February 7, 2025 • 36 mins
Ted Cruz Sat Down with Prime Minister Netanyahu and Discussed the New Trump Administration, Iran, & the Future of Israel and it's People
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Well, let me start by just saying welcome. We had
a record number of you new listeners download this show
Verdict with Ted Cruz just two days ago, and so
for many of you that are near the show, we
want to say just welcome, thank you for being here.
If you've just found this show and you're paying attention
to politics because the Trump administration, you're going to love
(00:22):
being here. So make sure you hit that subscribe or
that auto download right now wherever you're listening, so you
don't miss an episode. And today's episode is going to
be one that you're gonna love because it is back
to the best part about this show, and that is
taking you behind the scenes with meetings and places that
no one else can give you in the podcast world.
(00:43):
And today's show is just going to be a lot
of fun because Senator I don't get to say this
every day. You just left a multi hour long meeting
with the Prime Minister of Israel who is visiting in America.
I've got a million questions to ask you about that,
but give us the overall. Well what was it like
just sitting with him with a new administration being in charge.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Well, sure, you and I are talking. It is eleven,
twenty two pm Thursday night, and I spent about two
hours one on one with Prime Minister net Yahoo this evening,
and he is in town. He obviously met with President Trump.
He has met with a number of congressional leaders, a
number of groups of congressional leaders. And I got to
say it is it is a whole new day in Israel,
(01:28):
it's a whole new day in America. It's a whole
new day in the world. And Prime Minister net Yaho
and I, he and I know each other very well,
we are good friends. And we had a very candid,
a very direct conversation about the incredible victories Israel has had,
taking on Hamas, taking on Hesbela, going after the head
(01:51):
of the snake that is Iran, and talking about how
dramatically different things are with President Trump back in the
White House compared to the last four years of the
Biden administration.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
So let's take people through the process when you have
a world leader coming in and you're going to meet
with him, Like, how does that happen?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Where do you meet?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
What is it like going through the security and the protocol,
Because look, he's a guy that a lot of people
in the world want to see have harmed under them.
So that in Israel is known for amazing security.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
They are, and there's very high security when you meet
with the Prime Minister of Israel. Understandably, he is in town.
He's staying at a hotel in town, and so I
met him at the hotel he's staying at. And the
hotel where he's staying, there's a lot of security. Secret
Service has erected barriers and they're screening and limiting the
(02:47):
people who can access it. There are some protesters that
we're out protesting because the anti Israel left is loud
and vocal. And so you go in You've got to
be pre clear, this was a meeting that was obviously
set up ahead of time, and you go through security
and and you end up going in uh what is
(03:08):
essentially a conference room that is set up and and
and it's typically set up. It was it was set
up tonight where they're there are two chairs, one for me,
one for him, uh and and an American and an
Israeli flag. And so so you meet in the conference room. Uh.
He had several advisors in the room and and and
I had a couple of advisors in the room and
and we had about a two hour conversation and and
(03:31):
you know, I got to say, first of all, the
Prime Minister's mood is I don't think it could be
any higher. He is feeling incredibly encouraged and incredibly encouraged
number one, that of the victories that Israel has been
able to win against Thomas and hesblah. But but he
is also, I think beyond encouraged by the new administration
(03:55):
in the White House. And a lot of what we
talked about was the incredible pressure that was put on Israel,
the efforts to undermine Israel, that that that for the
last four years we saw under the Biden administration, and
we talked about those those quite a bit. We talked
about how in the immediate aftermath of October seventh, initially
(04:18):
Joe Biden that the words he said at least were
quite supportive, and remember he flew over to Israel, and
at the time I vocally praised him for it, that
that was the right thing to do. But then the
the the anti Semitic wing of the Democratic Party began
to assert itself and the Biden administration began pressuring Israel
(04:39):
more and more and more, and we saw that in
terms of arms in bargoes. One of the things that
that Prime Minister net Know who talked to me tonight,
is how they were, uh, they were running low on
ammunition because over and over and he described at each
stage as they were taking the war to Hamas how
the Biden White House was saying, no, don't do that. No,
(05:00):
don't go after them there, No, don't go after them there,
and how they began threatening them, if you do that,
we're going to cut off eight If you do that,
we're going to cut off weapons. And he said, that's
already dramatically changed in terms of the Trump administration providing
the ammunitions they that they need to continue and prevail
in the in the war. And and and that's that
(05:22):
has made an enormous difference. And we've seen just in
the last two weeks multiple hostages coming home. I think
that is the direct result of a new commander in
chief in Washington who stands with Israel.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
You talk about what's needed, and that's got to be
a sigh of relief. But also part of this the
interesting conversation that you're having, because you guys have known
each other for a long time, you would consider him
I think to be a genuine, sincere friend. Yes, and
so there's obviously part of the reason why you guys
have such a long meetings. Yes, your friends, you know
(05:57):
each other well, but there's got to be an urgency
from his perspective of, Hey, I need to get a
lot of things done and I need your help, and
you probably have a lot of questions. How much of
that two hour meeting is like, let's go, what do
you need?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
We got to get through this.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, that was certainly a lot of it is me
asking what do you need from the United States right now?
And he was very gratified that on the ammunition front
that need has been filled and he needs America to
stand with him, to stand with him. Look, the hostage
deal is releasing hostages, but there are multiple waves, and
I would say Prime Minister Netnya who is very directly
focused on eliminating Hamas and also on preventing Iran from
(06:40):
acquiring nuclear weapons, and he has laser focused on that
quite rightly. Iran is weakened and weakened badly right now.
And it's weakened because Hamas was its major one of
its major proxies, and it's badly, badly decimated. Hez Below
was another major proxy, and that is badly decimated Syria.
(07:00):
The government of Bashar Asad another proxy for Iran collapse
because Iran is in such weak situation. But the result
of that is Iran has a real incentive to try
to develop nuclear weapons. And we talked a lot about
stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons and where are.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
We now on that timeline because we haven't talked about
that in a while here on this show. And I
think it's an important point because the last administration really
was kind of letting Iran do what Iran wanted to do.
How concerned is he and how close do they think
they could beat actually getting that?
Speaker 2 (07:36):
He is very concerned. I'm very concerned. And you look
at Barack Obama. The Iran nuclear deal, I believe accelerated
Iran's progress towards getting nuclear weapons, allowed them to build centrifuges,
allowed them to enrich uranium. The Trump administration quite rightly
came in and ended that Obama Iran nuclear deal, and
(07:59):
you and I have talked about before. That was a
major battle within the Trump administration. Both the State Department
and Defense Department under Trump argued that we should stay
in the Iran nuclear deal. Rex Tillerson was a Secretary
of State. Jim Mattis with the Secretary of Defense. They
were both vociferous on staying in the deal, and I
(08:19):
probably had two dozen conversations and meetings with President Trump
urging him to pull out of the deal, and he agreed,
and he did. And what it ended up doing was
was it turned or ran around, because what followed from
that was the maximum pressure campaign that put economic sanctions
in place, that cut Iran's oil exports and sales in place,
(08:41):
and that really had the regime incredibly weakened and teetering.
And one of the things that I pressed President Trump
very hard to do and that he did in the
first term was invoking the snapback sanctions in the United Nations,
and that again put enormous pressure on Iran, and as
(09:04):
a result, they didn't even enrich uranium above five percent
when Trump was president. But in November twenty twenty, the
Iranian regime gambled and unfortunately correctly that it could start
rushing to a nuclear arsenal and that the Biden administration
would let them, And so in December of twenty twenty,
(09:25):
the regime approved a new law calling for major nuclear advances.
In January, they started enriching uranium to twenty percent at Ford,
oh which is which is the underground bunker built into
a mountain that the Obama deal had left open. And
you know what the response was of Biden in February,
right after he was inaugurated February twenty twenty one, the
(09:46):
Biden administration rushed to the UN to rescind the snapback
sanctions that President Trump had put in place. And under Biden,
they allowed the international sanctions to expire. And we now
know the result. Today the Yatola's nuclear breakout time is
nearly zero and that is a direct consequence of repeated
(10:07):
decisions from Biden. And I believe now we have a
White House and a president who's not going to allow
Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
You talk about not allow them to Is that enforcing sanctions?
Is that the possibility of military being used? I mean,
what does that look like and what is best for
the US and also for Israel. I'm assuming some of that.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Was talked about, yes, yes, yes, sanctions, economic pressure, cutting
off their oil, cutting off their finances, and if necessary,
using military force not to invade Iran, not to try
to turn Iran into Switzerland, but if they are on
the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons using military force, either
Israel or America to take out their nuclear weapon capability
(10:55):
to protect America, to protect Israel, and that is that
is something President Trump has been very explicit about, and
it's something certainly that Prime Minister Dan Yahu and I
discussed this evening.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
We've had a lot of sanctions on Iran, but unfortunately
they've not been enforced, certainly in the last administration, the
way they were supposed to. So when you look at
enforcement aspect of this, and we've talked about ghost ships,
ghost oil that they've been able to get out to
the black market and still prop themselves up.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Is that changing quickly?
Speaker 1 (11:27):
I mean, granted, yes, we're on the third week at
the Trump administration, but how long does that take to
actually turn into effect where they're feeling it within the
government in Iran?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
List This is something I said on election night in
November in my election night victory speech. You were there, ben,
I said, tonight was a very very bad night for
the Ayatola in Iran. Because President Trump is being re elected,
we're getting a Republican Senate, a Republican House, and that
has changed things dramatically in terms of enforcing sanctions, going after,
(12:02):
going after the oil sales. Look, oil is critical because
that's where Iran gets the vast majority of its revenue.
When Trump came into office, Iran was selling a million
barrels of day. After he used serious sanctions on oil sales,
we dropped that from a million barrels a day down
(12:24):
to three hundred thousand. Joe Biden refused to enforce those
oil sanctions, and Iran when Biden came in, they were
selling three hundred thousand barrels a day. Its skyrocketed to
two million barrels of oil a day. That is what
funded Hamas, that is what funded Hesbela, that is what
funded October seventh, that is what funded terror against Israel
(12:46):
and against America. And so having a president with willing
to stand up is really significant in terms of Israel
knowing that America has her back. And by the way,
I got to say one of the things that was
really striking. So I talked with Bebe about October seventh
(13:08):
about the horrors that unfolded, about how Israel responded, and
they responded going after Hamas and how quickly the Biden
administration was undermining them. But I got to say it,
it got even more significant because you recall when Hesbela
began accelerating and escalating in the north of Israel and
(13:31):
attacking more and more, and you'll recall that Israel made
the decision to use the pagers, to use the pagers
to explode and to take out a significant number of hesbeloterists.
So so Bbe told me the inside story of that,
and I got to say, it is fascinating. I told him,
I said, listen, if somebody wrote this as the plot
(13:51):
of a movie, nobody would believe it. If it was
a mission impossible story. Okay, we're going to go undercover.
We're going to get an Asian company to produce pagers
and sell them to Hesbela and convince them that they're
really from Asia, when in fact, the Israelis planted tiny
explosives within them, and then Hesbela is going to distribute
(14:14):
it to each of their terrorists so that Israel could
detonate it. You would not believe it. Now, let me
tell you something that is stunning, and that this has
been publicly reported, but it's Also when Prime Minister Netanyah,
who made the decision to detonate those pagers, do you
know what they didn't do?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
What?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
They didn't let the Biden White House know about it? Really,
and there's a reason they didn't let the Biden White
House know about it because so many people in the
Biden administration were undermining Israel on a daily basis that
they had very real concerns if they let the Biden
White House know about it, that Hesbelah would be tipped
(14:52):
off and they dispose of the pagers and so it
would not take out the terrorists. They think, how messed
up that is when isra Real did not have the
confidence to trust in letting the United States, letting the
the the White House know how they're taking out terrorists,
because because they couldn't have confidence that that that America
(15:15):
would would would not leak that to to the hesbilit terrorists.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Well, you mentioned the pager, and there was something interesting
that happened the joint press conference with bb and President Trump,
and that was that Netnahu gave Trump a quote golden pager.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
It was clearly I think in reference to the Lebanon attack.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Did you ask him about that. It was obviously a gift.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I didn't talk to him about the pager that he
gave Trump, but but but he did describe. He did
describe like testing the pagers and in fact, it was interesting.
It was a fairly small amount of explosive in the pagers.
And and and when he said, his team was laying
out the plan and this is a plan that initiated
years ago, initiated long before October seventh, and he said
it was it was just a few grains of explosive
(15:59):
was small enough to be undetectable. And he was asking, okay,
is this is it enough explosive to detonate and do
real damage to the terrorist who has it? And they
said yes. And and Biebe told me the way he
tested it is he said he literally took one of
the pagers and threw it as hard as he could
at his wall. And he said it exploded and put
a pretty sizeable debt in the wall. And he said, okay,
(16:21):
that's that's that's a good chunk of explosives.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
By the way, I mean, I love the fact that
that's what Boebe would do, because it's totally it's it's
kind of how he is I mean, he say, all right,
I'm all hands on deck. Is this enough? All right,
let's see how much is enough? I mean, that's amazing,
because that's not how it would be done here. I
can promise you that.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Well, I'll tell you something else we discussed. So so
as as they continued to take out Hamas and then
to take out Hesbela, one of the real pivotal moments
was taking out Nosralla. Nostralla was the head of Hesbela
in Lebanon, and Biebe walked me through the decision making.
Nostralla was in an underground bunker uh and and they
were having vigorous debates about whether to take him out
(17:04):
and and and in particular what the time frame would
be on his being there. And I got to say
it was striking number one, the time frame on detonating
the pagers, that that that they had reason to believe
there was an urgency that they had to detonate it
when they did uh or or there was a real
risk they wouldn't be effective. Likewise, with with Nozralla, they
(17:26):
had intelligence on where he was in an underground bunker
and and they had reason to believe that that that
there was a limited time frame when he was vulnerable,
and and and so he walked through the decision making
on taking no Isralla out. Now you know, you know,
you know what when they did that again, they didn't
tell the Biden White House for the same reason. Now
pause and think about it now.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
In other words, to be clear, you're saying that Nettahu
was like, we couldn't trust our quote biggest ally, yes,
with the Biden Harrison administration.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
We couldn't tell them the truth. We couldn't be honest
with them.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
We were worried that they would not only I would assume, undermine,
but share that intelligence with the people that they were
actually trying to kill, which would be the terrorists.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Yeah, they were very concerned that the Biden administration would
essentially warn the head of Hesbela to get out of
harm's way. I mean, that is profoundly disturbing.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
It is shocking, especially after what happened. And you mentioned
that the hostages several times. Let's dive into that as well,
because there Well, before we do.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
That, I want to make a point about in Nostralla,
one of the things that BBI really emphasized is he
said Nostrala was critical to Hesbela and to the terrorists
because he was a charismatic leader, and he said it
was striking. So Israel had taken out most of Nosrala's
chief deputies, and it wasn't until September twenty seventh of
(18:54):
last year that they took out in Nosraela himself, and
Babe said, even with most of his chief deputies to
take it out, Nosralla was waging the war and doing
so relatively effectively, that he was a effective leader for
an incredibly dangerous terrorist organization, and so taking him out
(19:14):
had a profound effect weakening Hesbela because his leadership. Without it,
they were in utter chaos. And in fact, he said
that the taking Israela out was the critical piece that
resulted in Bashar Assad falling in Syria because Asad relied
(19:35):
on Hesbela terrorists to help remain in power, and so
taking Isralla out bebe viewed as really a pivotal moment
in critically weakening Hesbela and critically critically weakened weakening Hesbela's
patron Iran.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
All Right, so that's some pretty big news. So without
that piece of the puzzle, you're saying there's a chance
that is I would still be in charge right now
in Syria and more hiding in Russia.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I think I would say more than a chance, a
direct but four cause.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
So you put all that together, and as awful as
the attack was on Israel, the focus after that attack
has been unbelievable and and doing what they need to
do just to protect their people and make sure this
never happens again. Is just truly amazing to see that
the leadership of Netnyahu, the people around him, that their
(20:34):
military services, their intelligence services, the list goes on and on.
That also has got to be so sad to watch
that this is now where they are right there's this
continuing war, You've got the worries that you just mentioned
with Iran, and there's the other big worry and that
is there are still hostages.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
So where are we on that?
Speaker 1 (20:53):
What did he have to say about the hostage they
currently have in this hostage deal? When are we going
to see more be released?
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Hopefully?
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Well, many of the hostages have been released or have
been rescued by the IDF At this point, the women
and children have all been released. The only hostages that
remain are men uh and and and there are roughly
twenty hostages. They don't know for sure how many are
(21:20):
still alive. Some some may not be, some some they
certainly hope and believe are alive. And and Prime Minister Natya,
who is very focused on continuing to try to bring
them home. He told me early on, he said, one
of the senior members of his government said right after
October seventh that that we need to think of of
of the hostages as essentially as essentially dead, that we're
(21:43):
not going to be able to do anything about it.
And and Bibe told me he strongly rejected that premise
and said, no, we can. We can wage war on Hamas,
we can take out the military leaders, we can take
out the terrorist while while doing so in a way
to try to protect the hostages and bring them home.
And I will say that they've had remarkable success in
doing so. But the release of the hostages accelerated only
(22:07):
after Donald Trump was reelected.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
So you look forward with that, you look at Iran
and when is that going to come to a head?
I mean, are we talking in the next days, weeks, months,
Because we've been hearing a lot about Iran over the
last four years. We heard a lot about it when
Trump was in office from sixteen to twenty, but there
does seem to be a different level of urgency right now.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
What does the next month or two look like?
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Look, there is a real urgency. There is a real
risk that Iran, that we know they're close to a
nuclear breakout, they could attempt to test a nuclear weapon
because at this point that they're badly weakened and trying
to get a nuclear arsenal. There's a real risk that
the Iotola views that as the one way to regain
(22:53):
their strength, and that's incredibly dangerous. And I can tell
you Israel has committed to preventing that from happening, and
I believe America is as well.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
What is America's foreign policy now when it comes to Ran?
Obviously sanctions, implementing those sanctions, suffocating them financially is a
big part of that. But if they're still this close,
is our foreign policy and the DoD and the presence
wishes are they drastically different than they were even maybe
day one, because now they have the intel of just
(23:27):
how close we are. Is that what BB's point of
being here.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Is, Well, Look, I think the policy now is maximum pressure,
and that means cutting off the money. You know, at
some level it's not complicated. Don't give billions of dollars
to psychotic lunatics who want to murder you. You would
think that would not be a controversial proposition. And yet
during four years Joe Biden and Kamala Harris flowed over
(23:53):
one hundred billion dollars to Iran that in a very
real sense funded the desk squads on October seventh, and
it funded terrorism against America. I'll give you another example.
Look that the Democrats are right now going nuts over USAID,
and both the Democrats and all their acolytes in the
media are pulling their hair out because President Trump and
(24:15):
Elon Moskv have halted halted the funding at USAID, and
they're exposing all sorts of abusive payments, things like two
million dollars for sex changes in Guatemala, which which I
got to say, anyone who listens to that says, why
the hell are US taxpayers paying for that kind of nonsense? Well,
at some level it's nonsense. But there's also money USAID
(24:37):
put in that is not just an infuriating left wing,
woke political agenda, but is dangerous so Usai d under
Joe Biden, Kamala Harris poured hundreds of millions of dollars
into Gaza, and and that went much of it went
directly to Hamas. Millions and tens of millions of that
(24:59):
were in cash that could never be accounted for, and
they knew that the money they were pouring into Gaza
would benefit Hamas. In fact, the Biden administration formally waived
US anti terrorism law because they concluded that it was
quote likely that the money they were sending would be
used for terrorism. And so ordinarily, under US law, if
(25:22):
it's likely money will be used for terrorism, you're barred
from sending it. But the president, under the law, has
the ability to waive that law. And so rather than
not fund the terrorist, they waived it. I got to
tell you, I tweeted about that today. Elon Musk reposted
it and just said wow, and just that tweet has
had millions and millions of views. But it gives an
(25:44):
example what the Biden administration was doing in a very
real sense was funding the enemies of America and funding
the enemies of Israel. That's dangerous, and that ended on
January twentieth.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Let's talk about the humanitarian side of this and the
real needs of the people in Israel. What did BB
say from that standpoint? Because there is obviously a great
humanitarian need. We're talking about all this money with dods
that we're finding that we're giving to all these people,
many of them that are just waste and fraud and
abuse and absurd things like transcendered plays in certain countries.
(26:22):
When you know, as an American, I don't mind helping
our allies in times of need.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Israel is a great example of this.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
There is so much money, though that's being used in
such fraudulent ways that I do think there's a hesitancy
now to just say, Okay, what do you need? Because
it seems like everyone was taking from us and abusing it.
I think Israel is very different, and that's why I
want to bring this up.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
But what are the needs?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
So let me say, do you know what the amount
of economic aid and assistance is that we give to Israel?
How much zero dollars and zero cents? We do not
provide economic aid to Israel. Israel's not asking us for
money to feed its citizens. Israel's not asking for money
to provide housing or clothed. It citizens. Israel's not asking
(27:10):
for money for relief. The only assistance the United States
provides to Israel is military aid. Each year, we provide
roughly three billion dollars in military assistance. But that's we
do no economic assistance. We're not paying welfare. We are
providing military assistance. And do you know why we do that?
(27:32):
Why this is something critically important to understand. We provide
military assistance to Israel because it is good for America Israel.
Think about this for a second. Everyone who hates Israel
hates America bingo. And by the way, those who hate
Jews hate Christians, and everyone who Israel is fighting against
(27:58):
they're doing so to detect Israel.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Of course, Well there's a reason why. It's almost simultaneous.
You hear death to Israel chance and death to American chance.
A lot of times they're intertwined.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
The Ayahtola refers to Israel as the little Satan and
America as the great Satan. And so listen. One of
the things I said to Bbi, and I've said this
to him many times, I said, thank you, thank you
for killing terrorists, for taking out Hamas, for taking out Hesbela.
These are lunatics that want to murder Israeli's and they
(28:29):
want to murder Americans and they have Look. October seventh
was a horrific terrorist attack against Israel, but it was
also a horrific terrorist attack against America. Many Americans were killed,
many Americans were taken hostage. And so we provide military
aid to Israel because it keeps America safer. And it
also is incredibly frugal as a monetary matter because the
(28:55):
benefits we get from Israeli intelligence the Masad. It is
one of the most effective and potent intelligence networks in
the world, and the Massade has incredible intelligence on Hesbla
and Hamas, on Iran, on al Kada and Isis and
all enemies of Israel, but also enemies of American Historically,
(29:17):
they have shared that intelligence with us. If we tried
to recreate the benefits we get from Israeli intelligence in
their military, it wouldn't cost US three billion dollars a year.
It would cost us tens of billions of dollars a year.
And so we make that investment because it keeps America safe,
(29:38):
and they spend that investment to be very clear on
taking out the people who want to kill Americans.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
When you look at the money, and you look at
what's happening, and you look at the meeting today that
you had and the needs that are there.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
I think there's a couple of just overall themes.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
One we've Israel now knows that a MA does in
fact have their back too. They can start sharing intelligence
and talk about honest plans to protect Israel in America
because they can trust this administration, and that seems to
be maybe the most valuable part of this.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Three.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
We both have a true genuine agreement in our foreign
policy that we must stop Iran from gaining that nuclear weapon.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
And that also means.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Now you've got to figure out how you're going to
stop it from happening, and that could be using military
prowess to do it, Which brings me my final question
to you. Donald Trump's a guy that has been very
proud about saying I haven't started any wars, I get
us out of wars, and I try to end them.
Would you look at this as a war or more
(30:48):
of a just a straight up attack on a nuclear
weapons site. How should Americans look at this?
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Well, Listen, it's important to understand President Trump is right,
he has not started any wars we did not have,
and in fact he ended wars. He inherited the war
with ISIS from Barack Obama. ISIS had a caliphate, had
territory about the size of the state of Indiana, and
Trump within months defeated ISIS altogether and ended that war.
(31:15):
Because they were defeated and conquered the caliphate. There are
some who try to say that america first foreign policy
as isolationists is just withdrawing from the world and not
engaging with our enemies. That has not been the foreign
policy of Donald Trump. It's worth remembering that when President
Trump in his first term, he gave the order to
(31:38):
take out General Solomoni, the Iranian leader responsible for the
murder of over six hundred American servicemen and women, the
Iranian leader who had played a critical part in planning
planning terrorist attacks against the United States and against Israel
for years. And Solomoni, along with Nozrala, we're probably the
(32:03):
two most important terrorist leaders on the face of the planet.
And President Trump ordered General Solimani taken out, and Prime
Minister net and Yahoo ordered Nosralla taken out. And now
neither one of them are able to threaten America or Israel.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
It's incredible. I'm glad that you guys got to have
this meeting. I also just am really thankful as you
described it, that now I think Israel can trust that
they have a partner in the US and they're not
trying to they're not having to hide from the United
States what they're trying to accomplish.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
And we have the same goals.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Yes, And by the way, another aspect of it, so look,
the efforts to attack Israel. You saw them directly through
terrorism through October seventh. You saw them through Hamas and HESBLA.
And to be clear, the Biden administration was responsible for
a very substantial part of the funding for that October
(33:00):
seventh attack. But but you also saw it through law
fair through using international institutions to go after Israel. And
one of the most profound examples of the that is
the International Criminal Court, which which has has indicted BBUH
for committing war crimes and and and that decision is
(33:22):
grotesquely false. It was an anti Semitic attack on Israel,
but it is also a profound threat to America. Israel
is not a party UH to the International Criminal Court.
Neither is American and the International Criminal Court. There's a
real risk of it being used to go after American
(33:43):
officials and American soldiers that the same enemies of Israel
want to use the ICC to accuse American soldiers of
committing war crimes when we stand up to terrorists, and
and so, you know, just just a few days ago
in Congress, we voted on legislation to sanction the International
Critical Criminal Court, and I'll tell you it was really sad.
(34:07):
Every Democrat in the Senate except one except John Fetterman
voted no. They all voted against Israel. Amazing And to
be clear.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Is there going to be hell to pay politically you
think for this? I mean, the Democratic Party has become
really a lot of their leaders are just strited up
anti Semitic.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
Is there going to be hell to pay for that
at some point?
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Well, there hasn't been so far, and the Democrats feel
that there are no consequences. Chuck Schumer was among the
leaders who met with Debt and Yahoo and was trying
to give excuses for why he and all the other
Democrats voted against sanctioning the ICC. Today, President Trump issued
sanctions as president, and they were very strong sanctions. That's
(34:49):
one thing Bib was very happy about is he now
had a president that would stand up to the International
Criminal Court for going after him. Look, Bib is not
able to travel to much of Europe because they're European
nations who have threatened they will arrest bebe if he
steps foot on their soil. That is a profound attack
on the government of Israel. Think about it that there
(35:11):
are many European countries that he simply won't go to. Now,
let me ask a simple question to anyone listening. Trump
sanctioned the ICC today. Why didn't Joe Biden the ICC
did this under Biden's presidency. And the answer is, I
think the Biden administration wanted the ICC to go after
Benjamin Nett Yahoo. And I think we're going to see
(35:32):
facts come to light in the weeks and months ahead
that show some real complicity of the Biden administration for
the law fair attacking Israel. And that really underscores the
difference one election can make. And thank god we have
a president now who will stand up for America and
who will stand up and stand alongside Israel.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
Yeah, it's incredible, a great show.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
This is when I love doing this because we get
to hear things that you wouldn't hear anywhere else, So
don't forget. We do this show Monday, Wednesday Friday. Make
sure you hit that subscribe or auto download button wherever
you are listening to this podcast so that you don't
miss a single episode, especially ones just like this and
the Centaer and I also do a week in review
(36:18):
on Saturdays for some of the big highlights you may
have missed during the week, so it make sure you
check that out on Saturdays and we'll see you back
here on Saturday for the week in review.
Well, let me start by just saying welcome. We had
a record number of you new listeners download this show
Verdict with Ted Cruz just two days ago, and so
for many of you that are near the show, we
want to say just welcome, thank you for being here.
If you've just found this show and you're paying attention
to politics because the Trump administration, you're going to love
(00:22):
being here. So make sure you hit that subscribe or
that auto download right now wherever you're listening, so you
don't miss an episode. And today's episode is going to
be one that you're gonna love because it is back
to the best part about this show, and that is
taking you behind the scenes with meetings and places that
no one else can give you in the podcast world.
(00:43):
And today's show is just going to be a lot
of fun because Senator I don't get to say this
every day. You just left a multi hour long meeting
with the Prime Minister of Israel who is visiting in America.
I've got a million questions to ask you about that,
but give us the overall. Well what was it like
just sitting with him with a new administration being in charge.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Well, sure, you and I are talking. It is eleven,
twenty two pm Thursday night, and I spent about two
hours one on one with Prime Minister net Yahoo this evening,
and he is in town. He obviously met with President Trump.
He has met with a number of congressional leaders, a
number of groups of congressional leaders. And I got to
say it is it is a whole new day in Israel,
(01:28):
it's a whole new day in America. It's a whole
new day in the world. And Prime Minister net Yaho
and I, he and I know each other very well,
we are good friends. And we had a very candid,
a very direct conversation about the incredible victories Israel has had,
taking on Hamas, taking on Hesbela, going after the head
(01:51):
of the snake that is Iran, and talking about how
dramatically different things are with President Trump back in the
White House compared to the last four years of the
Biden administration.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
So let's take people through the process when you have
a world leader coming in and you're going to meet
with him, Like, how does that happen?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Where do you meet?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
What is it like going through the security and the protocol,
Because look, he's a guy that a lot of people
in the world want to see have harmed under them.
So that in Israel is known for amazing security.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
They are, and there's very high security when you meet
with the Prime Minister of Israel. Understandably, he is in town.
He's staying at a hotel in town, and so I
met him at the hotel he's staying at. And the
hotel where he's staying, there's a lot of security. Secret
Service has erected barriers and they're screening and limiting the
(02:47):
people who can access it. There are some protesters that
we're out protesting because the anti Israel left is loud
and vocal. And so you go in You've got to
be pre clear, this was a meeting that was obviously
set up ahead of time, and you go through security
and and you end up going in uh what is
(03:08):
essentially a conference room that is set up and and
and it's typically set up. It was it was set
up tonight where they're there are two chairs, one for me,
one for him, uh and and an American and an
Israeli flag. And so so you meet in the conference room. Uh.
He had several advisors in the room and and and
I had a couple of advisors in the room and
and we had about a two hour conversation and and
(03:31):
you know, I got to say, first of all, the
Prime Minister's mood is I don't think it could be
any higher. He is feeling incredibly encouraged and incredibly encouraged
number one, that of the victories that Israel has been
able to win against Thomas and hesblah. But but he
is also, I think beyond encouraged by the new administration
(03:55):
in the White House. And a lot of what we
talked about was the incredible pressure that was put on Israel,
the efforts to undermine Israel, that that that for the
last four years we saw under the Biden administration, and
we talked about those those quite a bit. We talked
about how in the immediate aftermath of October seventh, initially
(04:18):
Joe Biden that the words he said at least were
quite supportive, and remember he flew over to Israel, and
at the time I vocally praised him for it, that
that was the right thing to do. But then the
the the anti Semitic wing of the Democratic Party began
to assert itself and the Biden administration began pressuring Israel
(04:39):
more and more and more, and we saw that in
terms of arms in bargoes. One of the things that
that Prime Minister net Know who talked to me tonight,
is how they were, uh, they were running low on
ammunition because over and over and he described at each
stage as they were taking the war to Hamas how
the Biden White House was saying, no, don't do that. No,
(05:00):
don't go after them there, No, don't go after them there,
and how they began threatening them, if you do that,
we're going to cut off eight If you do that,
we're going to cut off weapons. And he said, that's
already dramatically changed in terms of the Trump administration providing
the ammunitions they that they need to continue and prevail
in the in the war. And and and that's that
(05:22):
has made an enormous difference. And we've seen just in
the last two weeks multiple hostages coming home. I think
that is the direct result of a new commander in
chief in Washington who stands with Israel.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
You talk about what's needed, and that's got to be
a sigh of relief. But also part of this the
interesting conversation that you're having, because you guys have known
each other for a long time, you would consider him
I think to be a genuine, sincere friend. Yes, and
so there's obviously part of the reason why you guys
have such a long meetings. Yes, your friends, you know
(05:57):
each other well, but there's got to be an urgency
from his perspective of, Hey, I need to get a
lot of things done and I need your help, and
you probably have a lot of questions. How much of
that two hour meeting is like, let's go, what do
you need?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
We got to get through this.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, that was certainly a lot of it is me
asking what do you need from the United States right now?
And he was very gratified that on the ammunition front
that need has been filled and he needs America to
stand with him, to stand with him. Look, the hostage
deal is releasing hostages, but there are multiple waves, and
I would say Prime Minister Netnya who is very directly
focused on eliminating Hamas and also on preventing Iran from
(06:40):
acquiring nuclear weapons, and he has laser focused on that
quite rightly. Iran is weakened and weakened badly right now.
And it's weakened because Hamas was its major one of
its major proxies, and it's badly, badly decimated. Hez Below
was another major proxy, and that is badly decimated Syria.
(07:00):
The government of Bashar Asad another proxy for Iran collapse
because Iran is in such weak situation. But the result
of that is Iran has a real incentive to try
to develop nuclear weapons. And we talked a lot about
stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons and where are.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
We now on that timeline because we haven't talked about
that in a while here on this show. And I
think it's an important point because the last administration really
was kind of letting Iran do what Iran wanted to do.
How concerned is he and how close do they think
they could beat actually getting that?
Speaker 2 (07:36):
He is very concerned. I'm very concerned. And you look
at Barack Obama. The Iran nuclear deal, I believe accelerated
Iran's progress towards getting nuclear weapons, allowed them to build centrifuges,
allowed them to enrich uranium. The Trump administration quite rightly
came in and ended that Obama Iran nuclear deal, and
(07:59):
you and I have talked about before. That was a
major battle within the Trump administration. Both the State Department
and Defense Department under Trump argued that we should stay
in the Iran nuclear deal. Rex Tillerson was a Secretary
of State. Jim Mattis with the Secretary of Defense. They
were both vociferous on staying in the deal, and I
(08:19):
probably had two dozen conversations and meetings with President Trump
urging him to pull out of the deal, and he agreed,
and he did. And what it ended up doing was
was it turned or ran around, because what followed from
that was the maximum pressure campaign that put economic sanctions
in place, that cut Iran's oil exports and sales in place,
(08:41):
and that really had the regime incredibly weakened and teetering.
And one of the things that I pressed President Trump
very hard to do and that he did in the
first term was invoking the snapback sanctions in the United Nations,
and that again put enormous pressure on Iran, and as
(09:04):
a result, they didn't even enrich uranium above five percent
when Trump was president. But in November twenty twenty, the
Iranian regime gambled and unfortunately correctly that it could start
rushing to a nuclear arsenal and that the Biden administration
would let them, And so in December of twenty twenty,
(09:25):
the regime approved a new law calling for major nuclear advances.
In January, they started enriching uranium to twenty percent at Ford,
oh which is which is the underground bunker built into
a mountain that the Obama deal had left open. And
you know what the response was of Biden in February,
right after he was inaugurated February twenty twenty one, the
(09:46):
Biden administration rushed to the UN to rescind the snapback
sanctions that President Trump had put in place. And under Biden,
they allowed the international sanctions to expire. And we now
know the result. Today the Yatola's nuclear breakout time is
nearly zero and that is a direct consequence of repeated
(10:07):
decisions from Biden. And I believe now we have a
White House and a president who's not going to allow
Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
You talk about not allow them to Is that enforcing sanctions?
Is that the possibility of military being used? I mean,
what does that look like and what is best for
the US and also for Israel. I'm assuming some of that.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Was talked about, yes, yes, yes, sanctions, economic pressure, cutting
off their oil, cutting off their finances, and if necessary,
using military force not to invade Iran, not to try
to turn Iran into Switzerland, but if they are on
the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons using military force, either
Israel or America to take out their nuclear weapon capability
(10:55):
to protect America, to protect Israel, and that is that
is something President Trump has been very explicit about, and
it's something certainly that Prime Minister Dan Yahu and I
discussed this evening.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
We've had a lot of sanctions on Iran, but unfortunately
they've not been enforced, certainly in the last administration, the
way they were supposed to. So when you look at
enforcement aspect of this, and we've talked about ghost ships,
ghost oil that they've been able to get out to
the black market and still prop themselves up.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Is that changing quickly?
Speaker 1 (11:27):
I mean, granted, yes, we're on the third week at
the Trump administration, but how long does that take to
actually turn into effect where they're feeling it within the
government in Iran?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
List This is something I said on election night in
November in my election night victory speech. You were there, ben,
I said, tonight was a very very bad night for
the Ayatola in Iran. Because President Trump is being re elected,
we're getting a Republican Senate, a Republican House, and that
has changed things dramatically in terms of enforcing sanctions, going after,
(12:02):
going after the oil sales. Look, oil is critical because
that's where Iran gets the vast majority of its revenue.
When Trump came into office, Iran was selling a million
barrels of day. After he used serious sanctions on oil sales,
we dropped that from a million barrels a day down
(12:24):
to three hundred thousand. Joe Biden refused to enforce those
oil sanctions, and Iran when Biden came in, they were
selling three hundred thousand barrels a day. Its skyrocketed to
two million barrels of oil a day. That is what
funded Hamas, that is what funded Hesbela, that is what
funded October seventh, that is what funded terror against Israel
(12:46):
and against America. And so having a president with willing
to stand up is really significant in terms of Israel
knowing that America has her back. And by the way,
I got to say one of the things that was
really striking. So I talked with Bebe about October seventh
(13:08):
about the horrors that unfolded, about how Israel responded, and
they responded going after Hamas and how quickly the Biden
administration was undermining them. But I got to say it,
it got even more significant because you recall when Hesbela
began accelerating and escalating in the north of Israel and
(13:31):
attacking more and more, and you'll recall that Israel made
the decision to use the pagers, to use the pagers
to explode and to take out a significant number of hesbeloterists.
So so Bbe told me the inside story of that,
and I got to say, it is fascinating. I told him,
I said, listen, if somebody wrote this as the plot
(13:51):
of a movie, nobody would believe it. If it was
a mission impossible story. Okay, we're going to go undercover.
We're going to get an Asian company to produce pagers
and sell them to Hesbela and convince them that they're
really from Asia, when in fact, the Israelis planted tiny
explosives within them, and then Hesbela is going to distribute
(14:14):
it to each of their terrorists so that Israel could
detonate it. You would not believe it. Now, let me
tell you something that is stunning, and that this has
been publicly reported, but it's Also when Prime Minister Netanyah,
who made the decision to detonate those pagers, do you
know what they didn't do?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
What?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
They didn't let the Biden White House know about it? Really,
and there's a reason they didn't let the Biden White
House know about it because so many people in the
Biden administration were undermining Israel on a daily basis that
they had very real concerns if they let the Biden
White House know about it, that Hesbelah would be tipped
(14:52):
off and they dispose of the pagers and so it
would not take out the terrorists. They think, how messed
up that is when isra Real did not have the
confidence to trust in letting the United States, letting the
the the White House know how they're taking out terrorists,
because because they couldn't have confidence that that that America
(15:15):
would would would not leak that to to the hesbilit terrorists.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Well, you mentioned the pager, and there was something interesting
that happened the joint press conference with bb and President Trump,
and that was that Netnahu gave Trump a quote golden pager.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
It was clearly I think in reference to the Lebanon attack.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Did you ask him about that. It was obviously a gift.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I didn't talk to him about the pager that he
gave Trump, but but but he did describe. He did
describe like testing the pagers and in fact, it was interesting.
It was a fairly small amount of explosive in the pagers.
And and and when he said, his team was laying
out the plan and this is a plan that initiated
years ago, initiated long before October seventh, and he said
it was it was just a few grains of explosive
(15:59):
was small enough to be undetectable. And he was asking, okay,
is this is it enough explosive to detonate and do
real damage to the terrorist who has it? And they
said yes. And and Biebe told me the way he
tested it is he said he literally took one of
the pagers and threw it as hard as he could
at his wall. And he said it exploded and put
a pretty sizeable debt in the wall. And he said, okay,
(16:21):
that's that's that's a good chunk of explosives.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
By the way, I mean, I love the fact that
that's what Boebe would do, because it's totally it's it's
kind of how he is I mean, he say, all right,
I'm all hands on deck. Is this enough? All right,
let's see how much is enough? I mean, that's amazing,
because that's not how it would be done here. I
can promise you that.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Well, I'll tell you something else we discussed. So so
as as they continued to take out Hamas and then
to take out Hesbela, one of the real pivotal moments
was taking out Nosralla. Nostralla was the head of Hesbela
in Lebanon, and Biebe walked me through the decision making.
Nostralla was in an underground bunker uh and and they
were having vigorous debates about whether to take him out
(17:04):
and and and in particular what the time frame would
be on his being there. And I got to say
it was striking number one, the time frame on detonating
the pagers, that that that they had reason to believe
there was an urgency that they had to detonate it
when they did uh or or there was a real
risk they wouldn't be effective. Likewise, with with Nozralla, they
(17:26):
had intelligence on where he was in an underground bunker
and and they had reason to believe that that that
there was a limited time frame when he was vulnerable,
and and and so he walked through the decision making
on taking no Isralla out. Now you know, you know,
you know what when they did that again, they didn't
tell the Biden White House for the same reason. Now
pause and think about it now.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
In other words, to be clear, you're saying that Nettahu
was like, we couldn't trust our quote biggest ally, yes,
with the Biden Harrison administration.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
We couldn't tell them the truth. We couldn't be honest
with them.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
We were worried that they would not only I would assume, undermine,
but share that intelligence with the people that they were
actually trying to kill, which would be the terrorists.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Yeah, they were very concerned that the Biden administration would
essentially warn the head of Hesbela to get out of
harm's way. I mean, that is profoundly disturbing.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
It is shocking, especially after what happened. And you mentioned
that the hostages several times. Let's dive into that as well,
because there Well, before we do.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
That, I want to make a point about in Nostralla,
one of the things that BBI really emphasized is he
said Nostrala was critical to Hesbela and to the terrorists
because he was a charismatic leader, and he said it
was striking. So Israel had taken out most of Nosrala's
chief deputies, and it wasn't until September twenty seventh of
(18:54):
last year that they took out in Nosraela himself, and
Babe said, even with most of his chief deputies to
take it out, Nosralla was waging the war and doing
so relatively effectively, that he was a effective leader for
an incredibly dangerous terrorist organization, and so taking him out
(19:14):
had a profound effect weakening Hesbela because his leadership. Without it,
they were in utter chaos. And in fact, he said
that the taking Israela out was the critical piece that
resulted in Bashar Assad falling in Syria because Asad relied
(19:35):
on Hesbela terrorists to help remain in power, and so
taking Isralla out bebe viewed as really a pivotal moment
in critically weakening Hesbela and critically critically weakened weakening Hesbela's
patron Iran.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
All Right, so that's some pretty big news. So without
that piece of the puzzle, you're saying there's a chance
that is I would still be in charge right now
in Syria and more hiding in Russia.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I think I would say more than a chance, a
direct but four cause.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
So you put all that together, and as awful as
the attack was on Israel, the focus after that attack
has been unbelievable and and doing what they need to
do just to protect their people and make sure this
never happens again. Is just truly amazing to see that
the leadership of Netnyahu, the people around him, that their
(20:34):
military services, their intelligence services, the list goes on and on.
That also has got to be so sad to watch
that this is now where they are right there's this
continuing war, You've got the worries that you just mentioned
with Iran, and there's the other big worry and that
is there are still hostages.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
So where are we on that?
Speaker 1 (20:53):
What did he have to say about the hostage they
currently have in this hostage deal? When are we going
to see more be released?
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Hopefully?
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Well, many of the hostages have been released or have
been rescued by the IDF At this point, the women
and children have all been released. The only hostages that
remain are men uh and and and there are roughly
twenty hostages. They don't know for sure how many are
(21:20):
still alive. Some some may not be, some some they
certainly hope and believe are alive. And and Prime Minister Natya,
who is very focused on continuing to try to bring
them home. He told me early on, he said, one
of the senior members of his government said right after
October seventh that that we need to think of of
of the hostages as essentially as essentially dead, that we're
(21:43):
not going to be able to do anything about it.
And and Bibe told me he strongly rejected that premise
and said, no, we can. We can wage war on Hamas,
we can take out the military leaders, we can take
out the terrorist while while doing so in a way
to try to protect the hostages and bring them home.
And I will say that they've had remarkable success in
doing so. But the release of the hostages accelerated only
(22:07):
after Donald Trump was reelected.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
So you look forward with that, you look at Iran
and when is that going to come to a head?
I mean, are we talking in the next days, weeks, months,
Because we've been hearing a lot about Iran over the
last four years. We heard a lot about it when
Trump was in office from sixteen to twenty, but there
does seem to be a different level of urgency right now.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
What does the next month or two look like?
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Look, there is a real urgency. There is a real
risk that Iran, that we know they're close to a
nuclear breakout, they could attempt to test a nuclear weapon
because at this point that they're badly weakened and trying
to get a nuclear arsenal. There's a real risk that
the Iotola views that as the one way to regain
(22:53):
their strength, and that's incredibly dangerous. And I can tell
you Israel has committed to preventing that from happening, and
I believe America is as well.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
What is America's foreign policy now when it comes to Ran?
Obviously sanctions, implementing those sanctions, suffocating them financially is a
big part of that. But if they're still this close,
is our foreign policy and the DoD and the presence
wishes are they drastically different than they were even maybe
day one, because now they have the intel of just
(23:27):
how close we are. Is that what BB's point of
being here.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Is, Well, Look, I think the policy now is maximum pressure,
and that means cutting off the money. You know, at
some level it's not complicated. Don't give billions of dollars
to psychotic lunatics who want to murder you. You would
think that would not be a controversial proposition. And yet
during four years Joe Biden and Kamala Harris flowed over
(23:53):
one hundred billion dollars to Iran that in a very
real sense funded the desk squads on October seventh, and
it funded terrorism against America. I'll give you another example.
Look that the Democrats are right now going nuts over USAID,
and both the Democrats and all their acolytes in the
media are pulling their hair out because President Trump and
(24:15):
Elon Moskv have halted halted the funding at USAID, and
they're exposing all sorts of abusive payments, things like two
million dollars for sex changes in Guatemala, which which I
got to say, anyone who listens to that says, why
the hell are US taxpayers paying for that kind of nonsense? Well,
at some level it's nonsense. But there's also money USAID
(24:37):
put in that is not just an infuriating left wing,
woke political agenda, but is dangerous so Usai d under
Joe Biden, Kamala Harris poured hundreds of millions of dollars
into Gaza, and and that went much of it went
directly to Hamas. Millions and tens of millions of that
(24:59):
were in cash that could never be accounted for, and
they knew that the money they were pouring into Gaza
would benefit Hamas. In fact, the Biden administration formally waived
US anti terrorism law because they concluded that it was
quote likely that the money they were sending would be
used for terrorism. And so ordinarily, under US law, if
(25:22):
it's likely money will be used for terrorism, you're barred
from sending it. But the president, under the law, has
the ability to waive that law. And so rather than
not fund the terrorist, they waived it. I got to
tell you, I tweeted about that today. Elon Musk reposted
it and just said wow, and just that tweet has
had millions and millions of views. But it gives an
(25:44):
example what the Biden administration was doing in a very
real sense was funding the enemies of America and funding
the enemies of Israel. That's dangerous, and that ended on
January twentieth.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Let's talk about the humanitarian side of this and the
real needs of the people in Israel. What did BB
say from that standpoint? Because there is obviously a great
humanitarian need. We're talking about all this money with dods
that we're finding that we're giving to all these people,
many of them that are just waste and fraud and
abuse and absurd things like transcendered plays in certain countries.
(26:22):
When you know, as an American, I don't mind helping
our allies in times of need.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Israel is a great example of this.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
There is so much money, though that's being used in
such fraudulent ways that I do think there's a hesitancy
now to just say, Okay, what do you need? Because
it seems like everyone was taking from us and abusing it.
I think Israel is very different, and that's why I
want to bring this up.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
But what are the needs?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
So let me say, do you know what the amount
of economic aid and assistance is that we give to Israel?
How much zero dollars and zero cents? We do not
provide economic aid to Israel. Israel's not asking us for
money to feed its citizens. Israel's not asking for money
to provide housing or clothed. It citizens. Israel's not asking
(27:10):
for money for relief. The only assistance the United States
provides to Israel is military aid. Each year, we provide
roughly three billion dollars in military assistance. But that's we
do no economic assistance. We're not paying welfare. We are
providing military assistance. And do you know why we do that?
(27:32):
Why this is something critically important to understand. We provide
military assistance to Israel because it is good for America Israel.
Think about this for a second. Everyone who hates Israel
hates America bingo. And by the way, those who hate
Jews hate Christians, and everyone who Israel is fighting against
(27:58):
they're doing so to detect Israel.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Of course, Well there's a reason why. It's almost simultaneous.
You hear death to Israel chance and death to American chance.
A lot of times they're intertwined.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
The Ayahtola refers to Israel as the little Satan and
America as the great Satan. And so listen. One of
the things I said to Bbi, and I've said this
to him many times, I said, thank you, thank you
for killing terrorists, for taking out Hamas, for taking out Hesbela.
These are lunatics that want to murder Israeli's and they
(28:29):
want to murder Americans and they have Look. October seventh
was a horrific terrorist attack against Israel, but it was
also a horrific terrorist attack against America. Many Americans were killed,
many Americans were taken hostage. And so we provide military
aid to Israel because it keeps America safer. And it
also is incredibly frugal as a monetary matter because the
(28:55):
benefits we get from Israeli intelligence the Masad. It is
one of the most effective and potent intelligence networks in
the world, and the Massade has incredible intelligence on Hesbla
and Hamas, on Iran, on al Kada and Isis and
all enemies of Israel, but also enemies of American Historically,
(29:17):
they have shared that intelligence with us. If we tried
to recreate the benefits we get from Israeli intelligence in
their military, it wouldn't cost US three billion dollars a year.
It would cost us tens of billions of dollars a year.
And so we make that investment because it keeps America safe,
(29:38):
and they spend that investment to be very clear on
taking out the people who want to kill Americans.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
When you look at the money, and you look at
what's happening, and you look at the meeting today that
you had and the needs that are there.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
I think there's a couple of just overall themes.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
One we've Israel now knows that a MA does in
fact have their back too. They can start sharing intelligence
and talk about honest plans to protect Israel in America
because they can trust this administration, and that seems to
be maybe the most valuable part of this.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Three.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
We both have a true genuine agreement in our foreign
policy that we must stop Iran from gaining that nuclear weapon.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
And that also means.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Now you've got to figure out how you're going to
stop it from happening, and that could be using military
prowess to do it, Which brings me my final question
to you. Donald Trump's a guy that has been very
proud about saying I haven't started any wars, I get
us out of wars, and I try to end them.
Would you look at this as a war or more
(30:48):
of a just a straight up attack on a nuclear
weapons site. How should Americans look at this?
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Well, Listen, it's important to understand President Trump is right,
he has not started any wars we did not have,
and in fact he ended wars. He inherited the war
with ISIS from Barack Obama. ISIS had a caliphate, had
territory about the size of the state of Indiana, and
Trump within months defeated ISIS altogether and ended that war.
(31:15):
Because they were defeated and conquered the caliphate. There are
some who try to say that america first foreign policy
as isolationists is just withdrawing from the world and not
engaging with our enemies. That has not been the foreign
policy of Donald Trump. It's worth remembering that when President
Trump in his first term, he gave the order to
(31:38):
take out General Solomoni, the Iranian leader responsible for the
murder of over six hundred American servicemen and women, the
Iranian leader who had played a critical part in planning
planning terrorist attacks against the United States and against Israel
for years. And Solomoni, along with Nozrala, we're probably the
(32:03):
two most important terrorist leaders on the face of the planet.
And President Trump ordered General Solimani taken out, and Prime
Minister net and Yahoo ordered Nosralla taken out. And now
neither one of them are able to threaten America or Israel.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
It's incredible. I'm glad that you guys got to have
this meeting. I also just am really thankful as you
described it, that now I think Israel can trust that
they have a partner in the US and they're not
trying to they're not having to hide from the United
States what they're trying to accomplish.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
And we have the same goals.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Yes, And by the way, another aspect of it, so look,
the efforts to attack Israel. You saw them directly through
terrorism through October seventh. You saw them through Hamas and HESBLA.
And to be clear, the Biden administration was responsible for
a very substantial part of the funding for that October
(33:00):
seventh attack. But but you also saw it through law
fair through using international institutions to go after Israel. And
one of the most profound examples of the that is
the International Criminal Court, which which has has indicted BBUH
for committing war crimes and and and that decision is
(33:22):
grotesquely false. It was an anti Semitic attack on Israel,
but it is also a profound threat to America. Israel
is not a party UH to the International Criminal Court.
Neither is American and the International Criminal Court. There's a
real risk of it being used to go after American
(33:43):
officials and American soldiers that the same enemies of Israel
want to use the ICC to accuse American soldiers of
committing war crimes when we stand up to terrorists, and
and so, you know, just just a few days ago
in Congress, we voted on legislation to sanction the International
Critical Criminal Court, and I'll tell you it was really sad.
(34:07):
Every Democrat in the Senate except one except John Fetterman
voted no. They all voted against Israel. Amazing And to
be clear.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Is there going to be hell to pay politically you
think for this? I mean, the Democratic Party has become
really a lot of their leaders are just strited up
anti Semitic.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
Is there going to be hell to pay for that
at some point?
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Well, there hasn't been so far, and the Democrats feel
that there are no consequences. Chuck Schumer was among the
leaders who met with Debt and Yahoo and was trying
to give excuses for why he and all the other
Democrats voted against sanctioning the ICC. Today, President Trump issued
sanctions as president, and they were very strong sanctions. That's
(34:49):
one thing Bib was very happy about is he now
had a president that would stand up to the International
Criminal Court for going after him. Look, Bib is not
able to travel to much of Europe because they're European
nations who have threatened they will arrest bebe if he
steps foot on their soil. That is a profound attack
on the government of Israel. Think about it that there
(35:11):
are many European countries that he simply won't go to. Now,
let me ask a simple question to anyone listening. Trump
sanctioned the ICC today. Why didn't Joe Biden the ICC
did this under Biden's presidency. And the answer is, I
think the Biden administration wanted the ICC to go after
Benjamin Nett Yahoo. And I think we're going to see
(35:32):
facts come to light in the weeks and months ahead
that show some real complicity of the Biden administration for
the law fair attacking Israel. And that really underscores the
difference one election can make. And thank god we have
a president now who will stand up for America and
who will stand up and stand alongside Israel.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
Yeah, it's incredible, a great show.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
This is when I love doing this because we get
to hear things that you wouldn't hear anywhere else, So
don't forget. We do this show Monday, Wednesday Friday. Make
sure you hit that subscribe or auto download button wherever
you are listening to this podcast so that you don't
miss a single episode, especially ones just like this and
the Centaer and I also do a week in review
(36:18):
on Saturdays for some of the big highlights you may
have missed during the week, so it make sure you
check that out on Saturdays and we'll see you back
here on Saturday for the week in review.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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