those where we show Israeli statements and Palestinian statements all the time.
I don't see why it's all that difficult.
You can just parse both and be skeptical and just be like, Okay, here's what one side said, and here's what the other side said, and they.
Just decide that they don't want to do that.
The thing is for them, and I think this in general is they they're in a place where if you're going to have people sign off from the Jerusalem Bureau, then what's the point even in speaking out or whatever. It's like, clearly these they have committed themselves to a narrative, to access and to all that. To a certain extent, I understand because how they're probably just kick you out
of the country. But you need to have a lot more disclosure, which is what I appreciated in the past when they would air some of these things, as opposed to some of the silent things they were like listen, in order to film inside Gaza, we had to provide to this the IDF and they straight up censor whatever they want. But the silent censorship that goes through, you know, on the back end that they don't disclose. That's actually what I think is the most punish it's.
Very pernishe yes, it's really prodicious. And you know, there have been multiple analyzes. I think also some of these were by the intercept as well. At the language that's used to describe Palestinians versus the language that's used to describe Israeli's, how much Israeli deaths are covered versus actually is the Palestinian death toll rows they got covered less. So these do represent, you know, not a one off. You know, this particular story maybe shouldn't have compared the
Middle East to the Animal Kingdom. It really does represent a systematic bias at CNN in particular. But the truth of the matter is a similar bias has been proven by that type of analysis at basically.
Every Western media outlet.
But I have to say, to have your own journalists saying that what you're doing amounts to journalistic malpractice is pretty extraordinary.
Yeah, all right, Chris, Well, what do you take a look.
At Another day, another hefty load of evidence for the hegg against Israel. The IDF has been forced to admit that they have been running a propaganda channel on telegram aimed at Israeli citizens that featured snuff films of Palestinians being murdered, dehumanized as insects and vermin, their bodies desecrated, and the destruction of Gaza glorified. Here are the details.
The channel, named seventy two Virgins Uncensored, celebrated everything from a Palestinian being repeatedly run over to a mother grieving over her son, to the destruction of places of worship and reduction of Gaza City to rubble. The existence of the channel has been known for some time, as created on October ninth. Haretes was the first mainstream outlet to
cover its existence in early December of last year. Now, in that first report they were able to cite a senior military official who anonymously confirmed that the IDF was in fact directing the channel at the time. However, the IDF denied those claims. Now in a follow up, the IDEA has been forced to admit that their own propaganda
unit was behind seventy two Virgins the whole time. Here is Haretes with that reporting quote reversing an earlier denial, is railing Millik military officials have admitted that the Telegram Channel seventy two versions uncensored, was operated by members of a department of the Israeli Defense Forces Operations Directorate. The admission comes after a Haretz published an expose on the channel last month, which led to an internal investigation into
the matter. The probe, conducted by Major General od Ed Basiak, head of the Operations Directorate, found that the information led to the original denial that the channel was operated by or on behalf of the army was incorrect and relied on misinformation relaid by members of the Influencing Department. In the wake of these findings, the unit's wartime commander is to end his military service. So now the idea of claims that the Influencing Department was in fact running the channel,
but they were just freelancing doing so without authorization. Can make your own judgments about how accurate this new version of the story is. Haretes also documented some of the genocidal language, gore, and war crimes that were celebrated on this channel. Quote in October eleventh post read burning their mother. You won't believe the video we got. You can hear their bones crunch We'll post it right away, get ready.
Photos of Palestinian men captured by the IDF in the strip and the bodies of what they describe as terrorists were captioned exterminating the roaches, exterminating the hamas rats share this beauty. A video of a soldier allegedly dipping machine gun bullets and pork fat is captioned what a man grease's bullets with lard. You won't get your virgins. Another caption was garbage juice another dead terrorist. You have to
watch it with the sound you'll die laughing. Analyst Knox Bilaal has been tracking the content on the channel as well. According to Blal, on seventy two Virgins, you could find this video of buildings in Gaza being demolished. Each time one is reduced to rubble, the twirling manora on the screen gets another candle. The caption reads, burn Gaza down.
You can also find some of the images that horrified the world but apparently delighted the Israeli audience of seventy two Virgins, Men and young boys being detained and humiliated in Gaza. Here's what they apparently considered a whole larious post advertising a destroyed building as if it was luxury real estate. Gaza six rooms, three hundred and sixty degree view, spacious roof street with lots of parking exclusively for sale. For those interested, a pool can be added.
Lol.
Many commentators have been shocked by the willingness of IDF soldiers to publish tiktoks advertising their war crimes and atrocities to the world. Incredibly, the shock was often at their willingness to publish these crimes, rather than the commission of the crimes themselves. But here we have the propaganda unit of the IDF itself running a snuff aggregation channel. It
makes several things really quite clear. First, far from being ashamed of their war crimes, the IDF in the Israeli government want Jewish Israelis to know just how brutal they are actually being, how complete the destruction and annihilation and suffering. After all, remember the polls found only one point eight percent of Israeli Jews thought the IDF were using too much firepower, nearly sixty percent that they were not using enough.
And since the IDEF can't actually accomplish any of their supposed military objectives, brutality is meant to substitute for success. After all, Hamas is not destroyed, the idea has killed more of their own hostages than they have rescued. The tunnel system is largely intact, and far from creating a shock in the population that would lead them to abandon their fight, the Israelis have only strengthened the logic of
violent resistance among Palestinians. Domestically, Israel suffering a tremendous economic blow and echin closer to outright global Paria's status having already been found to be plausibly committing genocide. Even the pathetic and genocide of Betting Biden administration, alongside the pathetic and genocide of Betting Stunac UK government are considering unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.
Hamas is likely strengthened, and.
The security of the Israeli people has only been further compromised. So gore horror and incitement to genocide are proffered as a way to cover for the abject, systematic failure to accomplish any of these supposed goals of this up. The
idea of atrocity. Tiktoks are not a bug, but a feature of this system, not just allowed, but encouraged After all, this entire seventy two versions channel was sustained and populated with multiple posts daily, including confidential operational details, four months by the very unit dedicated to putting out the version of the war and the messaging on the war that
the official powers that be wont to see propagated. I'm reminded of Harad's recent report from the ethnic cleansing conference just held in Israel, intended by more than a dozen government ministers. According to their journalists there on the ground, the most rapturous response was reserved for exactly this type
of content quote. The biggest response came for videos of soldiers in Gaza calling for the strip to be resettled, shouting out that there are no innocence or photographing themselves with banners for the Katif Block, that is, the former settlements in the Gaza Strip.
So stop being.
Puzzled by the mystery of idea of soldiers filming their atrocities. These same tiktoks, which spark revulsion around the globe are met with awe and admiration by the domestic population on whom Net and Yahoo and Code depend on for their grip on power. The soldiers committing those crimes, they're celebrated as heroes. Now it is cold comfort for the Palestinians who are being subjected to torture, servation, mass killings, and complete
annihilation of their civil society. But every one of these incidents makes it that much more difficult for the Israeli government to wriggle their way out of those ICJ genocide charges.
How can you argue that Bebe's calls to destroy Analek, or President Herzog's declaration that there are no inn and civilians, or Defense Secretary galantz comment that they are fighting human animals be taken as anything other than official government policy when the idea is running a channel to glorify actions entirely consistent with these genocidal comments.
How can you possibly view these.
Comments and actions as fringe when they're being pushed as the official face of the war by the idea of Propaganda Unit. The genocidal snuff films broadcast by seventy two Virgins are official God from It policy and Sagara.
I think it's important for people.
To recognet and if you want to hear my reaction to Crystal's monologue, become a premium subscriber today.
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The lever was able to get their hands on some internal documents from a PAC tremendous force in US politics, revealing some of their top donors. We can go ahead and put this up on the screen headline here inside the Israel Lobby's new ninety million dollar war chest. Internal APAC materials reveal huge gifts from moguls and the strategies lobbyists used to score the cash. Joining us now in order to break down that bombshell report is senior Enterprise
reporter for the Level Lever Amos Barshad. Great to have you, Amos, welcome, thank you, great to be here. Yeah, of course, just tell us a little bit to start with about what you found here. Yeah.
So basically we were able, to the course of our reporting learn a good amount about you know, internal APEC UH information, namely donors UH these are not donors that are public under you know, election disclosure laws, and also specifically the amount of money that has come in kind of at the end of twenty twenty three UH.
And then from there also some.
Of the UH manners in which they were able to solicit the donations, the h the actual kind of talking points and you know, effectively the way that APEX speaks to its own donors, which is, you know, despite you know, the APAX long and well well covered history.
Uh.
You know, as far as being a political player, this is not stuff that has previously been covered at length.
So tell us tell us about some of the people that you were able to uncover, Amos.
Yeah, there's a lot of finance, private equity individuals, a good amount of kind of well known founders of companies from from uh, companies like Zoomba, the founder of the Sharper Image.
Uh.
The name h one name.
In particular that that may be well known or at least the company may be well known, as the the owner of only Fans, the internet platform that's kind of well known for the adult content.
Uh. Leon named Dvinsky. Uh, we should say that he denied being a donor.
Uh, but there was some information specifically uh wire transfer from his wife to a pac which which we weren't able to get comment on from him.
So I actually have that part of the report if I could just read it, because it's kind of entertaining. You say that three individuals name on the list denied being donors. That includes Leon d Ardvinsky, the billionaire owner of OnlyFans. According to the internal documents, Radvinsky and his wife pledged eleven million to a pack, the most of anyone listed.
Quote.
I didn't donate or pledge eleven million, Radvinski wrote in an email, and supplies to me my foundation, my family. When the lever asked Radvinsky why APAC had listed him as a donor, he replied, I don't know. When the lever asked Radvinsky to comment on internal APAC documentation showing a wire transfer from his wife to a PAC, Radvinsky stopped responding. So once you showed him the actual documentation, suddenly he didn't have any more to say.
We asked him to comment, We yeah, just to specify. We didn't share the actual documentation. We asked comment on that.
Yeah.
The whole the whole experience of reporting this was very interesting and at times colorful and intense. Yeah, basically cold calling billionaires and.
They don't like that. But yeah, you know, I think at the same time.
You know, some of the people that I spoke to were happy to explain why they were donors, and I think that was illuminating as well as you know, hearing some of the talking points directly from APAC.
Yeah, I think there was a lot.
Of a lot, a lot to learn as far as the internal narrative of the internal conversations that are happening, I.
Guess you could say, like within the APAC community.
So amos, why did APAC solicit this money from these donors? What are they asking the money for? To what purpose? For a campaign for intervening in primaries? Give us an insight into the pitch and why people were able were willing to donate that money.
Yeah, absolutely so.
So so the through line, the headline is always you know, to strengthen the Israeli US relationship. You know, the idea is that both countries are better off for it. And then specifically this is kind of a you know, it gets kind of into the nitty gritty, but a PAC is a social welfare organization, so they're legal legally, their primary purpose can't be politics, So this money.
Can't necessarily be spent on politics.
Like within that, there's a wide range of ways in which it can ultimately affect, you know.
The political process.
But that's why it's not beholden to to federal election disclosure laws. So when they are asking for the money. They don't, they don't ask for it for any specific purposes like that. It's really always about uh. Uh, you know, Israel is at war and needs us, you know, through your support for for Israel. Right now, you too are part of this greater effort, you know.
Uh.
You know, uh, one of.
The speakers through one of the events that we that we reviewed, you know, with speaking and suggesting that the supporters of APAC are now mobilized in the war effort, you know, literally part of the war effort.
Uh.
In this in this dramatic and and and kind of I guess you could say a bit over the top way. And you know, I think I think I think it's interesting because you know, there's not a lot of conversation about the overall you know, impacting gods that there's a lot there was a good amount of conversation about civilian casualties, but only so far as to say that the IDF is doing its best to minimize the civilian casualties.
Uh.
And then the the pitch is always you know, this community, the through line of the pitch is opten. You know, this community is coming together, you know, solidarity. You know, they need us they need you, they need your support financially, and it becomes, you know, a way to have impact beyond just giving money. Right, It's like it's like you're helping helping people in this grand and dramatic way. Yeah.
Interesting.
A few of the other names that you have on this list that people may find noteworthy, longtime sort of infamous polster Mark Penn, Les Wesner, famously very close associate of Jeffrey Epstein and Congressman David Trone, Which gets to the even though this is technically not a directly electoral politics organization, how impactful they are in terms of American politics and a fur their underscore that. I was reminded of the fact that APAC Leadership actually was granted a
meeting with net Yahoo just a few months back. But in what ways talk about the significance of Representative Trone, who's now running for Senate in Maryland, of his donation and the way that they're already deploying some of this money in order to shape American politics.
Yeah, so Tron is interestingly rare, uh, his his his campaign, he's running per sentate. It was was was happy to confirm this because he's actually discussed his support for for Israel and and and his support for a PACK in the past. Uh and so, you know, fundamentally is part of the reporting process. This was helpful for us to confirm the you know, veracity of the list and the information that we got in general.
Uh.
And then and then with him specifically, he's getting money back through the a PAC Pack, which is a recently in the twenty twenty two election cycle formed two groups of super Pack and a Pack so so so through the APAC Pack they can earmark contributions from donors directly to him.
And so that's what's been going on recently with him.
Uh and so yeah, so it's basically you know, uh, the idea that he that he himself is don't.
And then in a way kind of getting the money back.
I guess you could see it that way, but you know, kind of more generally speaking, he clearly has stated where he where he where he is in the political spectrum.
You know, he is a proud APAC supporter.
Interestingly, he has recently expressed support for a ceasefire and so and so, yeah, I think it is showing that as the you know, as as this war is continuing, some of the traditional hardline support, maybe maybe wavering in certain ways.
I guess we'll see. I guess we'll learn as this continues.
And then yeah, and then more generally, what we saw in the twenty twenty two through their APEX, through through their more newly formed organizations, effectively spending money in democratic primaries and so going after anyone that is deemed to be.
Critical of Israel.
And they also did so not by spending money on Israel, but actually spending money on the other campaign issues in any given number of those primaries.
So it's just a.
Way of spending money and would proved to be a very effective way, I think basically, and the majority of the primaries that they that they entered, that they spend money and they were successful in getting there preferred candidate over the line.
Yeah.
Well, and there were also instances, as Ryan Grim reported in his book, where just the possibility of them getting involved in a primary was enough to win over the unconditional support of John Fetterman, apparently in the state of Pennsylvania. And we've seen the way that that is all played out. Amos,
Thank you so much. This report is incredibly important. I think people need at the very least to understand where the money is coming from and the groups that are influencing our politics, and why we see some of the dynamics unfolding that we have. So thank you so much for joining us today to unpack some of that.
Thanks amos, Thank you guys.
All right, guys, thank you so much for watching.
As we said, we've got the RFK junior focused group that is coming out or actually happening today. It'll be coming out soon thanks to our premium subscribers who can watch your early Breakingpoints dot com.
Otherwise, we'll see you all tomorrow