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Israel Under Attack · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Violence has broken out in Israel as Hamas is firing
0:03
Speaker 1: rockets into the state of Israel, Israel defending itself, and
0:08
Speaker 1: our host of this show, Senator Cruz, will be headed
0:11
Speaker 1: where the rockets are flying in the coming days. This
0:15
Speaker 1: is Verdict with Ted Cruz. Welcome back to Verdict with
0:23
Speaker 1: Ted Cruz. Senator. I'm very glad that we are doing
0:26
Speaker 1: this episode from our very comfy studio here in Washington,
0:31
Speaker 1: d C. And that we're not doing it under rocket
0:33
Speaker 1: fire in Israel. But you, you, madman, are headed right
0:37
Speaker 1: into where the violence is. So Michael, you're saying you're
0:40
Speaker 1: not going to come with me and do a podcast
0:43
Speaker 1: on location alongside the Gaza strip in a bomb shelter.
0:48
Speaker 1: You know, I was. I've gotten sick of zoom over
0:51
Speaker 1: the last year. This will be an instance. I think
0:53
Speaker 1: I'd prefer zoom. I think Skype further distance would be great.
0:57
Speaker 1: All right, you can zoom in from Bay great, wonderful,
1:01
Speaker 1: the far more peaceful. Yes, you are headed there into
1:05
Speaker 1: a conflict that I think we can say without exaggeration
1:09
Speaker 1: is the most complex conflict ye on planet Earth. I
1:14
Speaker 1: think a great many conservatives, even you know, certainly the
1:18
Speaker 1: leftists but even a great many conservatives don't really know
1:22
Speaker 1: what exactly is it play here, what exactly the two
1:25
Speaker 1: sides stand for, or why there seems to be perpetual violence,
1:29
Speaker 1: And I to some degree would count myself in that category.
1:32
Speaker 1: So Senator, if you wouldn't mind, please explain it well.
1:36
Speaker 1: Israel is surrounded by nations that for most of the
1:40
Speaker 1: existence of the modern state of Israel have wanted to
1:43
Speaker 1: drive it into the sea. I wanted to destroy it.
1:46
Speaker 1: If you look at Israel, the only reason Israel exists
1:49
Speaker 1: today is that it is militarily able to defeat its neighbors.
1:56
Speaker 1: There's been a whole history of Middle East wars where
2:01
Speaker 1: Arab nations join together attacked Israel. Every time they do it,
2:04
Speaker 1: they lose, and in fact Israel gains territory. That strength
2:10
Speaker 1: has been critical to Israel's existence. If you look at
2:15
Speaker 1: what's happening with Hamas terrorists, these are terrorists in Israel
2:19
Speaker 1: that that do not believe Israel has a right to exist,
2:24
Speaker 1: that they do not want there to be a Jewish
2:26
Speaker 1: state on the face of the earth. They want to
2:28
Speaker 1: obliterate it, and they engage in deliberate, repeated acts of
2:33
Speaker 1: violence terrorism. They target individuals, They target civilians, They target
2:38
Speaker 1: women and children. They whether it is suicide vests and
2:43
Speaker 1: blowing up cafes or discotheques or malls. But but they
2:52
Speaker 1: also use rockets. They use typically low tech rockets that
2:56
Speaker 1: are that are fired into Israel over and over and
2:58
Speaker 1: over again seeking to cause mayhem. And there and they're
3:01
Speaker 1: doing a couple of things. One, uh, they want to
3:05
Speaker 1: destabilize Israel. They want to create fear. And I'll tell
3:08
Speaker 1: you I've been to Israel many times. I've been along
3:12
Speaker 1: the Gaza strip where where the folks there are used to,
3:18
Speaker 1: you know, having a siren go off and having to
3:21
Speaker 1: run to a bomb shelter because in ten twenty thirty
3:24
Speaker 1: seconds a rocket could explode and kill you. And it
3:28
Speaker 1: has an effect. I mean, I've talked with Israelis who
3:32
Speaker 1: you know, it's like PTSD, I mean they're dealing with
3:35
Speaker 1: I mean, it's really frightening when you're playing with your
3:38
Speaker 1: child and suddenly have to run and hide because of
3:41
Speaker 1: fear of being killed. But another reason Hamas does this
3:46
Speaker 1: is they count on the media to be their propagandists.
3:51
Speaker 1: They know that Israel will have to respond that if
3:53
Speaker 1: you start I mean imagine how people would react in Washington,
3:57
Speaker 1: d C. If if sub lead folks in Maryland began
4:01
Speaker 1: firing rockets in the DC like you would respond and
4:04
Speaker 1: you would respond with military force. Inevitably, Israel responds and
4:09
Speaker 1: goes after the terrorists, and the press predictably takes the
4:13
Speaker 1: size at side of the terrorists and paints Israel as
4:15
Speaker 1: the bad guys. Now. I think also for people who
4:18
Speaker 1: are unclear of what Hamas is, it's confusing because they're
4:22
Speaker 1: terrorists in that they target civilians to achieve political ends,
4:25
Speaker 1: the very basic definition of terrorism. But they're also sort
4:29
Speaker 1: of the government elected by the Palestinian Arabs, even though
4:33
Speaker 1: Palestine is not a nation, but there were elections in
4:35
Speaker 1: two thousand and five and the people there who participated
4:39
Speaker 1: elected this terrorist group to represent them. That's right. And
4:43
Speaker 1: not only that, you have the Palestinian Authority, which is
4:47
Speaker 1: the governmental entity in the portions of Israel that are
4:53
Speaker 1: controlled by the pay that pays terrorists. So if you
4:58
Speaker 1: Michael gostrap dynam to your chest and you walk into
5:01
Speaker 1: a mall in Tel Aviv and you blow yourself up
5:05
Speaker 1: and you murder a bunch of other people, you murder
5:08
Speaker 1: a bunch of israelis the Palestinian authority will pay your
5:12
Speaker 1: family a stipend in perpetuity. They literally are essentially paying bounties.
5:17
Speaker 1: You know, go blow yourself up and we'll take care
5:20
Speaker 1: of your family for you, and will celebrate you as
5:23
Speaker 1: a hero and martyr and and and that is profoundly dysfunctional.
5:28
Speaker 1: It is. But the media and the Democrats play this
5:32
Speaker 1: game in moral relativism where they say, well, both sides
5:35
Speaker 1: are doing wrong. Nope. Yet you know, years ago. The
5:40
Speaker 1: first time I visited Israel was in twenty twelve, so
5:45
Speaker 1: nine years ago, and first time I traveled there, I
5:51
Speaker 1: went and visited a hospital on the northern border of Israel,
5:56
Speaker 1: right alongside Syrias with a Ziv hospital. At the time,
6:00
Speaker 1: that hospital had provided over eight million dollars in free,
6:05
Speaker 1: uncompensated care two Syrians injured in the horrific civil war
6:11
Speaker 1: playing out there. And I heard stories from Israeli doctors,
6:15
Speaker 1: Israeli nurses how you would have a little Syrian child,
6:20
Speaker 1: a boy or girl, go to sleep in their bed
6:23
Speaker 1: and a bomb would go off and blow up their
6:27
Speaker 1: home and they would wake up, and they'd wake up
6:30
Speaker 1: in an Israeli hospital being treated and these little girls
6:34
Speaker 1: and little boys were terrified, terrified at whatever injuries they had,
6:39
Speaker 1: but even more terrified that it was Israeli doctors that
6:42
Speaker 1: were treating them. Right. And you know, one of the
6:44
Speaker 1: physicians there told me about a woman who was a
6:46
Speaker 1: Syrian woman who who said, my whole life, the government
6:54
Speaker 1: I've been told was there to protect me, Now they're
6:56
Speaker 1: trying to kill me, and my whole life. The people
7:00
Speaker 1: I've been told that hate me and want to kill me,
7:03
Speaker 1: Now you're saving my life, right right. And and it's
7:06
Speaker 1: so I wrote a number of years back an op
7:10
Speaker 1: ed that was called a Tale of two Hospitals, and
7:14
Speaker 1: it said, you can tell a lot about a society
7:17
Speaker 1: by how they treat their most vulnerable, and a hospital's
7:21
Speaker 1: a good place to start. And I compared the Ziv
7:23
Speaker 1: Hospital where they'd given all of this free care to
7:28
Speaker 1: Syrians wounded in the Civil War, and I contrasted it
7:31
Speaker 1: to a hospital in Gaza, which is in the southern
7:34
Speaker 1: part of Israel that's under the control of the Palestinian
7:38
Speaker 1: authority and Hamas, where Hamas had based their headquarters in
7:45
Speaker 1: the basement of the hospital. And what they were doing, Now,
7:48
Speaker 1: mind you, this is a Palestinian hospital under was the
7:51
Speaker 1: hospital is filled not with Israelis but with Palestinians, and
7:55
Speaker 1: they were using Palestinians as human shields. And so you
7:58
Speaker 1: have mothers giving birth are literally using the mothers and
8:02
Speaker 1: the infants just being born as human shields. And from
8:05
Speaker 1: Hamasa's perspective, it's a win win either as ended up
8:09
Speaker 1: being the case, Israel will refrain and not attack the
8:14
Speaker 1: headquarters from which they're planning terrorist attacks on Israel. Okay,
8:18
Speaker 1: that's a win if like Israel is afraid to attack
8:20
Speaker 1: their headquarters, Hamas is happy about that. Or on the
8:24
Speaker 1: flip side, if Israel does attack the headquarters, there will
8:30
Speaker 1: be a bunch of Palestinian patients, mothers and infants killed.
8:33
Speaker 1: It's great pr and it's great pr. They know that CNN,
8:36
Speaker 1: they know that New York Times, they know that the
8:37
Speaker 1: Democrats will say, see the Israelis or monsters. We told
8:41
Speaker 1: you so. So either way, and in the practice of
8:43
Speaker 1: human shields is something Hamas does a lot. So this
8:47
Speaker 1: this conflict is not particularly complicated to obviously the history
8:50
Speaker 1: is very complicated. But which side we should be on
8:53
Speaker 1: it's not that complicated. If you elect Hamas terrorists to
8:57
Speaker 1: represent you, and if you celebrate in the stats on
9:00
Speaker 1: nine to eleven has happened, I remember watching it play
9:03
Speaker 1: out live twenty years ago. Then it doesn't seem like
9:08
Speaker 1: the United States should should really support whatever national cause
9:11
Speaker 1: you want to represent. And Israel has has been a
9:14
Speaker 1: good ally. We've been good allies to Israel. That seems
9:16
Speaker 1: perfectly ordinary. Why is it that so many prominent Democrats
9:22
Speaker 1: are against Israel and are supporting the Palestinian Arabs? What
9:27
Speaker 1: is the argument? Are what am I missing here? Well,
9:30
Speaker 1: the far left hates Israel, and actually the far left
9:34
Speaker 1: frequently traffics and anti Semitism where they despise Israel's right
9:40
Speaker 1: to exist. Is you look, Israel is a nation that
9:42
Speaker 1: shares America's value. Israel is our strongest ally in the
9:46
Speaker 1: Middle East. We provide about three billion dollars a year
9:51
Speaker 1: in military assistance to Israel that produces enormous military advantages,
9:58
Speaker 1: in national security advantag just to the United States. I
10:01
Speaker 1: am the strongest defender of Israel in the US Senate,
10:04
Speaker 1: and I resolved to be that when I was elected. Um,
10:09
Speaker 1: but but I defend our support of Israel, not as
10:12
Speaker 1: a welfare case, not like we're helping out this you know,
10:15
Speaker 1: poor on their luck neighbor r Right, it's not We're
10:18
Speaker 1: not just a national charity, right. I mean, it's good
10:20
Speaker 1: to be charitable, but that's not the benefits America. So
10:24
Speaker 1: you look at all of the enemies of Israel, our
10:28
Speaker 1: enemies of America. You you look at the Ayatollah Kamene,
10:31
Speaker 1: the leader, the so called Supreme leader of Iran. He
10:35
Speaker 1: leads mobs enchanting death to America and death to Israel.
10:42
Speaker 1: They call Israel the little Satan. They call America the
10:47
Speaker 1: big sat, the great Satan. Yeah, and when Israel is
10:54
Speaker 1: fighting her enemies, Israel is fighting our enemies. Not only that,
10:58
Speaker 1: the Massad, their spy net work is second to none.
11:02
Speaker 1: It is incredibly effective, and so we get massive national
11:06
Speaker 1: security benefits from what they do with our assistance. For example,
11:11
Speaker 1: the Massad did this raid on Iran that uncovered this
11:16
Speaker 1: cash of documents showing their nuclear programs that they were
11:19
Speaker 1: actively working to develop nuclear weapons, even when they said
11:24
Speaker 1: they were not, that they were lying. It proved that
11:26
Speaker 1: they were lying that and by the way, they gave
11:29
Speaker 1: those documents to America. So they went on a commando
11:31
Speaker 1: raid seize these documents. I mean, it's like something out
11:34
Speaker 1: of Jason Bourne. All of that is very much benefits us. Well,
11:41
Speaker 1: you're certainly right here in particular when you're talking about
11:44
Speaker 1: these prominent democrats who hate Israel and don't think it
11:48
Speaker 1: should exist. I mean, there are elected democrats who have
11:52
Speaker 1: repeated the slogan from the river to the sea, Palestine
11:56
Speaker 1: will be free, which is to say Israel will cease
11:59
Speaker 1: to exist as a nation state and that state will
12:02
Speaker 1: be turned over to the Palestinian Arab So that it's
12:04
Speaker 1: hard to be more antipathetic than that. Well, and listen,
12:08
Speaker 1: the barrier to Middle East piece has never been Israel.
12:14
Speaker 1: Nobody wants peace more than Israel. Look, it's it's Israeli
12:17
Speaker 1: babies that are being murdered. It's it's the citizens that
12:19
Speaker 1: live in the fear of terror. The barrier to peace
12:25
Speaker 1: is the Palestinians, who number one, refuse to acknowledge Israel's
12:29
Speaker 1: right to exist. They refuse their objective is to abolish
12:33
Speaker 1: the entire nation of Israel. And secondly, they refuse to
12:37
Speaker 1: renounce terrorism. They in fact, they continue to pay people
12:41
Speaker 1: to commit acts of terrorism and murder innocent civilians. Until
12:45
Speaker 1: those two things change. You can't have meaningful peace. I
12:50
Speaker 1: will say though, that all of us have been benefited
12:53
Speaker 1: from an incredible object lesson the last year of what
12:58
Speaker 1: works in the Middle East and what doesn't. So for
13:02
Speaker 1: years and years and years, Democrats have said there can
13:05
Speaker 1: be no peace, you can have no Arab Israeli peace
13:08
Speaker 1: until the Palestinian situation is resolved. John Kerry said this
13:12
Speaker 1: as Secretary of State in twenty sixteen. Yes, he said,
13:14
Speaker 1: it's impossible to solve until we solve the Palestinian situation. Well,
13:17
Speaker 1: it turns out that's totally wrong. Yeah, that's now been
13:21
Speaker 1: objectively disproved. And think about it. Last year, we were
13:25
Speaker 1: seeing this flowering of peace across the Middle East, historic,
13:29
Speaker 1: the first peace agreements in decades, the Abraham Accords. As
13:33
Speaker 1: you know, I was there at the White House when
13:36
Speaker 1: the Abraham Accords were assigned. And why were they signed?
13:41
Speaker 1: I think it's important to understand because there's a reason
13:43
Speaker 1: we had peace last year, and there's a reason we
13:45
Speaker 1: have war this year, and it's based on the policies
13:49
Speaker 1: of America last year and the policies of America this year.
13:53
Speaker 1: Why did we have peace last year? I think the
13:55
Speaker 1: single biggest thing that changed was clarity about where America costance.
14:01
Speaker 1: So you and I have talked before about the two
14:03
Speaker 1: biggest foreign policy decisions that Trump made. The first was
14:09
Speaker 1: the decision to move the United States Embassy to Jerusalem. Yeah,
14:13
Speaker 1: you know, Israel was the only country on Earth or
14:15
Speaker 1: we didn't have our embassy in its capital city. And
14:17
Speaker 1: it had been US policy for decades to move the
14:20
Speaker 1: embassy to Jerusalem. We just never did. Every president said
14:23
Speaker 1: they would do it, and we just never do. Both
14:25
Speaker 1: Democrats and Republican presidents had promised to move the embassy
14:28
Speaker 1: and then they didn't and the reason why. So there
14:31
Speaker 1: was a big fight in the Trump administration about do
14:32
Speaker 1: we move the embassy. Both the Secretary of State Rex
14:36
Speaker 1: Tillerson and the Secretary of Defense Jim Maddis, both of
14:40
Speaker 1: them vigorously argued against moving the embassy. They said, if
14:44
Speaker 1: we moved the embassy, the enemies of Israel will be
14:47
Speaker 1: in rage, they will attack, It will cause violence, There
14:49
Speaker 1: will be violence in the streets, they said. And I
14:54
Speaker 1: made the case vigorously to President Trump we should move
14:58
Speaker 1: the embassy, that it would make absolutely clear but to
15:02
Speaker 1: both our friends and enemies that we stand unequivocally with Israel,
15:05
Speaker 1: and I think there's power in clarity. Trump agreed with me,
15:12
Speaker 1: moved the embassy, and I was there the day the
15:17
Speaker 1: embassy opened up, just over three years ago. That very
15:21
Speaker 1: same week, and I don't think it's coincidental, the Trump
15:26
Speaker 1: administration announced we were pulling out of the Iran nuclear Deal.
15:31
Speaker 1: That's the most important foreign policy decision. Trump made same dynamics.
15:36
Speaker 1: Both State and Defense opposed pulling out of the deal.
15:39
Speaker 1: I made the case repeatedly to the President in the
15:41
Speaker 1: Oval Office, we needed to pull out of the deal,
15:43
Speaker 1: and again he agreed with me, and he overruled his
15:45
Speaker 1: own State department, his own Defense department. Those two decisions
15:50
Speaker 1: are what produced the Abraham Accords, and I'll tell you why.
15:54
Speaker 1: So when the Abraham Accords were being signed, I spoke
15:59
Speaker 1: with the foreign ministers and the ambassadors of both the
16:02
Speaker 1: UAE and Bahrain. Both of them said the same thing.
16:06
Speaker 1: They said, it is now clear to us that America
16:12
Speaker 1: stands on equivocally with Israel. We want to be friends
16:16
Speaker 1: with America, so we'll be friends with Israel. Yeah, it
16:20
Speaker 1: was that clarity. And notice there's no resolution of the
16:23
Speaker 1: Palestinian situation. It was simply they were making a decision.
16:27
Speaker 1: Being friends with America is a big damn deal, and
16:30
Speaker 1: so we'll suck it up and make peace with Israel.
16:35
Speaker 1: Now fast forward to Biden. What does Biden do? From
16:39
Speaker 1: day one? Begins undermining Israel, begins undermining data. By the way,
16:46
Speaker 1: Prime Minister Dat and Yahoo Joe Biden. The Democrats hate him,
16:50
Speaker 1: They hate him, they loathed didn't Obama try to oust him? Yes,
16:54
Speaker 1: the Obama They sent their political operatives to Israel to
16:59
Speaker 1: help run the campaign of his opponents. I mean they
17:01
Speaker 1: despise him because he's strong and unequivocal and to be honest,
17:06
Speaker 1: nat Jah who is more pro America the Democrats are. Yeah,
17:12
Speaker 1: they despised nat Jah who they began sending they've Biden
17:15
Speaker 1: is sent over one hundred million dollars to the Palestinian authority.
17:20
Speaker 1: So why did the money stop? The money stopped? We
17:23
Speaker 1: had been giving aid to the Palestinian authority, and we
17:25
Speaker 1: actually passed a law in Congress called the Taylor Force Act.
17:28
Speaker 1: Taylor Force Act is named after Taylor Force, who was
17:31
Speaker 1: a Texan. He was a veteran and he was in
17:34
Speaker 1: Israel and was killed by a terrorist in Israel, and
17:38
Speaker 1: the Taylor Forsact said we're not going to send us
17:42
Speaker 1: taxpayer money to any governmental entity that pays but like
17:48
Speaker 1: if you're cutting checks. And by the way, it's a
17:50
Speaker 1: major budgetary line item for the PA funding the families
17:54
Speaker 1: of the martyrs, funding the families of the terrorists who
17:57
Speaker 1: committed acts of murder. Because of that, the Trump administration,
18:01
Speaker 1: following the Taylor Force Act, cut off the cash, said
18:04
Speaker 1: you don't get any more money. What had Biden said, Oh,
18:06
Speaker 1: we're giving you the money over one hundred million dollars.
18:08
Speaker 1: And by the way, these are the same clowns that
18:11
Speaker 1: are now firing rockets in right to Israel. Hamas is
18:17
Speaker 1: also funded by Iran. Biden's number one foreign policy objective
18:21
Speaker 1: is to reinstate the Iran nuclear deal. And you know,
18:26
Speaker 1: the funny thing is when you undermine our ally, and
18:29
Speaker 1: when you praise the terrorist and you say you give
18:31
Speaker 1: them money, and you say you're going to give them
18:33
Speaker 1: more money, suddenly they start engaging in more acts of
18:36
Speaker 1: terrorism and firing rockets. And they know that the press
18:39
Speaker 1: and the Democrats will side with the terrorists. And we're
18:42
Speaker 1: saying that, especially from the squad. Yeah, so I think
18:46
Speaker 1: this is actually such an important point both when you
18:49
Speaker 1: think of Iran, you know enemy state actors, and when
18:52
Speaker 1: you think of politicians, our opponents here in the United States,
18:57
Speaker 1: you can judge a man by his end. And so
19:00
Speaker 1: when I'm trying to think of this, this issue, which
19:03
Speaker 1: is so complex, and I look and I see the
19:06
Speaker 1: squad AOC, Bernie Sanders, Barack Obama, all these radical politicians
19:15
Speaker 1: that I think are wrong about everything, when I see
19:18
Speaker 1: that they uniformly are against Israel, and then I look
19:22
Speaker 1: at the people who are supporting Israel and in the
19:25
Speaker 1: United States, but state actors as well. To me, I think, okay,
19:28
Speaker 1: if I don't if I don't know anything else about
19:30
Speaker 1: this conflict, it is likely that I am going to
19:34
Speaker 1: come out on the side of Israel. Here just look
19:36
Speaker 1: at just look at where the people are lining up.
19:38
Speaker 1: I think you're right. And it's worth noting that the
19:41
Speaker 1: politics on this has changed a lot. So for a
19:45
Speaker 1: long time in Washington there's been a bipartisan consensus in
19:48
Speaker 1: support of Israel. Yea APACK is political action committee that
19:55
Speaker 1: works to encourage American Israeli cooperation and support. It's assiduously bipartisan,
20:02
Speaker 1: and I actually agree with the principle that we should
20:04
Speaker 1: have as much bipartisan cooperation when it comes to standing
20:08
Speaker 1: with Israel as possible. Israel wants to continue to exist,
20:11
Speaker 1: whether it's Democrats in office or whether it's Republicans in office.
20:17
Speaker 1: That changed very significantly during the Iran Deal. So the
20:21
Speaker 1: second term of Obama, they're negotiating the Iran Deal. Net
20:27
Speaker 1: and Yahoo said, and I agree with him, that the
20:29
Speaker 1: Iran Deal was an existential threat to Israel, literally going
20:32
Speaker 1: to the very existence of Israel. That a nuclear Iran.
20:37
Speaker 1: The odds are unacceptably high that the Aetola would use
20:39
Speaker 1: nuclear weapons on Israel. That's how much they despise the Jews.
20:45
Speaker 1: You know, the head of Iran's nuclear program, who, by
20:51
Speaker 1: the way, has since met his maker, and many say
20:56
Speaker 1: at the hands of the Massad. That has not been confirmed,
20:59
Speaker 1: but I can't imagine to believe he had written into
21:03
Speaker 1: his last will and testament that he wanted written on
21:06
Speaker 1: his tombstone the following. Here lies a man who sought
21:12
Speaker 1: the annihilation of Israel. Now think for a second, just
21:19
Speaker 1: how much hatred, Yeah, you have to have to want
21:23
Speaker 1: that's all you want to be remembered for is I
21:26
Speaker 1: sought to annihilate them That's what a lot of people
21:30
Speaker 1: don't get is these people want to kill every Jew
21:34
Speaker 1: in Israel. Um And and when you're dealing with bullies,
21:42
Speaker 1: when you're dealing with tyrants, weakness doesn't work. Um So
21:47
Speaker 1: this actually, this very point raises an objection that the
21:51
Speaker 1: leftist media and politicians bring up, which is, look, sure,
21:55
Speaker 1: Hamas is firing at the civilians, and that's bad. Yeah,
21:57
Speaker 1: they probably shouldn't do that, but they're firing the dinky
22:00
Speaker 1: little rockets. And the response from Israel has been disproportionate
22:05
Speaker 1: because they have better funding and they've got better weapons,
22:08
Speaker 1: and so it's it's unjust for Israel to respond in
22:11
Speaker 1: a stronger way than the way in which they've been attacked. Well,
22:15
Speaker 1: Israel has a responsibility to protect itself and to stop
22:18
Speaker 1: him out. And if you fire rockets, try to murder
22:20
Speaker 1: Israeli citizens, you're going to get a serious military response.
22:24
Speaker 1: That's why Israel exists. Also, if you're in a fight
22:28
Speaker 1: with a bully, I don't know, it's been a while
22:31
Speaker 1: since I've been in grade school, but I was not
22:32
Speaker 1: told if a bully punches you, punch him exactly as
22:35
Speaker 1: hard as he punched you. I was told if a
22:37
Speaker 1: bully comes out and threatens you and punches you, you
22:40
Speaker 1: punch him twice as hard. I didn't think anyone punched anyone, Agale.
22:45
Speaker 1: It's really more of a slap. It's actually a bit
22:47
Speaker 1: of a slapping or just you know, sit down and
22:50
Speaker 1: try to understand each other. So look that that's absolutely right. Um.
22:57
Speaker 1: Let's take this past week what has driven in the
23:00
Speaker 1: press crazy, which is that Israel bombed a building that
23:05
Speaker 1: happened to be the headquarters of the Associated Press. Now
23:09
Speaker 1: it also happened to be the headquarters of a major
23:12
Speaker 1: operation for Hamas in the building, an intelligence operation. And
23:18
Speaker 1: you know net and Yah who has said publicly that
23:20
Speaker 1: he had compelling intelligence that showed that there was AMAS
23:23
Speaker 1: operation headquartered in that building, and it's been reported that
23:26
Speaker 1: he shared it with the US government, with the Biden administration.
23:30
Speaker 1: I haven't seen any classified information on that, so I
23:32
Speaker 1: just know what's been reported. But a couple of points
23:37
Speaker 1: on this. Number One, that's consistent with Amassa's pattern of
23:42
Speaker 1: using human shields of locating in the AP headquarters. Number Two,
23:47
Speaker 1: I'll wager twenty dollars AP knew that. Of course that
23:51
Speaker 1: they knew exactly because you know what those Hamas guys
23:54
Speaker 1: were their sources. Yeah, I mean, they are propagandists for
23:58
Speaker 1: the terrorists. It does raise a question why did the
24:01
Speaker 1: AP have an office in Gaza, And there have been
24:05
Speaker 1: incidents in the past, by the way, that shows a
24:06
Speaker 1: bit of a deeper relationship here between these journalists. Well,
24:11
Speaker 1: and one of the things actually that the Israelis do
24:13
Speaker 1: so they try to do everything they can to minimize
24:17
Speaker 1: civilian casualties. They go so far so for example, they
24:22
Speaker 1: notified the AP get out of the building so that
24:25
Speaker 1: the reporters were not there when they leveled the building.
24:28
Speaker 1: The APE knew, they knew exactly. You know, some years
24:34
Speaker 1: back there was a story about Gaza. In Gaza, Hamas
24:39
Speaker 1: was storing their missiles in a kindergarten. Yeah, so they're
24:42
Speaker 1: literally and they're using by the way, Palestinian kindergarteners are
24:45
Speaker 1: the human shields. I passed legislation that imposes sanctions on
24:51
Speaker 1: any organization that uses human shields. I also passed a
24:54
Speaker 1: bipartisan resolution condemning the use of human shields as a
24:57
Speaker 1: war crime. So this has been an issue that I've
25:01
Speaker 1: been the leading voice in the Senate for a long time.
25:04
Speaker 1: Against using human shield. But I gotta tell you when
25:06
Speaker 1: when they put the missiles in the kindergarten, Hillary Clinton
25:11
Speaker 1: was asked about it and her defense she said, well,
25:16
Speaker 1: you've got to understand, Gaza's very small, so there's no
25:21
Speaker 1: other place to put the missiles, which is such utter
25:26
Speaker 1: garbage even by Hillary Clinton standards. That is a weak excuse.
25:30
Speaker 1: It is a very weak excuse. But you've got the
25:33
Speaker 1: Democrats are apologists. They're cheering for the terrorists. And the
25:36
Speaker 1: point I was starting to make before you used to
25:38
Speaker 1: have a bipartisan agreement on Israel when that broke was
25:43
Speaker 1: the irand deal, because what happened is the Obama White
25:47
Speaker 1: House told Democrats pick you either pick us or Israel. Yeah,
25:53
Speaker 1: and Democrats picked partisan politics. If you remember, Bob Menendez,
26:01
Speaker 1: Democrat from New Jersey, became the first Senate Democrat to
26:04
Speaker 1: speak out against the Iran Deal. The day he came
26:08
Speaker 1: out against the Iran Deal, the Omama Justice Department leaked
26:12
Speaker 1: that they were indicting Bob Menendez. That's wow, the timing.
26:16
Speaker 1: Actually I remembered they indicted him on them It is
26:18
Speaker 1: the exact day they leaked it. And that was a
26:21
Speaker 1: bare knuckle punch. He was meant to tell every Democrat
26:26
Speaker 1: you get on board or we will come after you.
26:29
Speaker 1: That's how they that's how rough they play. And I
26:32
Speaker 1: gotta tell you I had ambassadors from major European allies
26:36
Speaker 1: in my office during the Iran deal saying help us. Look,
26:39
Speaker 1: the Obama White House is twisting our arms, forcing us
26:43
Speaker 1: into this dumbass deal, and we need help. By the way,
26:48
Speaker 1: these European allies are now big supporters of the deals
26:51
Speaker 1: because they want to make money in Iran, but at
26:53
Speaker 1: the time they realized how crazy it was. And APAC. Look,
27:00
Speaker 1: I've done a lot of work with APAC. I got
27:02
Speaker 1: to say, APAC found its credibility very badly damaged because
27:08
Speaker 1: it said it's number one objective as we've got to
27:11
Speaker 1: stop this deal. Virtually every Democrats said, go jump in
27:15
Speaker 1: a lake. By the way, Schumer kind of played to
27:17
Speaker 1: oppose it, but he did nothing to a post and
27:22
Speaker 1: then not a single one of those Democrats lost in
27:24
Speaker 1: the subsequent election for doing that, and APAC ended up
27:29
Speaker 1: being substantially weakened because the Democrats learned that they could
27:34
Speaker 1: tell them go jump in a lake on their central issue,
27:37
Speaker 1: and not only would they bring no consequences, APAC would
27:39
Speaker 1: turn around and raise money for them. Well, you know,
27:41
Speaker 1: this actually gets to the point where we were talking
27:43
Speaker 1: about earlier, which is that clarity has a lot of
27:46
Speaker 1: power to it, and especially on this issue. As the
27:49
Speaker 1: battle lines, the political battle lines have really become clear here,
27:53
Speaker 1: people need to pick a side. You know, if you
27:55
Speaker 1: stand in the middle of the road, you're going to
27:56
Speaker 1: get hit by a truck. Senator, we're now running out
27:59
Speaker 1: of time. I hope that you are not hit by
28:01
Speaker 1: a truck. I trust that you will be very safe.
28:04
Speaker 1: I wish you a very good trip into Israel, and
28:06
Speaker 1: I look forward to seeing you back here in America,
28:08
Speaker 1: not over there, but back here in America to discuss
28:11
Speaker 1: it version next year in Jerusalem. Next year in Jerusalem.
28:14
Speaker 1: I'm Michael Knowles. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. This
28:26
Speaker 1: episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is being brought to
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