You're listening to the Buck Sexton Show podcast. Let make sure you subscribe to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Buck Brief everybody. We're going to continue with our coverage today of everything happening in Israel and the war against Hamas. There joining us is our friend David Harsanyi. He is a senior editor at The Federalist. David, thanks for being here.
It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Now, I know the conflict is just really beginning now. The Israeli response, the counter strike is underway as we speak, and we've spent time on the show this week already discussing the atrocity, the heinousness of these crimes. It's beyond comprehension. It is an evil that it goes to the worst steps of depravity. I want to ask you, what do you think the strategy now the end state should be for net and Yahoo, the Israeli leadership. What what does the right response look like?
Wow? I mean you know, there are I think different facets that I have to go through.
There.
One is, obviously you need to take care of Hamas. Now, I don't think that mission is done until you're speaking about them in the past tense, so you you know that means a ground war or you know, house to house combat or whatever in Gaza, which is going to be incredibly dangerous. I'm not like an expert, but surely it will be booby trapped. Because Israelis go out of their way to help civilians. They're basically like projecting where they're going to go, so Hamas knows where they're going
because they want to move civilians. So it's going to be Israelis are going to lose lives doing that, but I think it's a necessary thing to do. Then obviously you have to start thinking about Isabella, and they're you know, threatening Israel constantly in the north, another Iranian proxy with real missiles, you know, far more dangerous armaments, I think.
And then you have to start thinking about Iran. If a country actually they did, I mean, if a country helped logistically and with funding to attack your country, to kill your citizens and celebrated it, that's a declaration of war in most places for any normal country. Iranians did that to Israel and two eleven American citizens, not to mention the six hundred soldiers they've killed in the past, or more of Americans and the hostage industry they have.
So im not saying we should go to war with them. What I'm saying is Israel is it has to in some way weaken that regime or hurt them. There has to be a price to pay for this, or they're going to do it again. And another country that needs to be thought about is Qatar, where Hamas leadership just sits in a Nancy Hotel room as this goes on. I mean, they're supposedly an ally of the United States, you know, I don't know. Those are the things that popped them up into my mind right now.
What do you think about the the change that this may have in terms of the long term implications for what happens with the West Bank, with Gaza, you know, talk of two state solution, all this kind of stuff. I mean, it seems to me that Hamas has made it as clear as it as it honestly possibly can that not only does it have no it has no interest in a peaceful solution ever, but it is just a sworn mortal enemy of every every Jew in Israel, every Jew.
In the world. Yeah, that was never going to happen. I mean Hamas. I'm sure your listeners know, and you know Gaza was given to Hama because it was given to the Palestinians in two thousand and five. It's kind of a test run for a state. I mean, Sharon, who was Prime Minister, literally went in there and moved Jews out. It was cleansed of Jews and they had a chance to have their own state. And what did they do they you know, they they elected Hamas. They
killed Fatzau, which is supposedly more moderate action. There is no way that that can never be a sate and not I think it was this summer Fata and Jammas Warren talks to have a unity government. If you give any Palestinian the state, it's going to be a Fata run. I mean it's going to be a Humas run state. Kind of an elections in the West Bank because Hummas will win or people like Huamas will win those elections. That's why they don't have elections. So that is the
dead idea. There is no two state solution here. There are already two states or three. There's Jordan, which has a majority Palestinian population, There's Egypt, and then there's Israel. Those are real countries. Those are the countries that in the end will have to work this out. From my perspective, as far as the government in Israel goes, I think there's going to be a price to pay for having the largest security breach in the history of that country
in the history. Worse than Young Kipper War, worse than the nineteen sixties missile crisis. This is devastating, and I don't know why Netanyahu has been very despite perceptions here, very soft on Hamas overall, and he's not a hawkish type as they always portray him. I don't know how you can let this happen. People need to There has to be a political price for it as well. I don't know where that goes, but there has to be a political price.
I think we'll come back to this in just a second a word from our sponsor. We're gonna witness our deficit continue to get much bigger this year, and as you know, inflation is already hitting hard. That's going to cause future interest rates to rise. Our government's going to print and borrow more money. You'll understand the cycle that we're in, and you feel powerless in all this to protect the value of your savings and your retirement accounts.
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and I think they're pretty obvious things to say. What do you think of people that are tying biden administration policy vis ivy Iran and the six billion dollars and all of that too in any way, whether sort of encouraging or or even directly funding the preparations for this incident, the sneak attack that we saw. I mean, how do you assess all that.
Gave a good present, give a good speech yesterday? You know, the that doesn't change the fact, first of all, that six billion. You know, the idea that that six billion didn't go to this exact attack is just a child can see that. That's stupid. You know, everyone understands how money is fungible, and they're how they conduct their own lives. I don't really want to get into that, but actually, you know, I should say that it's not just six billity.
It's more like forty billion in waivers over the last few years. And that's not even talking about the hundreds of millions of dollars we send American tax payers directly to the Palestinians. The idea that none of that goes for this kind of preparation. Think about the scale of this operation down there. I mean, this is not something that you can just you know, get your gang together and do you have to plan this? It costs a lot of money. There are logistical things that you need
to do. Israel's not some you know, third world state, you know, with like a rickety fence. This was planned. I mean, it seems like maybe they are. Actually but you know this was planned. So there's a lot of money that goes into that, and there's no way that indirectly our money or the EUS money or the UN money that we give that ends up in Palestinian places does not go towards this. It is mind boggling that we would send money to people who want to kill us.
I'm not talking about Jews or Israelis. I'm talking about Hamas is, a terrorist organization on the US Department's Terrorists Justice Department's terrorist list. We're sending them money. It's insane. And has he stopped that payment? No? Has he stopped the six billion dollar check? No, as as far as I know. So, speech is nice, but actually he has done nothing really about those issues.
So what has I mean Biden's posture toward Israel, if it hasn't gotten a lot of attention in the first three years of administration, what would you say about it?
I'd say that he's a doddering old man who can put two thoughts together. And this is run by a bunch of ex Obama administration officials or pro Iran who wanted to lift Iran up to be a regional nuclear power in that area in my view, and that that's why you get people like Rob Malley, who, you know, I don't know if you've talked about this, basically had aspiring around him dictating Iranian policy or or you know,
being in charge of Iranian policy. There is still someone in the Pentagon who pledged loyalty to the Islamic state, that kills Americans, that he kidnaps Americans, that funds all least proxy wars like I see these like in the media, you hear people talk about the Arab Israeli conflict. There's no Arab Israeli conflict. Most Arab countries are peace with Israel. There's a Palestinian Islamic Iran in specifically nexus that Israel is fighting. It is not a war against the Arab
people or anything like that. And the Biden administration has acted, you know, in appeasement basically.
So yeah, I mean, I want to ask you a follow up on that, David in just a second. But first, since nine to eleven, the Tunnel the Towers Foundation has been committed to supporting America's heroes and their families, heroes who put their lives on the line to protect our country, our communities, and all of us. Heroes like nine to eleven first responder Lieutenant Joseph Mayelo, he answered the call
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to describe it. We talk about the appeasement a lot, but there seems to be an enduring excuse, making reflex and some kind of a fondness for the Iranian theocracy and the mulas who run it. Where does that come from?
And Hamas and yeah, So I don't know. I mean, I think there's long been a connection between the left, the hard left, which has now been normalized where people sit in Congress are a part of that, and the sort of Third World movement and against colonialization and against you know, all that stuff. So I think that's always been there. And people like Obama, who I forget the name. I think it's called Rising Sun. If you read that book, you see he's had a long term of fondness and
it's sort of almost an obsession with Iran. You know, it matters to him, and he surrounded himselfself with people like Ben Rhodes and Rob Mallley and others who believe that as well. So I don't know what the exact root of it is. I just I don't know. I just I think that they have an instinct to be an anti American. And I'm not saying like you can't be pro Palestinian states to make you anti American, but it's a civilization against barbarians, basically right from the thirteenth century.
And if you're on the wrong side of that, if you both side that, I don't know what to say. I think you're against Western civilization and you're against America and you're an anti semit I don't really know how else to say it. I think it's pretty simple. I'm not saying that we all come to the same conclusion of what how we should act or what we should do. But if like you're AOC and you're out there tweeting about Islamophobia today baby's heads are being chopped off Jewish
baby's heads, you're you're you're an anti semi. Functionally, you're an anti semi to me.
I wanted to ask you. And I agree, David, with everything you just said and I've been saying. I just think that this is a choice between civilization and barbarism at its core, and the barbarism is motivated by a hatred that is fundamentally just about anti Semitism and hatred of Jews. But I do want to switch topics just
for a moment, if I can. You know, it's just because it's been a lot, you know, it's been a lot this week, and I understandably so when it continues to be But I want to switch to the American political scene for a moment. Just get your sense of the RFK junior third party run, which looks like it's happening. How do you see this and what do you think it ends up doing? Like what's the effect of it?
Now? Just to tie it into what we were just talking about. I think that this is a pretty clarifying moment for me in the sense that you see a lot of these people who have kind of like become part of the conservative movement because of the populism, anti woke stuff, but actually are terrible on a lot of other things. Right, That's how I think about RFK. I am not a fan. I think the guy is completely nuts. He's one of these people who has for a long
time been conspiratorial and he tripped over something real. I'm not saying he was wrong about what he said about COVID or that he is wrong. You have to think about the bigger picture. It bothers me that so many conservatives or people on the right are enamored with him. I'm like, is this going to hurt Trump? More? Is gonna hurt Biden? Moore I don't really even know.
Do you know this?
If Donald Trump sees a poll where RFK is like taking away his votes, he's going to destroy that guy with a bunch of nicknames. And you know, he's going to bring up all this stuff the guy's done, a friend of Farakhan, you know, just the other stuff that he's done, and I think he'll be destroyed. I don't think he's going to be that big of a player in this election. But I you know, it's hard for me to get a handle on the American people lately. I thought that the last midterm. I see no reason
Democrats should be winning anything these days. But you know, so I don't know, David.
I this is my I walk around sometimes almost in a day, is like, what are people not getting at this point? You know, especially on things like the border and crime. I just I'm like, what what do Democrats?
Anything? There? Anything going well for Democrats right now? Crime is up, the border stinks. The economy is in big trouble. I think, you know, we're teetering on some serious problems. Inflation is up, interest rates are high, and no one can buy a home like this. I've never seen the environment primed for Republican landslide since you know, historically speaking since maybe nineteen seventy nine, right, and I think it's much work. People are more partisan now. I don't know,
you know how that's going to work out. There are other forces involved.
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Yeah, that's the best place to go for most of my stuff, David.
I always appreciate your your your humble moral passion and clarity. You know, your humility while you're while you're in the fight, man, I appreciate it and thank you for what you do. We'll talk soon.
Right back at you. Thank you,