Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Inside my One-on-One Meeting Today with Prime Minister Netanyahu

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Inside my One-on-One Meeting Today with Prime Minister Netanyahu · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Well, let me start by just saying welcome. We had
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Speaker 1: to the best part about this show, and that is
0:37
Speaker 1: taking you behind the scenes with meetings and places that
0:41
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0:43
Speaker 1: And today's show is just going to be a lot
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Speaker 1: of fun because Senator I don't get to say this
0:48
Speaker 1: every day. You just left a multi hour long meeting
0:52
Speaker 1: with the Prime Minister of Israel who is visiting in America.
0:56
Speaker 1: I've got a million questions to ask you about that,
0:59
Speaker 1: but give us the overall. Well what was it like
1:01
Speaker 1: just sitting with him with a new administration being in charge.
1:05
Speaker 2: Well, sure, you and I are talking. It is eleven,
1:07
Speaker 2: twenty two pm Thursday night, and I spent about two
1:10
Speaker 2: hours one on one with Prime Minister net Yahoo this evening,
1:14
Speaker 2: and he is in town. He obviously met with President Trump.
1:18
Speaker 2: He has met with a number of congressional leaders, a
1:21
Speaker 2: number of groups of congressional leaders. And I got to
1:24
Speaker 2: say it is it is a whole new day in Israel,
1:28
Speaker 2: it's a whole new day in America. It's a whole
1:31
Speaker 2: new day in the world. And Prime Minister net Yaho
1:34
Speaker 2: and I, he and I know each other very well,
1:36
Speaker 2: we are good friends. And we had a very candid,
1:40
Speaker 2: a very direct conversation about the incredible victories Israel has had,
1:45
Speaker 2: taking on Hamas, taking on Hesbela, going after the head
1:51
Speaker 2: of the snake that is Iran, and talking about how
1:55
Speaker 2: dramatically different things are with President Trump back in the
1:59
Speaker 2: White House compared to the last four years of the
2:02
Speaker 2: Biden administration.
2:03
Speaker 1: So let's take people through the process when you have
2:07
Speaker 1: a world leader coming in and you're going to meet
2:09
Speaker 1: with him, Like, how does that happen?
2:11
Speaker 3: Where do you meet?
2:12
Speaker 1: What is it like going through the security and the protocol,
2:16
Speaker 1: Because look, he's a guy that a lot of people
2:18
Speaker 1: in the world want to see have harmed under them.
2:20
Speaker 1: So that in Israel is known for amazing security.
2:25
Speaker 2: They are, and there's very high security when you meet
2:27
Speaker 2: with the Prime Minister of Israel. Understandably, he is in town.
2:32
Speaker 2: He's staying at a hotel in town, and so I
2:34
Speaker 2: met him at the hotel he's staying at. And the
2:37
Speaker 2: hotel where he's staying, there's a lot of security. Secret
2:41
Speaker 2: Service has erected barriers and they're screening and limiting the
2:47
Speaker 2: people who can access it. There are some protesters that
2:51
Speaker 2: we're out protesting because the anti Israel left is loud
2:56
Speaker 2: and vocal. And so you go in You've got to
2:58
Speaker 2: be pre clear, this was a meeting that was obviously
3:01
Speaker 2: set up ahead of time, and you go through security
3:04
Speaker 2: and and you end up going in uh what is
3:08
Speaker 2: essentially a conference room that is set up and and
3:11
Speaker 2: and it's typically set up. It was it was set
3:12
Speaker 2: up tonight where they're there are two chairs, one for me,
3:15
Speaker 2: one for him, uh and and an American and an
3:17
Speaker 2: Israeli flag. And so so you meet in the conference room. Uh.
3:21
Speaker 2: He had several advisors in the room and and and
3:24
Speaker 2: I had a couple of advisors in the room and
3:28
Speaker 2: and we had about a two hour conversation and and
3:31
Speaker 2: you know, I got to say, first of all, the
3:34
Speaker 2: Prime Minister's mood is I don't think it could be
3:37
Speaker 2: any higher. He is feeling incredibly encouraged and incredibly encouraged
3:42
Speaker 2: number one, that of the victories that Israel has been
3:45
Speaker 2: able to win against Thomas and hesblah. But but he
3:49
Speaker 2: is also, I think beyond encouraged by the new administration
3:55
Speaker 2: in the White House. And a lot of what we
3:57
Speaker 2: talked about was the incredible pressure that was put on Israel,
4:02
Speaker 2: the efforts to undermine Israel, that that that for the
4:05
Speaker 2: last four years we saw under the Biden administration, and
4:09
Speaker 2: we talked about those those quite a bit. We talked
4:12
Speaker 2: about how in the immediate aftermath of October seventh, initially
4:18
Speaker 2: Joe Biden that the words he said at least were
4:20
Speaker 2: quite supportive, and remember he flew over to Israel, and
4:23
Speaker 2: at the time I vocally praised him for it, that
4:26
Speaker 2: that was the right thing to do. But then the
4:30
Speaker 2: the the anti Semitic wing of the Democratic Party began
4:34
Speaker 2: to assert itself and the Biden administration began pressuring Israel
4:39
Speaker 2: more and more and more, and we saw that in
4:43
Speaker 2: terms of arms in bargoes. One of the things that
4:45
Speaker 2: that Prime Minister net Know who talked to me tonight,
4:47
Speaker 2: is how they were, uh, they were running low on
4:49
Speaker 2: ammunition because over and over and he described at each
4:54
Speaker 2: stage as they were taking the war to Hamas how
4:57
Speaker 2: the Biden White House was saying, no, don't do that. No,
5:00
Speaker 2: don't go after them there, No, don't go after them there,
5:02
Speaker 2: and how they began threatening them, if you do that,
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Speaker 2: we're going to cut off eight If you do that,
5:07
Speaker 2: we're going to cut off weapons. And he said, that's
5:10
Speaker 2: already dramatically changed in terms of the Trump administration providing
5:15
Speaker 2: the ammunitions they that they need to continue and prevail
5:19
Speaker 2: in the in the war. And and and that's that
5:22
Speaker 2: has made an enormous difference. And we've seen just in
5:25
Speaker 2: the last two weeks multiple hostages coming home. I think
5:29
Speaker 2: that is the direct result of a new commander in
5:32
Speaker 2: chief in Washington who stands with Israel.
5:35
Speaker 1: You talk about what's needed, and that's got to be
5:38
Speaker 1: a sigh of relief. But also part of this the
5:41
Speaker 1: interesting conversation that you're having, because you guys have known
5:44
Speaker 1: each other for a long time, you would consider him
5:47
Speaker 1: I think to be a genuine, sincere friend. Yes, and
5:51
Speaker 1: so there's obviously part of the reason why you guys
5:53
Speaker 1: have such a long meetings. Yes, your friends, you know
5:57
Speaker 1: each other well, but there's got to be an urgency
6:00
Speaker 1: from his perspective of, Hey, I need to get a
6:04
Speaker 1: lot of things done and I need your help, and
6:07
Speaker 1: you probably have a lot of questions. How much of
6:10
Speaker 1: that two hour meeting is like, let's go, what do
6:12
Speaker 1: you need?
6:13
Speaker 3: We got to get through this.
6:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was certainly a lot of it is me
6:16
Speaker 2: asking what do you need from the United States right now?
6:19
Speaker 2: And he was very gratified that on the ammunition front
6:22
Speaker 2: that need has been filled and he needs America to
6:25
Speaker 2: stand with him, to stand with him. Look, the hostage
6:28
Speaker 2: deal is releasing hostages, but there are multiple waves, and
6:31
Speaker 2: I would say Prime Minister Netnya who is very directly
6:34
Speaker 2: focused on eliminating Hamas and also on preventing Iran from
6:40
Speaker 2: acquiring nuclear weapons, and he has laser focused on that
6:43
Speaker 2: quite rightly. Iran is weakened and weakened badly right now.
6:47
Speaker 2: And it's weakened because Hamas was its major one of
6:51
Speaker 2: its major proxies, and it's badly, badly decimated. Hez Below
6:55
Speaker 2: was another major proxy, and that is badly decimated Syria.
7:00
Speaker 2: The government of Bashar Asad another proxy for Iran collapse
7:05
Speaker 2: because Iran is in such weak situation. But the result
7:10
Speaker 2: of that is Iran has a real incentive to try
7:13
Speaker 2: to develop nuclear weapons. And we talked a lot about
7:17
Speaker 2: stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons and where are.
7:21
Speaker 1: We now on that timeline because we haven't talked about
7:23
Speaker 1: that in a while here on this show. And I
7:25
Speaker 1: think it's an important point because the last administration really
7:28
Speaker 1: was kind of letting Iran do what Iran wanted to do.
7:30
Speaker 1: How concerned is he and how close do they think
7:33
Speaker 1: they could beat actually getting that?
7:36
Speaker 2: He is very concerned. I'm very concerned. And you look
7:39
Speaker 2: at Barack Obama. The Iran nuclear deal, I believe accelerated
7:45
Speaker 2: Iran's progress towards getting nuclear weapons, allowed them to build centrifuges,
7:49
Speaker 2: allowed them to enrich uranium. The Trump administration quite rightly
7:54
Speaker 2: came in and ended that Obama Iran nuclear deal, and
7:59
Speaker 2: you and I have talked about before. That was a
8:01
Speaker 2: major battle within the Trump administration. Both the State Department
8:05
Speaker 2: and Defense Department under Trump argued that we should stay
8:09
Speaker 2: in the Iran nuclear deal. Rex Tillerson was a Secretary
8:12
Speaker 2: of State. Jim Mattis with the Secretary of Defense. They
8:16
Speaker 2: were both vociferous on staying in the deal, and I
8:19
Speaker 2: probably had two dozen conversations and meetings with President Trump
8:24
Speaker 2: urging him to pull out of the deal, and he agreed,
8:26
Speaker 2: and he did. And what it ended up doing was
8:29
Speaker 2: was it turned or ran around, because what followed from
8:33
Speaker 2: that was the maximum pressure campaign that put economic sanctions
8:37
Speaker 2: in place, that cut Iran's oil exports and sales in place,
8:41
Speaker 2: and that really had the regime incredibly weakened and teetering.
8:47
Speaker 2: And one of the things that I pressed President Trump
8:50
Speaker 2: very hard to do and that he did in the
8:51
Speaker 2: first term was invoking the snapback sanctions in the United Nations,
8:57
Speaker 2: and that again put enormous pressure on Iran, and as
9:04
Speaker 2: a result, they didn't even enrich uranium above five percent
9:08
Speaker 2: when Trump was president. But in November twenty twenty, the
9:12
Speaker 2: Iranian regime gambled and unfortunately correctly that it could start
9:17
Speaker 2: rushing to a nuclear arsenal and that the Biden administration
9:21
Speaker 2: would let them, And so in December of twenty twenty,
9:25
Speaker 2: the regime approved a new law calling for major nuclear advances.
9:28
Speaker 2: In January, they started enriching uranium to twenty percent at Ford,
9:33
Speaker 2: oh which is which is the underground bunker built into
9:36
Speaker 2: a mountain that the Obama deal had left open. And
9:40
Speaker 2: you know what the response was of Biden in February,
9:43
Speaker 2: right after he was inaugurated February twenty twenty one, the
9:46
Speaker 2: Biden administration rushed to the UN to rescind the snapback
9:50
Speaker 2: sanctions that President Trump had put in place. And under Biden,
9:54
Speaker 2: they allowed the international sanctions to expire. And we now
9:58
Speaker 2: know the result. Today the Yatola's nuclear breakout time is
10:02
Speaker 2: nearly zero and that is a direct consequence of repeated
10:07
Speaker 2: decisions from Biden. And I believe now we have a
10:11
Speaker 2: White House and a president who's not going to allow
10:15
Speaker 2: Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.
10:17
Speaker 1: You talk about not allow them to Is that enforcing sanctions?
10:22
Speaker 1: Is that the possibility of military being used? I mean,
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Speaker 1: what does that look like and what is best for
10:29
Speaker 1: the US and also for Israel. I'm assuming some of that.
10:32
Speaker 2: Was talked about, yes, yes, yes, sanctions, economic pressure, cutting
10:37
Speaker 2: off their oil, cutting off their finances, and if necessary,
10:41
Speaker 2: using military force not to invade Iran, not to try
10:45
Speaker 2: to turn Iran into Switzerland, but if they are on
10:48
Speaker 2: the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons using military force, either
10:51
Speaker 2: Israel or America to take out their nuclear weapon capability
10:55
Speaker 2: to protect America, to protect Israel, and that is that
11:00
Speaker 2: is something President Trump has been very explicit about, and
11:03
Speaker 2: it's something certainly that Prime Minister Dan Yahu and I
11:07
Speaker 2: discussed this evening.
11:08
Speaker 1: We've had a lot of sanctions on Iran, but unfortunately
11:11
Speaker 1: they've not been enforced, certainly in the last administration, the
11:14
Speaker 1: way they were supposed to. So when you look at
11:17
Speaker 1: enforcement aspect of this, and we've talked about ghost ships,
11:20
Speaker 1: ghost oil that they've been able to get out to
11:22
Speaker 1: the black market and still prop themselves up.
11:26
Speaker 3: Is that changing quickly?
11:27
Speaker 1: I mean, granted, yes, we're on the third week at
11:29
Speaker 1: the Trump administration, but how long does that take to
11:31
Speaker 1: actually turn into effect where they're feeling it within the
11:35
Speaker 1: government in Iran?
11:36
Speaker 2: List This is something I said on election night in
11:40
Speaker 2: November in my election night victory speech. You were there, ben,
11:45
Speaker 2: I said, tonight was a very very bad night for
11:48
Speaker 2: the Ayatola in Iran. Because President Trump is being re elected,
11:53
Speaker 2: we're getting a Republican Senate, a Republican House, and that
11:56
Speaker 2: has changed things dramatically in terms of enforcing sanctions, going after,
12:02
Speaker 2: going after the oil sales. Look, oil is critical because
12:06
Speaker 2: that's where Iran gets the vast majority of its revenue.
12:11
Speaker 2: When Trump came into office, Iran was selling a million
12:15
Speaker 2: barrels of day. After he used serious sanctions on oil sales,
12:21
Speaker 2: we dropped that from a million barrels a day down
12:24
Speaker 2: to three hundred thousand. Joe Biden refused to enforce those
12:27
Speaker 2: oil sanctions, and Iran when Biden came in, they were
12:30
Speaker 2: selling three hundred thousand barrels a day. Its skyrocketed to
12:34
Speaker 2: two million barrels of oil a day. That is what
12:39
Speaker 2: funded Hamas, that is what funded Hesbela, that is what
12:42
Speaker 2: funded October seventh, that is what funded terror against Israel
12:46
Speaker 2: and against America. And so having a president with willing
12:51
Speaker 2: to stand up is really significant in terms of Israel
12:58
Speaker 2: knowing that America has her back. And by the way,
13:01
Speaker 2: I got to say one of the things that was
13:03
Speaker 2: really striking. So I talked with Bebe about October seventh
13:08
Speaker 2: about the horrors that unfolded, about how Israel responded, and
13:12
Speaker 2: they responded going after Hamas and how quickly the Biden
13:17
Speaker 2: administration was undermining them. But I got to say it,
13:20
Speaker 2: it got even more significant because you recall when Hesbela
13:25
Speaker 2: began accelerating and escalating in the north of Israel and
13:31
Speaker 2: attacking more and more, and you'll recall that Israel made
13:34
Speaker 2: the decision to use the pagers, to use the pagers
13:37
Speaker 2: to explode and to take out a significant number of hesbeloterists.
13:42
Speaker 2: So so Bbe told me the inside story of that,
13:44
Speaker 2: and I got to say, it is fascinating. I told him,
13:47
Speaker 2: I said, listen, if somebody wrote this as the plot
13:51
Speaker 2: of a movie, nobody would believe it. If it was
13:54
Speaker 2: a mission impossible story. Okay, we're going to go undercover.
13:58
Speaker 2: We're going to get an Asian company to produce pagers
14:03
Speaker 2: and sell them to Hesbela and convince them that they're
14:07
Speaker 2: really from Asia, when in fact, the Israelis planted tiny
14:11
Speaker 2: explosives within them, and then Hesbela is going to distribute
14:14
Speaker 2: it to each of their terrorists so that Israel could
14:16
Speaker 2: detonate it. You would not believe it. Now, let me
14:19
Speaker 2: tell you something that is stunning, and that this has
14:22
Speaker 2: been publicly reported, but it's Also when Prime Minister Netanyah,
14:26
Speaker 2: who made the decision to detonate those pagers, do you
14:29
Speaker 2: know what they didn't do?
14:31
Speaker 1: What?
14:31
Speaker 2: They didn't let the Biden White House know about it? Really,
14:35
Speaker 2: and there's a reason they didn't let the Biden White
14:37
Speaker 2: House know about it because so many people in the
14:41
Speaker 2: Biden administration were undermining Israel on a daily basis that
14:46
Speaker 2: they had very real concerns if they let the Biden
14:48
Speaker 2: White House know about it, that Hesbelah would be tipped
14:52
Speaker 2: off and they dispose of the pagers and so it
14:55
Speaker 2: would not take out the terrorists. They think, how messed
14:58
Speaker 2: up that is when isra Real did not have the
15:01
Speaker 2: confidence to trust in letting the United States, letting the
15:07
Speaker 2: the the White House know how they're taking out terrorists,
15:11
Speaker 2: because because they couldn't have confidence that that that America
15:15
Speaker 2: would would would not leak that to to the hesbilit terrorists.
15:20
Speaker 1: Well, you mentioned the pager, and there was something interesting
15:23
Speaker 1: that happened the joint press conference with bb and President Trump,
15:26
Speaker 1: and that was that Netnahu gave Trump a quote golden pager.
15:30
Speaker 2: Uh.
15:31
Speaker 3: It was clearly I think in reference to the Lebanon attack.
15:34
Speaker 2: Uh.
15:35
Speaker 3: Did you ask him about that. It was obviously a gift.
15:38
Speaker 2: I didn't talk to him about the pager that he
15:40
Speaker 2: gave Trump, but but but he did describe. He did
15:42
Speaker 2: describe like testing the pagers and in fact, it was interesting.
15:45
Speaker 2: It was a fairly small amount of explosive in the pagers.
15:49
Speaker 2: And and and when he said, his team was laying
15:51
Speaker 2: out the plan and this is a plan that initiated
15:53
Speaker 2: years ago, initiated long before October seventh, and he said
15:57
Speaker 2: it was it was just a few grains of explosive
15:59
Speaker 2: was small enough to be undetectable. And he was asking, okay,
16:03
Speaker 2: is this is it enough explosive to detonate and do
16:08
Speaker 2: real damage to the terrorist who has it? And they
16:10
Speaker 2: said yes. And and Biebe told me the way he
16:12
Speaker 2: tested it is he said he literally took one of
16:15
Speaker 2: the pagers and threw it as hard as he could
16:16
Speaker 2: at his wall. And he said it exploded and put
16:19
Speaker 2: a pretty sizeable debt in the wall. And he said, okay,
16:21
Speaker 2: that's that's that's a good chunk of explosives.
16:24
Speaker 1: By the way, I mean, I love the fact that
16:26
Speaker 1: that's what Boebe would do, because it's totally it's it's
16:29
Speaker 1: kind of how he is I mean, he say, all right,
16:31
Speaker 1: I'm all hands on deck. Is this enough? All right,
16:34
Speaker 1: let's see how much is enough? I mean, that's amazing,
16:37
Speaker 1: because that's not how it would be done here. I
16:38
Speaker 1: can promise you that.
16:40
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you something else we discussed. So so
16:43
Speaker 2: as as they continued to take out Hamas and then
16:46
Speaker 2: to take out Hesbela, one of the real pivotal moments
16:49
Speaker 2: was taking out Nosralla. Nostralla was the head of Hesbela
16:53
Speaker 2: in Lebanon, and Biebe walked me through the decision making.
16:56
Speaker 2: Nostralla was in an underground bunker uh and and they
17:00
Speaker 2: were having vigorous debates about whether to take him out
17:04
Speaker 2: and and and in particular what the time frame would
17:08
Speaker 2: be on his being there. And I got to say
17:10
Speaker 2: it was striking number one, the time frame on detonating
17:13
Speaker 2: the pagers, that that that they had reason to believe
17:17
Speaker 2: there was an urgency that they had to detonate it
17:19
Speaker 2: when they did uh or or there was a real
17:22
Speaker 2: risk they wouldn't be effective. Likewise, with with Nozralla, they
17:26
Speaker 2: had intelligence on where he was in an underground bunker
17:30
Speaker 2: and and they had reason to believe that that that
17:32
Speaker 2: there was a limited time frame when he was vulnerable,
17:35
Speaker 2: and and and so he walked through the decision making
17:38
Speaker 2: on taking no Isralla out. Now you know, you know,
17:40
Speaker 2: you know what when they did that again, they didn't
17:42
Speaker 2: tell the Biden White House for the same reason. Now
17:46
Speaker 2: pause and think about it now.
17:47
Speaker 1: In other words, to be clear, you're saying that Nettahu
17:50
Speaker 1: was like, we couldn't trust our quote biggest ally, yes,
17:54
Speaker 1: with the Biden Harrison administration.
17:55
Speaker 3: We couldn't tell them the truth. We couldn't be honest
17:58
Speaker 3: with them.
17:59
Speaker 1: We were worried that they would not only I would assume, undermine,
18:02
Speaker 1: but share that intelligence with the people that they were
18:04
Speaker 1: actually trying to kill, which would be the terrorists.
18:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were very concerned that the Biden administration would
18:11
Speaker 2: essentially warn the head of Hesbela to get out of
18:14
Speaker 2: harm's way. I mean, that is profoundly disturbing.
18:20
Speaker 1: It is shocking, especially after what happened. And you mentioned
18:24
Speaker 1: that the hostages several times. Let's dive into that as well,
18:28
Speaker 1: because there Well, before we do.
18:30
Speaker 2: That, I want to make a point about in Nostralla,
18:31
Speaker 2: one of the things that BBI really emphasized is he
18:35
Speaker 2: said Nostrala was critical to Hesbela and to the terrorists
18:41
Speaker 2: because he was a charismatic leader, and he said it
18:44
Speaker 2: was striking. So Israel had taken out most of Nosrala's
18:48
Speaker 2: chief deputies, and it wasn't until September twenty seventh of
18:54
Speaker 2: last year that they took out in Nosraela himself, and
18:57
Speaker 2: Babe said, even with most of his chief deputies to
19:00
Speaker 2: take it out, Nosralla was waging the war and doing
19:03
Speaker 2: so relatively effectively, that he was a effective leader for
19:09
Speaker 2: an incredibly dangerous terrorist organization, and so taking him out
19:14
Speaker 2: had a profound effect weakening Hesbela because his leadership. Without it,
19:21
Speaker 2: they were in utter chaos. And in fact, he said
19:24
Speaker 2: that the taking Israela out was the critical piece that
19:29
Speaker 2: resulted in Bashar Assad falling in Syria because Asad relied
19:35
Speaker 2: on Hesbela terrorists to help remain in power, and so
19:39
Speaker 2: taking Isralla out bebe viewed as really a pivotal moment
19:44
Speaker 2: in critically weakening Hesbela and critically critically weakened weakening Hesbela's
19:50
Speaker 2: patron Iran.
19:52
Speaker 1: All Right, so that's some pretty big news. So without
19:56
Speaker 1: that piece of the puzzle, you're saying there's a chance
19:59
Speaker 1: that is I would still be in charge right now
20:01
Speaker 1: in Syria and more hiding in Russia.
20:05
Speaker 2: I think I would say more than a chance, a
20:08
Speaker 2: direct but four cause.
20:10
Speaker 1: So you put all that together, and as awful as
20:14
Speaker 1: the attack was on Israel, the focus after that attack
20:19
Speaker 1: has been unbelievable and and doing what they need to
20:23
Speaker 1: do just to protect their people and make sure this
20:25
Speaker 1: never happens again. Is just truly amazing to see that
20:30
Speaker 1: the leadership of Netnyahu, the people around him, that their
20:34
Speaker 1: military services, their intelligence services, the list goes on and on.
20:39
Speaker 1: That also has got to be so sad to watch
20:41
Speaker 1: that this is now where they are right there's this
20:45
Speaker 1: continuing war, You've got the worries that you just mentioned
20:48
Speaker 1: with Iran, and there's the other big worry and that
20:50
Speaker 1: is there are still hostages.
20:52
Speaker 3: So where are we on that?
20:53
Speaker 1: What did he have to say about the hostage they
20:55
Speaker 1: currently have in this hostage deal? When are we going
20:57
Speaker 1: to see more be released?
20:58
Speaker 3: Hopefully?
20:59
Speaker 2: Well, many of the hostages have been released or have
21:03
Speaker 2: been rescued by the IDF At this point, the women
21:09
Speaker 2: and children have all been released. The only hostages that
21:12
Speaker 2: remain are men uh and and and there are roughly
21:17
Speaker 2: twenty hostages. They don't know for sure how many are
21:20
Speaker 2: still alive. Some some may not be, some some they
21:23
Speaker 2: certainly hope and believe are alive. And and Prime Minister Natya,
21:27
Speaker 2: who is very focused on continuing to try to bring
21:31
Speaker 2: them home. He told me early on, he said, one
21:33
Speaker 2: of the senior members of his government said right after
21:35
Speaker 2: October seventh that that we need to think of of
21:38
Speaker 2: of the hostages as essentially as essentially dead, that we're
21:43
Speaker 2: not going to be able to do anything about it.
21:44
Speaker 2: And and Bibe told me he strongly rejected that premise
21:47
Speaker 2: and said, no, we can. We can wage war on Hamas,
21:50
Speaker 2: we can take out the military leaders, we can take
21:53
Speaker 2: out the terrorist while while doing so in a way
21:55
Speaker 2: to try to protect the hostages and bring them home.
21:59
Speaker 2: And I will say that they've had remarkable success in
22:02
Speaker 2: doing so. But the release of the hostages accelerated only
22:07
Speaker 2: after Donald Trump was reelected.
22:10
Speaker 1: So you look forward with that, you look at Iran
22:14
Speaker 1: and when is that going to come to a head?
22:16
Speaker 1: I mean, are we talking in the next days, weeks, months,
22:19
Speaker 1: Because we've been hearing a lot about Iran over the
22:22
Speaker 1: last four years. We heard a lot about it when
22:23
Speaker 1: Trump was in office from sixteen to twenty, but there
22:26
Speaker 1: does seem to be a different level of urgency right now.
22:29
Speaker 3: What does the next month or two look like?
22:31
Speaker 2: Look, there is a real urgency. There is a real
22:34
Speaker 2: risk that Iran, that we know they're close to a
22:37
Speaker 2: nuclear breakout, they could attempt to test a nuclear weapon
22:41
Speaker 2: because at this point that they're badly weakened and trying
22:46
Speaker 2: to get a nuclear arsenal. There's a real risk that
22:50
Speaker 2: the Iotola views that as the one way to regain
22:53
Speaker 2: their strength, and that's incredibly dangerous. And I can tell
22:58
Speaker 2: you Israel has committed to preventing that from happening, and
23:02
Speaker 2: I believe America is as well.
23:05
Speaker 1: What is America's foreign policy now when it comes to Ran?
23:08
Speaker 1: Obviously sanctions, implementing those sanctions, suffocating them financially is a
23:12
Speaker 1: big part of that. But if they're still this close,
23:16
Speaker 1: is our foreign policy and the DoD and the presence
23:21
Speaker 1: wishes are they drastically different than they were even maybe
23:25
Speaker 1: day one, because now they have the intel of just
23:27
Speaker 1: how close we are. Is that what BB's point of
23:29
Speaker 1: being here.
23:30
Speaker 2: Is, Well, Look, I think the policy now is maximum pressure,
23:34
Speaker 2: and that means cutting off the money. You know, at
23:37
Speaker 2: some level it's not complicated. Don't give billions of dollars
23:42
Speaker 2: to psychotic lunatics who want to murder you. You would
23:45
Speaker 2: think that would not be a controversial proposition. And yet
23:49
Speaker 2: during four years Joe Biden and Kamala Harris flowed over
23:53
Speaker 2: one hundred billion dollars to Iran that in a very
23:57
Speaker 2: real sense funded the desk squads on October seventh, and
24:01
Speaker 2: it funded terrorism against America. I'll give you another example.
24:04
Speaker 2: Look that the Democrats are right now going nuts over USAID,
24:08
Speaker 2: and both the Democrats and all their acolytes in the
24:11
Speaker 2: media are pulling their hair out because President Trump and
24:15
Speaker 2: Elon Moskv have halted halted the funding at USAID, and
24:19
Speaker 2: they're exposing all sorts of abusive payments, things like two
24:22
Speaker 2: million dollars for sex changes in Guatemala, which which I
24:26
Speaker 2: got to say, anyone who listens to that says, why
24:28
Speaker 2: the hell are US taxpayers paying for that kind of nonsense? Well,
24:33
Speaker 2: at some level it's nonsense. But there's also money USAID
24:37
Speaker 2: put in that is not just an infuriating left wing,
24:43
Speaker 2: woke political agenda, but is dangerous so Usai d under
24:47
Speaker 2: Joe Biden, Kamala Harris poured hundreds of millions of dollars
24:51
Speaker 2: into Gaza, and and that went much of it went
24:56
Speaker 2: directly to Hamas. Millions and tens of millions of that
24:59
Speaker 2: were in cash that could never be accounted for, and
25:03
Speaker 2: they knew that the money they were pouring into Gaza
25:06
Speaker 2: would benefit Hamas. In fact, the Biden administration formally waived
25:12
Speaker 2: US anti terrorism law because they concluded that it was
25:15
Speaker 2: quote likely that the money they were sending would be
25:18
Speaker 2: used for terrorism. And so ordinarily, under US law, if
25:22
Speaker 2: it's likely money will be used for terrorism, you're barred
25:25
Speaker 2: from sending it. But the president, under the law, has
25:28
Speaker 2: the ability to waive that law. And so rather than
25:30
Speaker 2: not fund the terrorist, they waived it. I got to
25:33
Speaker 2: tell you, I tweeted about that today. Elon Musk reposted
25:38
Speaker 2: it and just said wow, and just that tweet has
25:41
Speaker 2: had millions and millions of views. But it gives an
25:44
Speaker 2: example what the Biden administration was doing in a very
25:48
Speaker 2: real sense was funding the enemies of America and funding
25:53
Speaker 2: the enemies of Israel. That's dangerous, and that ended on
25:58
Speaker 2: January twentieth.
25:59
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the humanitarian side of this and the
26:03
Speaker 1: real needs of the people in Israel. What did BB
26:07
Speaker 1: say from that standpoint? Because there is obviously a great
26:10
Speaker 1: humanitarian need. We're talking about all this money with dods
26:13
Speaker 1: that we're finding that we're giving to all these people,
26:16
Speaker 1: many of them that are just waste and fraud and
26:18
Speaker 1: abuse and absurd things like transcendered plays in certain countries.
26:22
Speaker 1: When you know, as an American, I don't mind helping
26:26
Speaker 1: our allies in times of need.
26:28
Speaker 3: Israel is a great example of this.
26:29
Speaker 1: There is so much money, though that's being used in
26:32
Speaker 1: such fraudulent ways that I do think there's a hesitancy
26:35
Speaker 1: now to just say, Okay, what do you need? Because
26:37
Speaker 1: it seems like everyone was taking from us and abusing it.
26:42
Speaker 1: I think Israel is very different, and that's why I
26:44
Speaker 1: want to bring this up.
26:45
Speaker 3: But what are the needs?
26:47
Speaker 2: So let me say, do you know what the amount
26:50
Speaker 2: of economic aid and assistance is that we give to Israel?
26:54
Speaker 2: How much zero dollars and zero cents? We do not
26:58
Speaker 2: provide economic aid to Israel. Israel's not asking us for
27:02
Speaker 2: money to feed its citizens. Israel's not asking for money
27:06
Speaker 2: to provide housing or clothed. It citizens. Israel's not asking
27:10
Speaker 2: for money for relief. The only assistance the United States
27:15
Speaker 2: provides to Israel is military aid. Each year, we provide
27:19
Speaker 2: roughly three billion dollars in military assistance. But that's we
27:23
Speaker 2: do no economic assistance. We're not paying welfare. We are
27:29
Speaker 2: providing military assistance. And do you know why we do that?
27:32
Speaker 2: Why this is something critically important to understand. We provide
27:36
Speaker 2: military assistance to Israel because it is good for America Israel.
27:42
Speaker 2: Think about this for a second. Everyone who hates Israel
27:47
Speaker 2: hates America bingo. And by the way, those who hate
27:51
Speaker 2: Jews hate Christians, and everyone who Israel is fighting against
27:58
Speaker 2: they're doing so to detect Israel.
28:00
Speaker 1: Of course, Well there's a reason why. It's almost simultaneous.
28:04
Speaker 1: You hear death to Israel chance and death to American chance.
28:06
Speaker 1: A lot of times they're intertwined.
28:08
Speaker 2: The Ayahtola refers to Israel as the little Satan and
28:13
Speaker 2: America as the great Satan. And so listen. One of
28:17
Speaker 2: the things I said to Bbi, and I've said this
28:18
Speaker 2: to him many times, I said, thank you, thank you
28:21
Speaker 2: for killing terrorists, for taking out Hamas, for taking out Hesbela.
28:26
Speaker 2: These are lunatics that want to murder Israeli's and they
28:29
Speaker 2: want to murder Americans and they have Look. October seventh
28:33
Speaker 2: was a horrific terrorist attack against Israel, but it was
28:36
Speaker 2: also a horrific terrorist attack against America. Many Americans were killed,
28:40
Speaker 2: many Americans were taken hostage. And so we provide military
28:44
Speaker 2: aid to Israel because it keeps America safer. And it
28:48
Speaker 2: also is incredibly frugal as a monetary matter because the
28:55
Speaker 2: benefits we get from Israeli intelligence the Masad. It is
29:01
Speaker 2: one of the most effective and potent intelligence networks in
29:04
Speaker 2: the world, and the Massade has incredible intelligence on Hesbla
29:08
Speaker 2: and Hamas, on Iran, on al Kada and Isis and
29:13
Speaker 2: all enemies of Israel, but also enemies of American Historically,
29:17
Speaker 2: they have shared that intelligence with us. If we tried
29:21
Speaker 2: to recreate the benefits we get from Israeli intelligence in
29:25
Speaker 2: their military, it wouldn't cost US three billion dollars a year.
29:30
Speaker 2: It would cost us tens of billions of dollars a year.
29:33
Speaker 2: And so we make that investment because it keeps America safe,
29:38
Speaker 2: and they spend that investment to be very clear on
29:42
Speaker 2: taking out the people who want to kill Americans.
29:46
Speaker 1: When you look at the money, and you look at
29:47
Speaker 1: what's happening, and you look at the meeting today that
29:51
Speaker 1: you had and the needs that are there.
29:53
Speaker 3: I think there's a couple of just overall themes.
29:56
Speaker 1: One we've Israel now knows that a MA does in
30:01
Speaker 1: fact have their back too. They can start sharing intelligence
30:05
Speaker 1: and talk about honest plans to protect Israel in America
30:08
Speaker 1: because they can trust this administration, and that seems to
30:12
Speaker 1: be maybe the most valuable part of this.
30:14
Speaker 3: Three.
30:15
Speaker 1: We both have a true genuine agreement in our foreign
30:19
Speaker 1: policy that we must stop Iran from gaining that nuclear weapon.
30:25
Speaker 3: And that also means.
30:26
Speaker 1: Now you've got to figure out how you're going to
30:28
Speaker 1: stop it from happening, and that could be using military
30:32
Speaker 1: prowess to do it, Which brings me my final question
30:35
Speaker 1: to you. Donald Trump's a guy that has been very
30:38
Speaker 1: proud about saying I haven't started any wars, I get
30:42
Speaker 1: us out of wars, and I try to end them.
30:46
Speaker 1: Would you look at this as a war or more
30:48
Speaker 1: of a just a straight up attack on a nuclear
30:50
Speaker 1: weapons site. How should Americans look at this?
30:53
Speaker 2: Well, Listen, it's important to understand President Trump is right,
30:57
Speaker 2: he has not started any wars we did not have,
31:00
Speaker 2: and in fact he ended wars. He inherited the war
31:04
Speaker 2: with ISIS from Barack Obama. ISIS had a caliphate, had
31:09
Speaker 2: territory about the size of the state of Indiana, and
31:12
Speaker 2: Trump within months defeated ISIS altogether and ended that war.
31:15
Speaker 2: Because they were defeated and conquered the caliphate. There are
31:19
Speaker 2: some who try to say that america first foreign policy
31:23
Speaker 2: as isolationists is just withdrawing from the world and not
31:26
Speaker 2: engaging with our enemies. That has not been the foreign
31:30
Speaker 2: policy of Donald Trump. It's worth remembering that when President
31:33
Speaker 2: Trump in his first term, he gave the order to
31:38
Speaker 2: take out General Solomoni, the Iranian leader responsible for the
31:44
Speaker 2: murder of over six hundred American servicemen and women, the
31:47
Speaker 2: Iranian leader who had played a critical part in planning
31:52
Speaker 2: planning terrorist attacks against the United States and against Israel
31:58
Speaker 2: for years. And Solomoni, along with Nozrala, we're probably the
32:03
Speaker 2: two most important terrorist leaders on the face of the planet.
32:07
Speaker 2: And President Trump ordered General Solimani taken out, and Prime
32:11
Speaker 2: Minister net and Yahoo ordered Nosralla taken out. And now
32:14
Speaker 2: neither one of them are able to threaten America or Israel.
32:19
Speaker 1: It's incredible. I'm glad that you guys got to have
32:22
Speaker 1: this meeting. I also just am really thankful as you
32:25
Speaker 1: described it, that now I think Israel can trust that
32:29
Speaker 1: they have a partner in the US and they're not
32:31
Speaker 1: trying to they're not having to hide from the United
32:33
Speaker 1: States what they're trying to accomplish.
32:35
Speaker 3: And we have the same goals.
32:37
Speaker 2: Yes, And by the way, another aspect of it, so look,
32:41
Speaker 2: the efforts to attack Israel. You saw them directly through
32:47
Speaker 2: terrorism through October seventh. You saw them through Hamas and HESBLA.
32:52
Speaker 2: And to be clear, the Biden administration was responsible for
32:56
Speaker 2: a very substantial part of the funding for that October
33:00
Speaker 2: seventh attack. But but you also saw it through law
33:04
Speaker 2: fair through using international institutions to go after Israel. And
33:08
Speaker 2: one of the most profound examples of the that is
33:11
Speaker 2: the International Criminal Court, which which has has indicted BBUH
33:19
Speaker 2: for committing war crimes and and and that decision is
33:22
Speaker 2: grotesquely false. It was an anti Semitic attack on Israel,
33:27
Speaker 2: but it is also a profound threat to America. Israel
33:31
Speaker 2: is not a party UH to the International Criminal Court.
33:35
Speaker 2: Neither is American and the International Criminal Court. There's a
33:38
Speaker 2: real risk of it being used to go after American
33:43
Speaker 2: officials and American soldiers that the same enemies of Israel
33:47
Speaker 2: want to use the ICC to accuse American soldiers of
33:51
Speaker 2: committing war crimes when we stand up to terrorists, and
33:53
Speaker 2: and so, you know, just just a few days ago
33:58
Speaker 2: in Congress, we voted on legislation to sanction the International
34:02
Speaker 2: Critical Criminal Court, and I'll tell you it was really sad.
34:07
Speaker 2: Every Democrat in the Senate except one except John Fetterman
34:10
Speaker 2: voted no. They all voted against Israel. Amazing And to
34:15
Speaker 2: be clear.
34:16
Speaker 1: Is there going to be hell to pay politically you
34:18
Speaker 1: think for this? I mean, the Democratic Party has become
34:21
Speaker 1: really a lot of their leaders are just strited up
34:23
Speaker 1: anti Semitic.
34:24
Speaker 3: Is there going to be hell to pay for that
34:26
Speaker 3: at some point?
34:27
Speaker 2: Well, there hasn't been so far, and the Democrats feel
34:30
Speaker 2: that there are no consequences. Chuck Schumer was among the
34:34
Speaker 2: leaders who met with Debt and Yahoo and was trying
34:36
Speaker 2: to give excuses for why he and all the other
34:40
Speaker 2: Democrats voted against sanctioning the ICC. Today, President Trump issued
34:46
Speaker 2: sanctions as president, and they were very strong sanctions. That's
34:49
Speaker 2: one thing Bib was very happy about is he now
34:52
Speaker 2: had a president that would stand up to the International
34:55
Speaker 2: Criminal Court for going after him. Look, Bib is not
34:58
Speaker 2: able to travel to much of Europe because they're European
35:01
Speaker 2: nations who have threatened they will arrest bebe if he
35:04
Speaker 2: steps foot on their soil. That is a profound attack
35:08
Speaker 2: on the government of Israel. Think about it that there
35:11
Speaker 2: are many European countries that he simply won't go to. Now,
35:14
Speaker 2: let me ask a simple question to anyone listening. Trump
35:19
Speaker 2: sanctioned the ICC today. Why didn't Joe Biden the ICC
35:22
Speaker 2: did this under Biden's presidency. And the answer is, I
35:26
Speaker 2: think the Biden administration wanted the ICC to go after
35:30
Speaker 2: Benjamin Nett Yahoo. And I think we're going to see
35:32
Speaker 2: facts come to light in the weeks and months ahead
35:36
Speaker 2: that show some real complicity of the Biden administration for
35:40
Speaker 2: the law fair attacking Israel. And that really underscores the
35:45
Speaker 2: difference one election can make. And thank god we have
35:49
Speaker 2: a president now who will stand up for America and
35:52
Speaker 2: who will stand up and stand alongside Israel.
35:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's incredible, a great show.
35:57
Speaker 1: This is when I love doing this because we get
36:00
Speaker 1: to hear things that you wouldn't hear anywhere else, So
36:02
Speaker 1: don't forget. We do this show Monday, Wednesday Friday. Make
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36:15
Speaker 1: the Centaer and I also do a week in review
36:18
Speaker 1: on Saturdays for some of the big highlights you may
36:20
Speaker 1: have missed during the week, so it make sure you
36:22
Speaker 1: check that out on Saturdays and we'll see you back
36:24
Speaker 1: here on Saturday for the week in review.