In this episode of The Tudor Dixon Podcast, Ambassador Yechiel Leiter joins Tudor to break down the realities of the Israel-Hamas conflict and the latest ceasefire developments. From Gaza’s urban warfare tactics to the humanitarian toll on families, Leiter offers firsthand insight into the ongoing struggle in the Middle East. The discussion dives deep into how media coverage shapes public perception, the influence of money on international narratives, and whether de-radicalization is possible in a region long divided by violence. The Tudor Dixon Podcast is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network. For more visit TudorDixonPodcast.com.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Today, I have Ambassador Yahiel Lighter with me. Thank you
so much for joining me. He is Israel's ambassador to Washington.
Thank you for joining today.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
It's good to be with you, tu, Thank you for.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Having me absolutely so.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Obviously we want to talk about what is going on
in the Middle East.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
There's so much happening.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
We know that there is the ceasefire, but we've had
some breaches in Israel has taken action. Do you expect
that to be sort of a back and forth for
a while or what are you expecting this in the ceasefire?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Well, Tutor, nobody really knows because this has never been
done before. Hamas occupies an area which is originally twenty
four miles long and eight miles wide, with two point
two million people and terror tunnels that are four hundred
and fifty miles of networking. And you have to understand
it's basically a city underground, a terror city, which initially
(01:00):
has some forty fifty thousand armed terrorists the teeth. Now
we've degraded them considerably. We're sitting on fifty a little
over fifty percent of the territory now and making sure
that the tunnels are eliminated, that no terrorists go into
that area. And we're very enthused and encouraged by the
ceasefire that the President has really invested in. President Trump
(01:23):
did something really incredible through his envoys, Secretary of State Rubio,
Vice President Fans, Jared Kushner, and See Winkoff, because basically,
not only do we get the twenty live hostages out,
which nobody thought could be done except the Prime Minister
of Israel, who's stuck to his guns throughout this entire
(01:44):
processes that we've got to get all the hostages out,
we still have thirteen deceased hostages we have to get out,
and according to the agreement, they're committed to doing that.
But nobody thought that we'd achieved the commitment for complete
disarming of HMAS and the demilitarization of Gaza. And that's
(02:06):
really the great success of the agreement. Now, the problem
is it needs to be implemented. But we do have
a firm commitment by all those signed on to the
agreement that this will be the case. We cannot have
ever again jihadis living on our border. What happened on
(02:26):
October seventh cannot be repeated. Again, whether it's in Gaza
or in South Lebanon or on the Syrian border. We're
a very small country. We're a tiny country. I mean,
we can fit into Indiana four times, we fit into
Nebraska about seven times. We don't have territory to give up,
and we certainly cannot have Jihadis on our border committed
to our destruction. So we've gone through this year degrading
(02:48):
the Iranian proxies. We've degraded Ramas, We've degraded risbala Osada
has fallen in Syria. Together with the United States, we
dramatically degraded Iran the head of the stake. But we
still need to see this deal that the President has
broken implemented, and that's going to be a challenge, but
we're hoping it's going to work.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Let me ask you.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
You are an American born in Israeli. You lived in
the United States until you were eighteen?
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
It's correct. Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Okay, Oh, you're a Scranton guy.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Your Scranton guy did not get this done for you,
though it was Donald Trump.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Well yeah, yeah, I mean, don't hold Scranton against me.
I was just born there. My Bank actually is still
on Joe Biden Boulevard, right. But yes, this disagreement came
to President Trump absolutely well.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
So I wanted to bring that up because obviously you
grew up the way most of us and most of
my listeners grew up here in the United States. Obviously,
then you moved to Israel, so you have seen both
sides of that. I think many Americans have no idea
what we're actually dealing with when you talk about the
Gaza Israel battle that has been going on for years.
(03:59):
But you brought up the fact that this is like
a city underground. That's something that we don't actually hear
a lot about. We've heard kind of grumblings of there's
these tunnels and there's that makes it a challenge. But
you said something about what two hundred and fifty miles
of tunnels, and this is an entire.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Four hundred and fifty miles, four.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Hundred and fifty miles.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Explain that a little bit to us, because I don't
think that we have a good comprehension of what we're
dealing with. These are not citizens in these tunnels, right,
This is Hamas.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Absolutely, we're talking about Hamas. I think the best way
to explain it would be to ask your viewers, your
listeners to imagine MS thirteen. Okay, a gang, a well
known gang in the United States, takes over a city
and under that city they create underground tunnels to protect themselves,
(04:56):
so they can shoot missiles into the surround and then
you can't really respond because they run into the tunnels
and to shoot back would mean to kill many civilians.
That's the dilemma that we've been in repeatedly. How do
you defeat an enemy that both uses above ground and
underground facilities. As a matter of fact, the most accomplished
(05:21):
expert on urban warfare, John Spencer, who teaches at West Point,
has said repeatedly that no army in the world has
ever had to confront what we had to confront in Gaza.
And you know the ratio, it's terrible. Every death is terrible,
Every innocent death is terrible. And we did everything we
could possibly do to limit a collateral damage, noncombatant damage.
(05:47):
And quite frankly, if we did what we're being accused
of doing of you know, killing civilians without any measure,
my son might be alive today. I mean, look, he
went in, he led forces is into Gaza by foot
seeking terrorists. Now, if we just straft bombed the population centers,
as democratic armies have done all over the world. I
(06:10):
don't want to mention any names, right, but if you
straft bomb population centers, you'll ultimately get to the to
the terrorists, but you're also going to kill many, many civilians.
Our ratio was better than the ratio that the US
had and Moscle, for example, which was one to three.
We're at about one to one point five. That's a
(06:30):
tremendously it's hard to say successful ratio, but it's war,
and in war, that's a very unusual ratio. And Spencer
has made the point that no one has ever had
to deal with this kind of complicated warfare. We've done
it really with two hands tied behind our back, because
not only were there civilians there, but they were holding
our civilian they were holding our hostages, right, so we
(06:53):
wanted to prevent civilian deaths and of course from that
affecting our hostages as well. So it was very complicated,
a very difficult challenge that we face. But overall, we've
degraded the Iranian proxies. I Ran had this idea that
they would create a ring of fire. Okay, how do
(07:14):
you destroy Israel which has a strong, very strong conventional army.
So they had this idea of a ring of fire.
They'd have Hamas in the southwest, the Huti's in the southeast,
Rispala in the north, the Oside regime in Syria, Hispala,
Iraq and everybody would attack at the same time. And
because we're such a small country, I mean, the whole
(07:34):
country is like forty miles wide, right, so they would
shoot missiles at the same time into the center of
the country. The center of the country is where seventy
percent of the population is. So if all of these
proxies attacked at the same time and our reservists couldn't
get out of the center of the country to the periphery,
we'd be destroyed. That was the idea. And Sinowar, the
(07:56):
leader of Hamas at the time, simply jumped the gun.
He did wait for everybody else, And had he not
done that, we would have been a much more difficult predicament.
So this way we were able to confront Hamas and
then confront Risbala. And what we've done is we've changed
the Middle East. Because Hamas is degraded, Chrisbala's degraded. We
have a government in Lebanon that really wants peace, that
(08:18):
talks about disarming Risbaala, the outside regime, that cruel, murderous regime.
And Damascus has fallen. There's a leader there that's now
talking about at least talking about we have to give
him a chance creating a civil society. And Iran has
been tremendously degraded because of the incredible partnership that we
(08:41):
have with the United States, the intel sharing, the air
forces that are shared with each other's capabilities, and we
created something just absolutely astounding. We abolished, abolished, we obliterated,
as the President said, the Rand nuclear program, which is
(09:01):
an existential threat to Israel.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
You talk about the importance of doing this, but it's
also very important to you and very personal to you
because your son. You mentioned your son, he was an
IDF soldier. He went into Was it one of these
tunnels that he went into where he lost his life
in battle?
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Well, my son was spent fifteen years in Special Ops.
It had actually trained together with Delta Forest. He was
Air Force Special Ops and at the age of thirty three,
decided to leave. Although he was in line to take
command of the unit. And he went to med school
because he said, I spent fifteen years in the army
and now want to spend the rest of my life
saving lives. And he had completed med school actually just
(09:46):
before the war. He got his white jacket on August
twenty twenty three. And he was the oldest of my age.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Old, yes, before the war, just.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Before the war. Yeah, he was supposed to start his
rounds in the hospital on August on October eighth, Yeah,
a dak. Yeah, but that he was the father of
six children and he was the oldest of eight children.
He was my best friend. It was an incredible human
being and he was he led forces. Actually the forces
(10:15):
entered Gaza in kind of a pyramid, and he was
the lead company because he was so smart and really
a field fox and he understood the the field of battle.
And on Friday, November tenth, he received in order to
find the shaft of a tunnel in the northern town
of Gozla called Petrondun, which was according to intel, in
(10:38):
a mosque, and he took his command team. They scoured
the mosque. He didn't find it, and he didn't give
up even though he could have pulled back and said,
I didn't find it's over, but he knew there was
a tunnel there from which they were exiting in firing
missiles into oshclone. So he said, we have to do this,
and he never gave up an assignment. So he continued
to scour the area around the mosque, and in the
(10:59):
second building he went into an inner room and found
the shaft to the tunnel, and as soon as he
wired to the forces, we found the tunnel. And then
he said, shabat shalone, which which means you know, Friday afternoon,
you wish each other a happy sabbath, wished everybody a
happy sabbath, and then they set off a booby trap,
(11:20):
which was a very very powerful explosion which they set
off from inside the tunnel. They followed them in a
hidden camera and they waited for soldiers to come into
that room to find the shaft, and the explosion was
so strong that it blew out their lower torso and
then brought down the walls on them from the top,
so they really didn't have a chance. So he together
(11:41):
with three of his command team were killed. And it
really is indicative of the quality and the commitment and
the resilience of our soldiers as a whole. You know,
you have to understand. Next to next to my oldest
son was my fourth son, who was a soldier of
(12:02):
his and he was thirty meters away from the explosion.
He basically saw his brother, you know, go go up
to heaven. And my second son was on the northern
border opposite his balla. And my third child, girl daughter,
her husband is a battalion commander. He was fighting at
(12:23):
the same time. It's just one family, but I'm not
an exception. All of all of my kids were on
the front. I do have one child with down syndrome,
so he wasn't on the front, but he was. He
was packing bags for the soldiers in the base. Everybody's
everybody's enlisted, everybody's part. This is a you know, a citizen,
a citizen army. And look the people, the soldiers we
(12:47):
lost over nine hundred many most I think were reservists,
about sixty per reservists with families. You know, people who
have day jobs. They're they're you know, they're bankers and
their lawyers and their engineers, and they have cyber companies
and you know, every regular people. And they left their homes,
(13:10):
they left their families and did in many cases, three
hundred and four hundred days of reserve duty over the
past two years. So it's been a tremendous national commitment
to seeing to it that Israel survive and we don't
allow this attempt by iran In's proxies to destroy us.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast. It's very hard because when you
are in the United States, you genuinely don't know what
is true. We keep hearing all of these stories of
people dying in Gaza, and it's devastating. Anytime you hear
(13:49):
stories of young people losing their lives, anybody losing their life,
it's devastating.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
But there's also.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
A real manipulation of the media that is coming out
of there, and so there is a lot.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Of questions to excactly what is going on.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
I know that you've talked about the fact that Israel
was very careful to warn people, to try to get
people out of there, to continue to feed people and
take care of people. That is not the story that
the media is spinning. So I want you to kind
of explain what that's like on the ground. And the
difference too, because I know, when you look at Israel,
this is a very free society and a very modern society,
(14:25):
and when you look at Gaza, it is very oppressed
by Hamas.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Oh absolutely, I mean, if people would only appreciate the
fact that part of what we're doing, I mean that's
not the you know, initial and primary reason. But at
the end of the day, there's potential here for two
million people living under tyranny to be free Hamas. When
the Hamas opposes you, you oppose Hamas, you get dropped off
a roof. I mean, the day after the ceasefire was announced,
(14:52):
what Hamas did was take out the clans who don't
agree with them and works out.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
I don't think we heard enough about that. I don't
think people understand what that meant. That these were these
were families, These were men. Who was it that actually
was murdered that day?
Speaker 3 (15:07):
These are you know, we call them clans, they're extended families, Okay,
and many of them, you know, not everybody in Gaza's Kamas.
We estimate of the two point two million, there's actually
about three hundred, three hundred fifty thousand. Who are you know,
signs steel delivered committed Hamas people. But you know, seventy
five percent of the population are not committed to Hamas,
(15:30):
and among them you have people actually oppose Hamas. I mean,
remember when Hamas to go over in two thousand and six,
they took the Fatagh people from the Palestinian authority and
they dropped them off buildings, you know, nine stories high.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
And now I think this is the story that we
don't hear because we are living in the United States,
where it is very black and white society.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
It's like one is good, one is bad, and we keep.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Hearing that there are people on one side saying everybody
in Gaza supports Hamas. But that is I mean, you
were really saying it's a minority compared to the population.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Well, certainly, now, I mean, looky, there was a vote.
We warned by the way, we suggested, you know at
the time to the Bush administration it's not a very
good idea to have an election, rightight now, because Hamas
is going to get elected. So Hamas was elected. There
was a majority. They took over through an election. But
you know there were elections in the Soviet Union. You know,
(16:28):
ninety percent of the population voted for the only candidate.
Not everything works the way it does back in scrand Pennsylvania,
you know, or in Chicago, Illinois. This is the Middle
East and there isn't a long history you know, of
Jeffersonian democracies and the process that the US and the
West went through in creating a democratic system. The notion
(16:49):
that we could you could do democracy from the top
down is a huge mistake because democracy is by its definition,
is the power of the people. It has to come
up from the bottom, you know, people have to will it.
That's why, for example, with the operation against Iran's nuclear facilities,
people said, well, why didn't you guys take out the government,
(17:12):
you know, the iatolas, Why didn't you eliminate the gut
they're causing all the problems? Regime change? Well, you can't
do regime change. The people have to do it. The
people in Iran have to rise up and they're trying
to and throw off this dictatorship. So hopefully if we
facilitated the wherewithal for the people of Gaza to say,
(17:34):
you know, enough of this, we want something else, hopefully
they won't exchange one tyranny for another one. But what
happened as soon as the ceasefire was was signed. Kamas
just went into these neighborhoods that where they're opposing clans,
took out the men, lined them up in the street,
and it absolutely insisted that crowds came around and cheered,
(17:56):
and if you don't cheer when they tell you to cheer,
you can be put down on your knees and shot
in the back of the head. So people are cheering
and then they just just shot them. No, you know,
extra judicial whoever they are opposed to, don't like or
claim that they're you know, homosexual, or that they work
with Israel. You can make all sorts of claims. They
(18:17):
throw homosexuals off rooftops. I mean, it's very it's very
very clear, and it's really just a horrific, goulish kind
of death cult that we've opposed there. And hopefully the
after effect of all this could be a new Gaza.
I mean, the dream of President Trump to create a
(18:37):
new gaza as opposed to an old gaza can really
be something that could serve as a template for other
places in the Middle East. Right, if you can, if you.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Really do it, But how do you deradicalize and demilerarize
hamas I mean they have even if it is a minority.
I mean, if you're three hundred four hundred thousand strong
and these are these are very radicalized people and they
have military equipment, how do you how do you get
rid of that?
Speaker 3 (19:07):
But it's a great question. And frankly, you know, my
field of academic study is political theory, and I wasn't
sure that that could really be done, certainly not in
the short term. But I spent time before I went
back into government, and you know, think tanks, and I
spent a lot of time in Abu Dhabi, and I'll
tell you, you know, I wear akiba and I felt
(19:31):
more comfortable as a Jew walking around Abu Dhabi, you know,
with with with my head covering than I do in
most European cities. I felt safer in Abu Dhabi as
a Jew than I feel in, you know, in many
neighborhoods of London or of Paris. Because they have accomplished it.
They deradicalized, They took the Muslim Brotherhood out of the system.
(19:55):
No more Muslim Brotherhood teachers, no more brother Muslim Muslim
Brotherhood government employees, and they do radicalize society and a
worked very quickly. As a matter of fact, they prove
that it's possible. Ue is just an exemplar of what
can be done. Similarly in many cases Bahrain as well,
although it has a larger radical population that's that defied
(20:18):
with Iran. They have their own own issues, but they
certainly tried to do that. Morocco, another signator of the
Abraham Accords, same thing. There is an element of society
that's radical. But you know, there is within Islam this
battle between those who want to reform and live side
by side with Judeo Christian civilization with the West, and
(20:40):
those led by Iran, whether they're Shia or Sune who
still want to oppose Judaeo Christian civilization, want to oppose
the West and impose Islamic culture upon it. And Israel
is like this Judeo Christian transplant in the middle of
the in the middle of the Middle East. So if
you make peace with Israel, take peace with Judaeo Christian civilization.
(21:02):
If you try to destroy Israel, what you're really trying
to do is destroy Judaeo Christian civilization. And that's why
the leader of Iran often says that we're the small
Satan and the United States is the Big States. That's
a theological statement, that's what he really believes. So the
importance of this war against Iran and its proxies, not
(21:24):
just Hamas but around alls proxies, is really a war
for civilization and for moderation and for accommodation. And when
I think about it on the personal level, I know
that's what my son died for. He was he was
fighting for civilization, he was fighting for mediation and accommodation.
And please God that this can move forward in that direction.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
I find it interesting that you sit here and you
say there is a way for these societies to live
side by side, respect each other, and love one another,
because we are seeing that.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
I mean, you brought up London.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
We see people in the United States who are saying, gosh,
we're so afraid of becoming being in that situation where
we have neighborhoods that we're not welcome in anymore. That
isn't necessarily that doesn't necessarily have to be the case.
But how do you know, how do you break that
down to someone who doesn't understand the two different cultures.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Well, you know, first of all, you need to study
and read and listen to people like yourself podcasts that
you're bringing facts and figures to the general public. There
are some podcasters that are on the contrary, that are
poisoning people's minds with crazy agendas, you know, really crazy agendas.
(22:41):
I mean, I could pick them apart one by one
if I had the time, But it's poison and it's
very important that people identify what's true and what is
propaganda and what is populism.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
What do you think that is behind that?
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Because it does seem like this is there's been this
sudden rise in that. And actually I was talking to
someone yesterday and they believe that there this is not organic,
that there is money behind that.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Could that possibly be the case?
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Not only possibly, is definitely the case, definitely the case.
You know, it's a funny thing when people ask about
you know, there's a question posed just last night. I
don't know if this is timely, if it's okay, if
I if I go ahead, Yeah, But you know last
night when the Vice president was speaking at Ole miss
(23:31):
and somebody asked about the you know, a certain very
wealthy American Israeli who contributed to the campaign, And is
that not a question of you know, loyalty and is
that acceptable? And and I was sorry that the response
wasn't like, what about Katar putting in seven billion dollars
(23:54):
into the university system? How about how about that kind
of influence you're talking about one person in a large donation.
I mean, that's been done from the beginning of time, right,
People make donations to campaigns. Sometimes they're Jewish, and sometimes
they're Catholic, and sometimes they're Protestant, and sometimes they're Muslim.
And as long as the law allows for that, people
(24:16):
make big donations. But is it not a question when
we see Qatar putting in seven and a half billion
dollars in a decade into the university system. Does somebody
really mean to say that university professors are not chosen
because of the money that they're getting, and that course
syllabi are not chosen because of the money they're getting.
(24:36):
And does not have anything to do with the fact
that as soon as October seventh happened. On October eighth,
they are already students running out into the streets with
their professors screaming globalized, the Antifada and free, free Palestine.
You know, I had two of my employees here in
the Washington embassy of Israel's Washington embassy shot dead by
(24:56):
somebody screaming, free, freeing Palestine. He was influenced by these,
by these crazy, you know, expressions, expressions of hate.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
And that stunned me because.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
We had that happen in the capitol, in the US capital,
two staffers of a foreign diplomat of an allied country,
and there was barely any media coverage of that.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
But you make such an.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Incredibly, incredibly strong point that we don't blink an eye
at foreign money that is controlling our universities. I would say,
it's so much farther beyond it, and whether it is
Cutter or China or whatever country it is, these are
oftentimes we see adversarial countries that have control, have controlling factions.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
In our universities for our next generation.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Which we know that if you were to read any
history book, they would tell you that the way you
change a country is you go to the youth. You
go to those people at their most vulnerable time, when
they are just about to become adults and beyond on
their own.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Look, there's so much to talk about here, the accusations
against Jews of you know, influence in Israel, controlling Washington
and it's all nonsense. Look, I've been in every meeting
the Prime Minister has had with the President. There's a
lot of respect there for each other. There's personal respect,
there's admiration between the administration officials. I don't think you
(26:32):
know Prime Minister Attanielle was the first foreign dignitary to
be invited to the White House right after the President
came in, not because he controls Washington. And does anybody
really control Donald Trump? I mean I say something the same. No,
how can anybody say something so stupid? Right? But you
know they make these claims on air and tens of
(26:53):
millions of people listen to this nonsense. You know, when
the Prime Minister came in, we didn't asked the United
States to participate in the bombing of Iran. We came
in and said, this is an existential threat. We're going
to have to deal with it. These are our options,
and it's for you to choose if you want to
come in and when you want to come in, and
(27:15):
how do you want to come in? And I think
when the story is told about the four months leading
up to operations Rising Line and Midnight Hammer, it's going
to be studied in international relations faculties for fifty years
to come. Because the President went through the process of
hearing out all the departments, his intelligence departments, the Defense Department,
(27:36):
everybody who had an opinion on the subject. He waited.
We actually saw the President go through this process and
weighing heavily on each side, and he made the decision
to say that Israel pressure in the United States. I mean,
just so stupid. Iran poses a threat to American interests.
America wants Abraham Accords, and America wants there to be
(27:58):
regional alliances. Who in the way of regional alliance. The
biggest threat to Saudi Arabia as Iran. So if we
can go into an alliance, a military alliance with the UAE,
with Saudi Arabia, with Bahrain, with our old peace partners
Jordan and Egypt, the US could lighten its military footprint
(28:19):
in the Middle East and rely more on the regional alliance,
and then they can focus more, for example, on Asia.
We can create a kind of NATO. So we take responsibility.
We're ready to do that. We never asked the United
States to put boots on the ground. We fight our own,
We fight our own wars and what we asked for
in this war. I'll tell you what we did ask for.
(28:41):
We asked for help on missile defense because we knew
we were going to get hit with ballistic missiles. And
God blessed the American people who helped us with these
thad and ages anti missile systems save thousands of people's lives.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
But you're talking about fifty years from now. This is
what we may study.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Today we are hearing something different, and I would argue
it is because of those podcasters that you mentioned, which
is shocking to me that they would have that much influence. However,
they do because they were supporters of Donald Trump, and
I think this magical switched. And they were also strong Christians,
and as Christians, we do believe what the Bible tells
(29:23):
us that there is a protection for the remnant, that
Israel is important, that we do care for Israel, and
yet they have turned against that. That has power when
you see someone who is in a position of influence,
who claims to be a Christian, who claimed to be
a supporter of Donald Trump, to suddenly switch and say
all of this is evil, this whole regime is a problem,
(29:48):
this whole connection between America and Israel's is somehow dark.
You're hearing that from very powerful, influential people on the internet.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
How do you get through that. How much money could
there be that could convince these people to.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Give up their moral values that they claim to have
always had and changed their narratives to starkly overnight.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Well, you know, look, I think it's a combination of
two things. It's obviously a lot of money, there's a
lot of money there, But there's also a lack of
personal integrity. I mean, if you know you say, you
say in the name of Christianity out of a Christianity
that I know and I've studied extensively, there are Christianity
(30:33):
people who are Christians don't pedal hate. They pedal love.
And these people, these people, these people, they are few,
they're few, might be growing, but they're pedaling hate. I mean,
if if you if you get on the air every
single day and find a way to demonize Israel, to
(30:55):
uh delegitimize Jews. I mean, we have questions say like,
are we really Jews? Are we the same Jews as
the Bible? Do we really care as the Bible referred
to us? I mean, all sorts of you know, crazy
things like that. Look, my my ancestors throughout the two
thousand year exile we faced gave their lives for Judaism.
(31:18):
I mean people refused to give up their Judaism and
were slaughtered because of it. Community after community after community.
I mean we were we went from you know, one
country of exile to another because we were chased out.
I mean it wasn't only the Spanish inquisition. There was
an inquisition from England, there was an inquisition for France.
It was an inquisition from Spain. We were rolling stones
(31:39):
for two thousand years, and why because we were loyal
to our Judaism. And then we got some yogil get
on the line and say, who says that these people
are the same Jews as the Bible. We give our
lives for the Jews of the Bible. And most are
the Christians that I know. And I go to churches
pretty much every Sunday. I'm invited to speak, and I
(31:59):
wanted to. I think they have less power than the
perception is because the you know, certainly in middle of
America where I go out there to churches and meet
with people and and see the love for Israel, and
see the willingness and appreciation. Uh. You know, sometimes I'm
more critical of some of my own co religionists who
(32:20):
are a little hesitant to be, you know, too cozy
with other religions. The more confident you are in your religion,
the easier it is shoot to be to celebrate somebody
else's and I sell. I celebrate. I celebrate when I
see people going to church I see I celebrate when
I see Christmas lights. I celebrate when I see people
speaking in the name of God. You know, it's it's
(32:42):
it's become almost taboo. But on every dollar bility in
God we trust, is it not possible to say that
beyond the dollar bill and God we trust, to wake
up in the morning and say, in God, I trust.
I mean, the first thing a Jews obligated to say
in the morning is the following life mode. I give
thanks to you God for breathing life into me. That's
(33:04):
and you're supposed to say that even before like you
wash your handsome face, because the first thing you got
to do is enter in it a character right, A
a life characteristic of giving facts right. That's where we
should be, you know, A being thankful of recognizing that
(33:26):
we owe our life to a creator.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast. I think we're easily manipulated though,
because we hear about October seventh, we don't know what
October sixth and fifth and every day before was like.
We don't know what Israel was going through with Hamas
because we were not educated on it. And so now
(33:51):
we see this battle that many Americans were gus lit afterward.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Saying, oh what you saw, you didn't.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
See that that was manipulated. The rapes didn't happen, the
murders didn't happen, the children didn't die, and people somehow
started to believe that they have no idea what the
battle was before, they don't understand the history.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Well too, you're absolutely right. You know, when I was
growing up and I heard about Holocaust denial, I said, well,
how can how can people deny the Holocaust? Well that
was you know, sixty seventy eighty years ago. People are
denying what happened yesterday. Right on October eighth, you had
people saying, well, the women really weren't raped as they
(34:35):
were being murdered, right, but they were, And we have
the testimonies that people who saw it. It doesn't matter
that you know, the babies were thrown in dovens, that
people were decapitated. I know who some of the people
were decapitated. Okay, you can't tell me that they weren't thinking,
you know, and then and what they weren't held hostages either.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
So we've seen them come home. That's the thing that
and we see these families.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Who don't have their people yet, that they've never received
the bodies of their loved ones. We know they exist,
and yet somehow people have believed that this didn't happen.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
You know. People have asked me why it's so important
that we get the bodies back, okay, And first of all,
I tell them, pretty family deserves to have a marker
of their loved one, to be able to sit next
to their loved one in the grave, that has you know,
a specific place and to unite with them and you know,
to talk with them and have a place to go
(35:32):
know where the body is. But it's a particular importance
to us because when we lost six million in Auschwitz,
they were just ashes that went up in the chimneys
into Nazi barbarism. They don't have a grave. They don't
have a marker. There's no name. There's no name which
says here lies so and so who was born on
(35:54):
this date and died on this date. It is incredibly
important for us in the state of Israel, the reborn
state of Israel after a Holocaust, to have graves, that
that is part of the change of Jewish history, that
we're not you know, sheep to the slaughter in Auschwitz anymore.
(36:15):
That people have to understand. You know, I've heard some
people say to me, you know, how is it that
you lost your support on October eighth. Everybody was very
supportive of Israel, but you lost our support so well,
you know, excuse me for being so crass. But the
(36:37):
world does okay with dead Jews. They've been doing it
for a long time. At October eighth, those are recognized
that were dead Jews, that sympathy. When we fight back
and we say no, we are not going to go
like lamps to the slaughter, all of a sudden we
lose support and we're accused of the most horrendous things.
There was no genocide. Where's all the genocide? Now? Well,
(37:00):
you know, when you have genocide and Dr four you
see bodies, right, there's evidence. They talked about genocide and
what they produced was I think one hundred and eighty
two bodies. There's no genocide. We're a civilian army. Do
you think that our children could actually commit genocide? I mean,
the whole thing is just insane. And what they're doing
is trying to delegitimize and demonize the state of Israel.
(37:22):
Call our leaders war criminals, call our soldiers war criminals,
with the intent of demonizing Jews. This is no different
than the blood libels in the Middle Ages, you know,
saying that we poison wells and now we start people
starve people. We facilitated the transfer of over two million
tons of food into Gasma during the war, that's what.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
People But people have been told that didn't happen. I mean,
that's the crazy part about this. People said, oh no,
they stopped all the aid, They didn't let anything in,
you know.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
You know, dude, I was at a meeting with five
senators who were very critical of Israel, you know, and
they said, well, what about the food going to Gaza.
Why aren't you allowing food to the gazes and Senators,
we're not preventing food coming to the Gaza. Comas is
hijacking the trucks, and that's how they reconstitute themselves. They
give it to the people who are fighting with them,
(38:16):
and then they sell it to everybody else. They tax it.
And one of the senators were like this, so come on, yeah,
I said no, no, no, it's ninety percent, ninety percent. They
said no, it's maybe ten percent. I said, no, it's
not ten percent, it's ninety percent. A few days later,
one of my assistants here went into the UN website
and they have a tracking system and they're sitting right
(38:39):
on the screen. It says, you know, black or white.
According to the UN tracking system, ten percent is reaching
its destination. Ninety percent is big hijacked.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
But we are spoiled by knowledge, and no one has
called out the fact that there is not a CBS
reporter there.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
There is not an ABC or a CNN or.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
A Fox reporter because you cannot have a reporter on
the ground in Gaza.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
Of course not You know what happened is Hamas would
kill them and then we'd be blamed. Okay, So the
important thing is you just have to keep repeating the truth.
It's going up against the grain, but you know truth
is slow, it's always on the defensive, but you have
to keep repeating it.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Well, I appreciate you coming on today to share the
truth with us. I know I kept you longer than
you expected, but it was just the conversation was so good.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Ambassador Later, thank you so much for being here today
on the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
Good to be with you, Tutor all the best of luck.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Thank you, and thank you all for joining us on
the podcast for this episode and others.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
You can go to the.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts
and join us next time. Have a blessed day.
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Today, I have Ambassador Yahiel Lighter with me. Thank you
so much for joining me. He is Israel's ambassador to Washington.
Thank you for joining today.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
It's good to be with you, tu, Thank you for.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Having me absolutely so.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Obviously we want to talk about what is going on
in the Middle East.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
There's so much happening.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
We know that there is the ceasefire, but we've had
some breaches in Israel has taken action. Do you expect
that to be sort of a back and forth for
a while or what are you expecting this in the ceasefire?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Well, Tutor, nobody really knows because this has never been
done before. Hamas occupies an area which is originally twenty
four miles long and eight miles wide, with two point
two million people and terror tunnels that are four hundred
and fifty miles of networking. And you have to understand
it's basically a city underground, a terror city, which initially
(01:00):
has some forty fifty thousand armed terrorists the teeth. Now
we've degraded them considerably. We're sitting on fifty a little
over fifty percent of the territory now and making sure
that the tunnels are eliminated, that no terrorists go into
that area. And we're very enthused and encouraged by the
ceasefire that the President has really invested in. President Trump
(01:23):
did something really incredible through his envoys, Secretary of State Rubio,
Vice President Fans, Jared Kushner, and See Winkoff, because basically,
not only do we get the twenty live hostages out,
which nobody thought could be done except the Prime Minister
of Israel, who's stuck to his guns throughout this entire
(01:44):
processes that we've got to get all the hostages out,
we still have thirteen deceased hostages we have to get out,
and according to the agreement, they're committed to doing that.
But nobody thought that we'd achieved the commitment for complete
disarming of HMAS and the demilitarization of Gaza. And that's
(02:06):
really the great success of the agreement. Now, the problem
is it needs to be implemented. But we do have
a firm commitment by all those signed on to the
agreement that this will be the case. We cannot have
ever again jihadis living on our border. What happened on
(02:26):
October seventh cannot be repeated. Again, whether it's in Gaza
or in South Lebanon or on the Syrian border. We're
a very small country. We're a tiny country. I mean,
we can fit into Indiana four times, we fit into
Nebraska about seven times. We don't have territory to give up,
and we certainly cannot have Jihadis on our border committed
to our destruction. So we've gone through this year degrading
(02:48):
the Iranian proxies. We've degraded Ramas, We've degraded risbala Osada
has fallen in Syria. Together with the United States, we
dramatically degraded Iran the head of the stake. But we
still need to see this deal that the President has
broken implemented, and that's going to be a challenge, but
we're hoping it's going to work.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Let me ask you.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
You are an American born in Israeli. You lived in
the United States until you were eighteen?
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
It's correct. Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Okay, Oh, you're a Scranton guy.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Your Scranton guy did not get this done for you,
though it was Donald Trump.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Well yeah, yeah, I mean, don't hold Scranton against me.
I was just born there. My Bank actually is still
on Joe Biden Boulevard, right. But yes, this disagreement came
to President Trump absolutely well.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
So I wanted to bring that up because obviously you
grew up the way most of us and most of
my listeners grew up here in the United States. Obviously,
then you moved to Israel, so you have seen both
sides of that. I think many Americans have no idea
what we're actually dealing with when you talk about the
Gaza Israel battle that has been going on for years.
(03:59):
But you brought up the fact that this is like
a city underground. That's something that we don't actually hear
a lot about. We've heard kind of grumblings of there's
these tunnels and there's that makes it a challenge. But
you said something about what two hundred and fifty miles
of tunnels, and this is an entire.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Four hundred and fifty miles, four.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Hundred and fifty miles.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Explain that a little bit to us, because I don't
think that we have a good comprehension of what we're
dealing with. These are not citizens in these tunnels, right,
This is Hamas.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Absolutely, we're talking about Hamas. I think the best way
to explain it would be to ask your viewers, your
listeners to imagine MS thirteen. Okay, a gang, a well
known gang in the United States, takes over a city
and under that city they create underground tunnels to protect themselves,
(04:56):
so they can shoot missiles into the surround and then
you can't really respond because they run into the tunnels
and to shoot back would mean to kill many civilians.
That's the dilemma that we've been in repeatedly. How do
you defeat an enemy that both uses above ground and
underground facilities. As a matter of fact, the most accomplished
(05:21):
expert on urban warfare, John Spencer, who teaches at West Point,
has said repeatedly that no army in the world has
ever had to confront what we had to confront in Gaza.
And you know the ratio, it's terrible. Every death is terrible,
Every innocent death is terrible. And we did everything we
could possibly do to limit a collateral damage, noncombatant damage.
(05:47):
And quite frankly, if we did what we're being accused
of doing of you know, killing civilians without any measure,
my son might be alive today. I mean, look, he
went in, he led forces is into Gaza by foot
seeking terrorists. Now, if we just straft bombed the population centers,
as democratic armies have done all over the world. I
(06:10):
don't want to mention any names, right, but if you
straft bomb population centers, you'll ultimately get to the to
the terrorists, but you're also going to kill many, many civilians.
Our ratio was better than the ratio that the US
had and Moscle, for example, which was one to three.
We're at about one to one point five. That's a
(06:30):
tremendously it's hard to say successful ratio, but it's war,
and in war, that's a very unusual ratio. And Spencer
has made the point that no one has ever had
to deal with this kind of complicated warfare. We've done
it really with two hands tied behind our back, because
not only were there civilians there, but they were holding
our civilian they were holding our hostages, right, so we
(06:53):
wanted to prevent civilian deaths and of course from that
affecting our hostages as well. So it was very complicated,
a very difficult challenge that we face. But overall, we've
degraded the Iranian proxies. I Ran had this idea that
they would create a ring of fire. Okay, how do
(07:14):
you destroy Israel which has a strong, very strong conventional army.
So they had this idea of a ring of fire.
They'd have Hamas in the southwest, the Huti's in the southeast,
Rispala in the north, the Oside regime in Syria, Hispala,
Iraq and everybody would attack at the same time. And
because we're such a small country, I mean, the whole
(07:34):
country is like forty miles wide, right, so they would
shoot missiles at the same time into the center of
the country. The center of the country is where seventy
percent of the population is. So if all of these
proxies attacked at the same time and our reservists couldn't
get out of the center of the country to the periphery,
we'd be destroyed. That was the idea. And Sinowar, the
(07:56):
leader of Hamas at the time, simply jumped the gun.
He did wait for everybody else, And had he not
done that, we would have been a much more difficult predicament.
So this way we were able to confront Hamas and
then confront Risbala. And what we've done is we've changed
the Middle East. Because Hamas is degraded, Chrisbala's degraded. We
have a government in Lebanon that really wants peace, that
(08:18):
talks about disarming Risbaala, the outside regime, that cruel, murderous regime.
And Damascus has fallen. There's a leader there that's now
talking about at least talking about we have to give
him a chance creating a civil society. And Iran has
been tremendously degraded because of the incredible partnership that we
(08:41):
have with the United States, the intel sharing, the air
forces that are shared with each other's capabilities, and we
created something just absolutely astounding. We abolished, abolished, we obliterated,
as the President said, the Rand nuclear program, which is
(09:01):
an existential threat to Israel.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
You talk about the importance of doing this, but it's
also very important to you and very personal to you
because your son. You mentioned your son, he was an
IDF soldier. He went into Was it one of these
tunnels that he went into where he lost his life
in battle?
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Well, my son was spent fifteen years in Special Ops.
It had actually trained together with Delta Forest. He was
Air Force Special Ops and at the age of thirty three,
decided to leave. Although he was in line to take
command of the unit. And he went to med school
because he said, I spent fifteen years in the army
and now want to spend the rest of my life
saving lives. And he had completed med school actually just
(09:46):
before the war. He got his white jacket on August
twenty twenty three. And he was the oldest of my age.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Old, yes, before the war, just.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Before the war. Yeah, he was supposed to start his
rounds in the hospital on August on October eighth, Yeah,
a dak. Yeah, but that he was the father of
six children and he was the oldest of eight children.
He was my best friend. It was an incredible human
being and he was he led forces. Actually the forces
(10:15):
entered Gaza in kind of a pyramid, and he was
the lead company because he was so smart and really
a field fox and he understood the the field of battle.
And on Friday, November tenth, he received in order to
find the shaft of a tunnel in the northern town
of Gozla called Petrondun, which was according to intel, in
(10:38):
a mosque, and he took his command team. They scoured
the mosque. He didn't find it, and he didn't give
up even though he could have pulled back and said,
I didn't find it's over, but he knew there was
a tunnel there from which they were exiting in firing
missiles into oshclone. So he said, we have to do this,
and he never gave up an assignment. So he continued
to scour the area around the mosque, and in the
(10:59):
second building he went into an inner room and found
the shaft to the tunnel, and as soon as he
wired to the forces, we found the tunnel. And then
he said, shabat shalone, which which means you know, Friday afternoon,
you wish each other a happy sabbath, wished everybody a
happy sabbath, and then they set off a booby trap,
(11:20):
which was a very very powerful explosion which they set
off from inside the tunnel. They followed them in a
hidden camera and they waited for soldiers to come into
that room to find the shaft, and the explosion was
so strong that it blew out their lower torso and
then brought down the walls on them from the top,
so they really didn't have a chance. So he together
(11:41):
with three of his command team were killed. And it
really is indicative of the quality and the commitment and
the resilience of our soldiers as a whole. You know,
you have to understand. Next to next to my oldest
son was my fourth son, who was a soldier of
(12:02):
his and he was thirty meters away from the explosion.
He basically saw his brother, you know, go go up
to heaven. And my second son was on the northern
border opposite his balla. And my third child, girl daughter,
her husband is a battalion commander. He was fighting at
(12:23):
the same time. It's just one family, but I'm not
an exception. All of all of my kids were on
the front. I do have one child with down syndrome,
so he wasn't on the front, but he was. He
was packing bags for the soldiers in the base. Everybody's
everybody's enlisted, everybody's part. This is a you know, a citizen,
a citizen army. And look the people, the soldiers we
(12:47):
lost over nine hundred many most I think were reservists,
about sixty per reservists with families. You know, people who
have day jobs. They're they're you know, they're bankers and
their lawyers and their engineers, and they have cyber companies
and you know, every regular people. And they left their homes,
(13:10):
they left their families and did in many cases, three
hundred and four hundred days of reserve duty over the
past two years. So it's been a tremendous national commitment
to seeing to it that Israel survive and we don't
allow this attempt by iran In's proxies to destroy us.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast. It's very hard because when you
are in the United States, you genuinely don't know what
is true. We keep hearing all of these stories of
people dying in Gaza, and it's devastating. Anytime you hear
(13:49):
stories of young people losing their lives, anybody losing their life,
it's devastating.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
But there's also.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
A real manipulation of the media that is coming out
of there, and so there is a lot.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Of questions to excactly what is going on.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
I know that you've talked about the fact that Israel
was very careful to warn people, to try to get
people out of there, to continue to feed people and
take care of people. That is not the story that
the media is spinning. So I want you to kind
of explain what that's like on the ground. And the
difference too, because I know, when you look at Israel,
this is a very free society and a very modern society,
(14:25):
and when you look at Gaza, it is very oppressed
by Hamas.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Oh absolutely, I mean, if people would only appreciate the
fact that part of what we're doing, I mean that's
not the you know, initial and primary reason. But at
the end of the day, there's potential here for two
million people living under tyranny to be free Hamas. When
the Hamas opposes you, you oppose Hamas, you get dropped off
a roof. I mean, the day after the ceasefire was announced,
(14:52):
what Hamas did was take out the clans who don't
agree with them and works out.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
I don't think we heard enough about that. I don't
think people understand what that meant. That these were these
were families, These were men. Who was it that actually
was murdered that day?
Speaker 3 (15:07):
These are you know, we call them clans, they're extended families, Okay,
and many of them, you know, not everybody in Gaza's Kamas.
We estimate of the two point two million, there's actually
about three hundred, three hundred fifty thousand. Who are you know,
signs steel delivered committed Hamas people. But you know, seventy
five percent of the population are not committed to Hamas,
(15:30):
and among them you have people actually oppose Hamas. I mean,
remember when Hamas to go over in two thousand and six,
they took the Fatagh people from the Palestinian authority and
they dropped them off buildings, you know, nine stories high.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
And now I think this is the story that we
don't hear because we are living in the United States,
where it is very black and white society.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
It's like one is good, one is bad, and we keep.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Hearing that there are people on one side saying everybody
in Gaza supports Hamas. But that is I mean, you
were really saying it's a minority compared to the population.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Well, certainly, now, I mean, looky, there was a vote.
We warned by the way, we suggested, you know at
the time to the Bush administration it's not a very
good idea to have an election, rightight now, because Hamas
is going to get elected. So Hamas was elected. There
was a majority. They took over through an election. But
you know there were elections in the Soviet Union. You know,
(16:28):
ninety percent of the population voted for the only candidate.
Not everything works the way it does back in scrand Pennsylvania,
you know, or in Chicago, Illinois. This is the Middle
East and there isn't a long history you know, of
Jeffersonian democracies and the process that the US and the
West went through in creating a democratic system. The notion
(16:49):
that we could you could do democracy from the top
down is a huge mistake because democracy is by its definition,
is the power of the people. It has to come
up from the bottom, you know, people have to will it.
That's why, for example, with the operation against Iran's nuclear facilities,
people said, well, why didn't you guys take out the government,
(17:12):
you know, the iatolas, Why didn't you eliminate the gut
they're causing all the problems? Regime change? Well, you can't
do regime change. The people have to do it. The
people in Iran have to rise up and they're trying
to and throw off this dictatorship. So hopefully if we
facilitated the wherewithal for the people of Gaza to say,
(17:34):
you know, enough of this, we want something else, hopefully
they won't exchange one tyranny for another one. But what
happened as soon as the ceasefire was was signed. Kamas
just went into these neighborhoods that where they're opposing clans,
took out the men, lined them up in the street,
and it absolutely insisted that crowds came around and cheered,
(17:56):
and if you don't cheer when they tell you to cheer,
you can be put down on your knees and shot
in the back of the head. So people are cheering
and then they just just shot them. No, you know,
extra judicial whoever they are opposed to, don't like or
claim that they're you know, homosexual, or that they work
with Israel. You can make all sorts of claims. They
(18:17):
throw homosexuals off rooftops. I mean, it's very it's very
very clear, and it's really just a horrific, goulish kind
of death cult that we've opposed there. And hopefully the
after effect of all this could be a new Gaza.
I mean, the dream of President Trump to create a
(18:37):
new gaza as opposed to an old gaza can really
be something that could serve as a template for other
places in the Middle East. Right, if you can, if you.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Really do it, But how do you deradicalize and demilerarize
hamas I mean they have even if it is a minority.
I mean, if you're three hundred four hundred thousand strong
and these are these are very radicalized people and they
have military equipment, how do you how do you get
rid of that?
Speaker 3 (19:07):
But it's a great question. And frankly, you know, my
field of academic study is political theory, and I wasn't
sure that that could really be done, certainly not in
the short term. But I spent time before I went
back into government, and you know, think tanks, and I
spent a lot of time in Abu Dhabi, and I'll
tell you, you know, I wear akiba and I felt
(19:31):
more comfortable as a Jew walking around Abu Dhabi, you know,
with with with my head covering than I do in
most European cities. I felt safer in Abu Dhabi as
a Jew than I feel in, you know, in many
neighborhoods of London or of Paris. Because they have accomplished it.
They deradicalized, They took the Muslim Brotherhood out of the system.
(19:55):
No more Muslim Brotherhood teachers, no more brother Muslim Muslim
Brotherhood government employees, and they do radicalize society and a
worked very quickly. As a matter of fact, they prove
that it's possible. Ue is just an exemplar of what
can be done. Similarly in many cases Bahrain as well,
although it has a larger radical population that's that defied
(20:18):
with Iran. They have their own own issues, but they
certainly tried to do that. Morocco, another signator of the
Abraham Accords, same thing. There is an element of society
that's radical. But you know, there is within Islam this
battle between those who want to reform and live side
by side with Judeo Christian civilization with the West, and
(20:40):
those led by Iran, whether they're Shia or Sune who
still want to oppose Judaeo Christian civilization, want to oppose
the West and impose Islamic culture upon it. And Israel
is like this Judeo Christian transplant in the middle of
the in the middle of the Middle East. So if
you make peace with Israel, take peace with Judaeo Christian civilization.
(21:02):
If you try to destroy Israel, what you're really trying
to do is destroy Judaeo Christian civilization. And that's why
the leader of Iran often says that we're the small
Satan and the United States is the Big States. That's
a theological statement, that's what he really believes. So the
importance of this war against Iran and its proxies, not
(21:24):
just Hamas but around alls proxies, is really a war
for civilization and for moderation and for accommodation. And when
I think about it on the personal level, I know
that's what my son died for. He was he was
fighting for civilization, he was fighting for mediation and accommodation.
And please God that this can move forward in that direction.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
I find it interesting that you sit here and you
say there is a way for these societies to live
side by side, respect each other, and love one another,
because we are seeing that.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
I mean, you brought up London.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
We see people in the United States who are saying, gosh,
we're so afraid of becoming being in that situation where
we have neighborhoods that we're not welcome in anymore. That
isn't necessarily that doesn't necessarily have to be the case.
But how do you know, how do you break that
down to someone who doesn't understand the two different cultures.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Well, you know, first of all, you need to study
and read and listen to people like yourself podcasts that
you're bringing facts and figures to the general public. There
are some podcasters that are on the contrary, that are
poisoning people's minds with crazy agendas, you know, really crazy agendas.
(22:41):
I mean, I could pick them apart one by one
if I had the time, But it's poison and it's
very important that people identify what's true and what is
propaganda and what is populism.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
What do you think that is behind that?
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Because it does seem like this is there's been this
sudden rise in that. And actually I was talking to
someone yesterday and they believe that there this is not organic,
that there is money behind that.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Could that possibly be the case?
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Not only possibly, is definitely the case, definitely the case.
You know, it's a funny thing when people ask about
you know, there's a question posed just last night. I
don't know if this is timely, if it's okay, if
I if I go ahead, Yeah, But you know last
night when the Vice president was speaking at Ole miss
(23:31):
and somebody asked about the you know, a certain very
wealthy American Israeli who contributed to the campaign, And is
that not a question of you know, loyalty and is
that acceptable? And and I was sorry that the response
wasn't like, what about Katar putting in seven billion dollars
(23:54):
into the university system? How about how about that kind
of influence you're talking about one person in a large donation.
I mean, that's been done from the beginning of time, right,
People make donations to campaigns. Sometimes they're Jewish, and sometimes
they're Catholic, and sometimes they're Protestant, and sometimes they're Muslim.
And as long as the law allows for that, people
(24:16):
make big donations. But is it not a question when
we see Qatar putting in seven and a half billion
dollars in a decade into the university system. Does somebody
really mean to say that university professors are not chosen
because of the money that they're getting, and that course
syllabi are not chosen because of the money they're getting.
(24:36):
And does not have anything to do with the fact
that as soon as October seventh happened. On October eighth,
they are already students running out into the streets with
their professors screaming globalized, the Antifada and free, free Palestine.
You know, I had two of my employees here in
the Washington embassy of Israel's Washington embassy shot dead by
(24:56):
somebody screaming, free, freeing Palestine. He was influenced by these,
by these crazy, you know, expressions, expressions of hate.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
And that stunned me because.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
We had that happen in the capitol, in the US capital,
two staffers of a foreign diplomat of an allied country,
and there was barely any media coverage of that.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
But you make such an.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Incredibly, incredibly strong point that we don't blink an eye
at foreign money that is controlling our universities. I would say,
it's so much farther beyond it, and whether it is
Cutter or China or whatever country it is, these are
oftentimes we see adversarial countries that have control, have controlling factions.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
In our universities for our next generation.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Which we know that if you were to read any
history book, they would tell you that the way you
change a country is you go to the youth. You
go to those people at their most vulnerable time, when
they are just about to become adults and beyond on
their own.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Look, there's so much to talk about here, the accusations
against Jews of you know, influence in Israel, controlling Washington
and it's all nonsense. Look, I've been in every meeting
the Prime Minister has had with the President. There's a
lot of respect there for each other. There's personal respect,
there's admiration between the administration officials. I don't think you
(26:32):
know Prime Minister Attanielle was the first foreign dignitary to
be invited to the White House right after the President
came in, not because he controls Washington. And does anybody
really control Donald Trump? I mean I say something the same. No,
how can anybody say something so stupid? Right? But you
know they make these claims on air and tens of
(26:53):
millions of people listen to this nonsense. You know, when
the Prime Minister came in, we didn't asked the United
States to participate in the bombing of Iran. We came
in and said, this is an existential threat. We're going
to have to deal with it. These are our options,
and it's for you to choose if you want to
come in and when you want to come in, and
(27:15):
how do you want to come in? And I think
when the story is told about the four months leading
up to operations Rising Line and Midnight Hammer, it's going
to be studied in international relations faculties for fifty years
to come. Because the President went through the process of
hearing out all the departments, his intelligence departments, the Defense Department,
(27:36):
everybody who had an opinion on the subject. He waited.
We actually saw the President go through this process and
weighing heavily on each side, and he made the decision
to say that Israel pressure in the United States. I mean,
just so stupid. Iran poses a threat to American interests.
America wants Abraham Accords, and America wants there to be
(27:58):
regional alliances. Who in the way of regional alliance. The
biggest threat to Saudi Arabia as Iran. So if we
can go into an alliance, a military alliance with the UAE,
with Saudi Arabia, with Bahrain, with our old peace partners
Jordan and Egypt, the US could lighten its military footprint
(28:19):
in the Middle East and rely more on the regional alliance,
and then they can focus more, for example, on Asia.
We can create a kind of NATO. So we take responsibility.
We're ready to do that. We never asked the United
States to put boots on the ground. We fight our own,
We fight our own wars and what we asked for
in this war. I'll tell you what we did ask for.
(28:41):
We asked for help on missile defense because we knew
we were going to get hit with ballistic missiles. And
God blessed the American people who helped us with these
thad and ages anti missile systems save thousands of people's lives.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
But you're talking about fifty years from now. This is
what we may study.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Today we are hearing something different, and I would argue
it is because of those podcasters that you mentioned, which
is shocking to me that they would have that much influence. However,
they do because they were supporters of Donald Trump, and
I think this magical switched. And they were also strong Christians,
and as Christians, we do believe what the Bible tells
(29:23):
us that there is a protection for the remnant, that
Israel is important, that we do care for Israel, and
yet they have turned against that. That has power when
you see someone who is in a position of influence,
who claims to be a Christian, who claimed to be
a supporter of Donald Trump, to suddenly switch and say
all of this is evil, this whole regime is a problem,
(29:48):
this whole connection between America and Israel's is somehow dark.
You're hearing that from very powerful, influential people on the internet.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
How do you get through that. How much money could
there be that could convince these people to.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Give up their moral values that they claim to have
always had and changed their narratives to starkly overnight.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Well, you know, look, I think it's a combination of
two things. It's obviously a lot of money, there's a
lot of money there, But there's also a lack of
personal integrity. I mean, if you know you say, you
say in the name of Christianity out of a Christianity
that I know and I've studied extensively, there are Christianity
(30:33):
people who are Christians don't pedal hate. They pedal love.
And these people, these people, these people, they are few,
they're few, might be growing, but they're pedaling hate. I mean,
if if you if you get on the air every
single day and find a way to demonize Israel, to
(30:55):
uh delegitimize Jews. I mean, we have questions say like,
are we really Jews? Are we the same Jews as
the Bible? Do we really care as the Bible referred
to us? I mean, all sorts of you know, crazy
things like that. Look, my my ancestors throughout the two
thousand year exile we faced gave their lives for Judaism.
(31:18):
I mean people refused to give up their Judaism and
were slaughtered because of it. Community after community after community.
I mean we were we went from you know, one
country of exile to another because we were chased out.
I mean it wasn't only the Spanish inquisition. There was
an inquisition from England, there was an inquisition for France.
It was an inquisition from Spain. We were rolling stones
(31:39):
for two thousand years, and why because we were loyal
to our Judaism. And then we got some yogil get
on the line and say, who says that these people
are the same Jews as the Bible. We give our
lives for the Jews of the Bible. And most are
the Christians that I know. And I go to churches
pretty much every Sunday. I'm invited to speak, and I
(31:59):
wanted to. I think they have less power than the
perception is because the you know, certainly in middle of
America where I go out there to churches and meet
with people and and see the love for Israel, and
see the willingness and appreciation. Uh. You know, sometimes I'm
more critical of some of my own co religionists who
(32:20):
are a little hesitant to be, you know, too cozy
with other religions. The more confident you are in your religion,
the easier it is shoot to be to celebrate somebody
else's and I sell. I celebrate. I celebrate when I
see people going to church I see I celebrate when
I see Christmas lights. I celebrate when I see people
speaking in the name of God. You know, it's it's
(32:42):
it's become almost taboo. But on every dollar bility in
God we trust, is it not possible to say that
beyond the dollar bill and God we trust, to wake
up in the morning and say, in God, I trust.
I mean, the first thing a Jews obligated to say
in the morning is the following life mode. I give
thanks to you God for breathing life into me. That's
(33:04):
and you're supposed to say that even before like you
wash your handsome face, because the first thing you got
to do is enter in it a character right, A
a life characteristic of giving facts right. That's where we
should be, you know, A being thankful of recognizing that
(33:26):
we owe our life to a creator.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast. I think we're easily manipulated though,
because we hear about October seventh, we don't know what
October sixth and fifth and every day before was like.
We don't know what Israel was going through with Hamas
because we were not educated on it. And so now
(33:51):
we see this battle that many Americans were gus lit afterward.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Saying, oh what you saw, you didn't.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
See that that was manipulated. The rapes didn't happen, the
murders didn't happen, the children didn't die, and people somehow
started to believe that they have no idea what the
battle was before, they don't understand the history.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Well too, you're absolutely right. You know, when I was
growing up and I heard about Holocaust denial, I said, well,
how can how can people deny the Holocaust? Well that
was you know, sixty seventy eighty years ago. People are
denying what happened yesterday. Right on October eighth, you had
people saying, well, the women really weren't raped as they
(34:35):
were being murdered, right, but they were, And we have
the testimonies that people who saw it. It doesn't matter
that you know, the babies were thrown in dovens, that
people were decapitated. I know who some of the people
were decapitated. Okay, you can't tell me that they weren't thinking,
you know, and then and what they weren't held hostages either.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
So we've seen them come home. That's the thing that
and we see these families.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Who don't have their people yet, that they've never received
the bodies of their loved ones. We know they exist,
and yet somehow people have believed that this didn't happen.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
You know. People have asked me why it's so important
that we get the bodies back, okay, And first of all,
I tell them, pretty family deserves to have a marker
of their loved one, to be able to sit next
to their loved one in the grave, that has you know,
a specific place and to unite with them and you know,
to talk with them and have a place to go
(35:32):
know where the body is. But it's a particular importance
to us because when we lost six million in Auschwitz,
they were just ashes that went up in the chimneys
into Nazi barbarism. They don't have a grave. They don't
have a marker. There's no name. There's no name which
says here lies so and so who was born on
(35:54):
this date and died on this date. It is incredibly
important for us in the state of Israel, the reborn
state of Israel after a Holocaust, to have graves, that
that is part of the change of Jewish history, that
we're not you know, sheep to the slaughter in Auschwitz anymore.
(36:15):
That people have to understand. You know, I've heard some
people say to me, you know, how is it that
you lost your support on October eighth. Everybody was very
supportive of Israel, but you lost our support so well,
you know, excuse me for being so crass. But the
(36:37):
world does okay with dead Jews. They've been doing it
for a long time. At October eighth, those are recognized
that were dead Jews, that sympathy. When we fight back
and we say no, we are not going to go
like lamps to the slaughter, all of a sudden we
lose support and we're accused of the most horrendous things.
There was no genocide. Where's all the genocide? Now? Well,
(37:00):
you know, when you have genocide and Dr four you
see bodies, right, there's evidence. They talked about genocide and
what they produced was I think one hundred and eighty
two bodies. There's no genocide. We're a civilian army. Do
you think that our children could actually commit genocide? I mean,
the whole thing is just insane. And what they're doing
is trying to delegitimize and demonize the state of Israel.
(37:22):
Call our leaders war criminals, call our soldiers war criminals,
with the intent of demonizing Jews. This is no different
than the blood libels in the Middle Ages, you know,
saying that we poison wells and now we start people
starve people. We facilitated the transfer of over two million
tons of food into Gasma during the war, that's what.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
People But people have been told that didn't happen. I mean,
that's the crazy part about this. People said, oh no,
they stopped all the aid, They didn't let anything in,
you know.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
You know, dude, I was at a meeting with five
senators who were very critical of Israel, you know, and
they said, well, what about the food going to Gaza.
Why aren't you allowing food to the gazes and Senators,
we're not preventing food coming to the Gaza. Comas is
hijacking the trucks, and that's how they reconstitute themselves. They
give it to the people who are fighting with them,
(38:16):
and then they sell it to everybody else. They tax it.
And one of the senators were like this, so come on, yeah,
I said no, no, no, it's ninety percent, ninety percent. They
said no, it's maybe ten percent. I said, no, it's
not ten percent, it's ninety percent. A few days later,
one of my assistants here went into the UN website
and they have a tracking system and they're sitting right
(38:39):
on the screen. It says, you know, black or white.
According to the UN tracking system, ten percent is reaching
its destination. Ninety percent is big hijacked.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
But we are spoiled by knowledge, and no one has
called out the fact that there is not a CBS
reporter there.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
There is not an ABC or a CNN or.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
A Fox reporter because you cannot have a reporter on
the ground in Gaza.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
Of course not You know what happened is Hamas would
kill them and then we'd be blamed. Okay, So the
important thing is you just have to keep repeating the truth.
It's going up against the grain, but you know truth
is slow, it's always on the defensive, but you have
to keep repeating it.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Well, I appreciate you coming on today to share the
truth with us. I know I kept you longer than
you expected, but it was just the conversation was so good.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Ambassador Later, thank you so much for being here today
on the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
Good to be with you, Tutor all the best of luck.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Thank you, and thank you all for joining us on
the podcast for this episode and others.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
You can go to the.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts
and join us next time. Have a blessed day.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show News
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Clay Travis
Buck Sexton
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