Ari Hoffman, Associate Editor Of The New York Sun Interview

Another Alarm went off this morning in Israel as Iran stiriked against them again. Iran's Supreme Leader has no desire right now to slow down with the attacks on Tel Aviv. There are talks about how to get out of Tel Aviv while the country is under attack, and Ari has some advice for you. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We do want to get right to Riy Hoffman, who
is the associate editor of the New York Sun, and
he's been in Tel Aviv. He was covering another story
when obviously all this broke out, and Airy, I do
want to get to possible US involvement and and the
latest from there. But let's start with how you're doing.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Sure, good morning, Larry and everyone listening. We were woken
up at about eight o'clock this morning by air air
raid silence and the rocket alerts not the kind of
alarm clock you want to you want to set, and
it turns out, you know, I could actually hear the
boom of intercepted rockets over Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv was

(00:47):
not hit in this latest barrage. Suburb called ramat Gan was.
But the real big news out of its latest Iranian
barrage was the striking of the Soroca Medical Center that's
down in the country south in a city called Bearsheva,
in the middle of the middle of the desert. And

(01:08):
it's a hospital that serves around one million people a
total population. And actually, you know, patients had been evacuated
out of the surgical building that was hys directly just
a day before, and people here are calling that, you know,
either a miracle or you know, an act of great foresight.

(01:28):
But it just reinforces kind of how really volatile the situation.
The situation here continues to be aera.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Was there ever a time when you felt, because you've
been there now for a while, and let's talk about
in a second about how you planned to get out
of there, was there ever a time when you felt
your life was in jeopardy?

Speaker 2 (01:49):
That's a great question. You know there was early in
early in the war.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
You know, there were significant barrages here, uh, in central
Tel Aviv, which is normally not considered one of the
many front lines that Israel has across. It's several, it's
several wars, you know. I will say that the system
here is reassuring the system of alerts, and that's being

(02:14):
to everybody's cell phone. So you know, if you kind
of listen to listen to what you're told and do
what you're supposed to do, Uh, you know you're in Uh,
you know you'll probably be safe. I will say, though
you're walking around, you know, seeing the effects of shrapnel
and rockets. You know, places I've been just a day
or so before you know, you kind of have to

(02:37):
have to be grateful and hope to continue to you know,
to be safe and uh and not take too many
risks like being out of doors when when rockets are
firing are falling.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Do you know how you're going to get out of there?

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, that's a great question, Larry. And you know, this
is kind of starting to be some of the chatter
in in some of the bombshelters that I've taken cover in.
You know, some folks are talking about the Jordan option
that's going down to the border, either the Allenby Bridge
border or one further down all the way in the
south near the city of a Lot and then getting

(03:11):
over into Jordan and and and flying flying out from
a man. You know, there's still some complexities there in
terms of capacity. Other folks have gone down to Egypt
that's even more involved involved trip. I will say that
the American embassy does seem to be swinging into action,

(03:31):
and that's there. How could be just yesterday sort of
sent out the link or posted the link to kind
of register with the embassy and and and supposedly begin
the process of of of evacuating people. I'll just remind
everyone that, you know, the airport here is still closed
and the airspace is still closed except for certain incoming

(03:54):
flights that are bringing Israelies, especially fighting ages rallies back
into the country. So, you know, I think things are
kind of frozen until we see even a minimal pickup
of of of aviation. Needless to say, as long as
rockets are fire falling, that's the kind of a difficult,
a difficult thing to imagine.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
How does this end Aarian?

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, you know, I think and this is where we
come maybe torry this this question of American involvement. You know,
I think there's some thinking. You know, it's hard to
put a percentage, but I think it's more than fifty
talking to israelis here that we will see some kind
of American involvement. You know, what people are talking about
is a strike on the nuclear reactor at FORDAW that

(04:42):
requires an American bunk or busting bomb. Israel doesn't have
that bomb, nor does it have the means of delivering
that bomb of B two aircraft, So you know that
that would require American involvement. I think, you know the
question then would that then bring around back to the
table as crazy as it's and for some kind of

(05:03):
ceasefire and some kind of deal. But more and more
you're hearing here, you know, politicians talking about the possibility
of regime change and specifically of assassinating the Supreme Leader,
Ayatola Hamani. And that suggests maybe a sort of more
ambitious goal for the war. But at least officially, the

(05:24):
idea is to stop around nuclear program.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
Eric Hoffman, we all wish you well. We wish you'd
get back to the United States quickly. Eric Hoffman, Associate
editor of The New York Sun.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Thanks very thanks very