Speaker 1: Geordana. I was starting to ask you, thank you for
Speaker 1: sticking with us here for a minute. How would you
Speaker 1: describe to the average person walking around the United States
Speaker 1: right now? What is the very latest and what are
Speaker 1: we witnessing in Iran.
Speaker 2: Well, we are witnessing a major wave of protests sweeping
Speaker 2: across Iran. They began in Tehran two weeks ago because
Speaker 2: the currency nosedived there. But they're coming on the backdrop
Speaker 2: of many, many complaints by Iranians.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: First of all, there's water shortages, there's rolling blackouts again,
Speaker 2: the economy is terrible, and Iran finds itself in a
Speaker 2: weakened position geopolitically as well. After the war with Iran,
Speaker 2: the war with Israel, right the twelve day war that
Speaker 2: really took out, we could say Delta a serious blow
Speaker 2: to Iran's nuclear program, its ballistic missile program. It also
Speaker 2: saw its proxies, the terror groups, if you will, that
Speaker 2: instead of pouring millions of dollars into their people and
Speaker 2: their country, the Iranian regime pours it into Hamas and
Speaker 2: has Blah, both of those taking a huge hit. So
Speaker 2: the people on the streets of Iran are coming with
Speaker 2: grievances for many years, but in the last two years
Speaker 2: it kind of has reached a tipping point and we
Speaker 2: are seeing tens of thousands of Iranians again across the country.
Speaker 2: But to get some perspective, we can look back at
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy nine and we can say that we're not
Speaker 2: in a moment yet where it looks like the regime
Speaker 2: is about to crumble. Right back in seventy nine, it
Speaker 2: took a year of protests not to bring on the
Speaker 2: shaw and in those months, right in the end, millions
Speaker 2: of Iranians were in the street. Right now, we're not
Speaker 2: seeing those numbers. Unfortunately. What we are seeing is the
Speaker 2: regime cracking down brutally as it has in it over
Speaker 2: the last decade, killing, wantonly shooting and killing protesters in
Speaker 2: the street. As you said, the number is now over
Speaker 2: two thousand by a US group tracking them here in Israel.
Speaker 2: The intelligence services here say the number is higher, somewhere
Speaker 2: between four and five thousand, not twenty five hundred. And
Speaker 2: the big question is what President Trump is going to do.
Speaker 2: He's offered to provide help, He's encouraged protesters to keep
Speaker 2: going on the streets, even to quote unquote takeover institutions,
Speaker 2: which seems to hint at regime change. But what is
Speaker 2: the president going to do? It is a fateful moment.
Speaker 2: There has never been a moment like this. We American
Speaker 2: president is willing to intervene and has threatened to intervene
Speaker 2: even militarily, to stop the protests, to stop the regime's
Speaker 2: brutality and support these protesters who want a democratic, secular
Speaker 2: government right. They don't want a government run by the Ayatola.
Speaker 1: You know, is go ahead? Please go ahead, Jordana.
Speaker 2: I was going to say that, you know, but the
Speaker 2: president is facing It's a really complicated picture, and I think,
Speaker 2: you know, God bless President Trump and his advisors. They
Speaker 2: have a really difficult decision to make. Are they going
Speaker 2: to do something to try to actually topple the regime,
Speaker 2: which runs the risk of a regional war, or are
Speaker 2: they going to do something a little scaled back and
Speaker 2: hit symbolic sites, but that would keep the regime in power.
Speaker 2: Would that be selling short the protesters for America? Perhaps
Speaker 2: President Trump is still interested in getting that nuclear deal
Speaker 2: and you know, and neutering Iran's nuclear ambitions, and that
Speaker 2: would be a plus, even if the regime doesn't change,
Speaker 2: you know, and what's the calculation. Will the Iranian strike
Speaker 2: US basis? Will they hit Israel? It's a lot and
Speaker 2: I know obviously the Israelis are watching closely.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I'm curious, Jordana, and I'm trying to
Speaker 1: dumb this down a little bit, and thank you for
Speaker 1: doing so. For a lot of us who are here,
Speaker 1: we follow what's going on in Iran. We knew about
Speaker 1: the nuclear sites that President Trump blew up not too
Speaker 1: long ago. But you know, depending on who you believe,
Speaker 1: you know, a sociologist Charles Kurzman says he thinks that
Speaker 1: there were two to three thousand killed during the Revolution
Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy nine. Historian Stephen Tucker has said roughly
Speaker 1: that's about right. A lot of people think there was
Speaker 1: a lot of propaganda with a current Islamic government saying
Speaker 1: as many as sixty thousand were killed. But the bottom
Speaker 1: line is is let's say you split, you know, say
Speaker 1: it's seven or eight thousand, like you said, The bottom
Speaker 1: line is is we are seeing mass killings. Are these
Speaker 1: just from what you're able to gather from people on
Speaker 1: the ground. Are these people that are protesting that are
Speaker 1: getting killed? Are they people who are violently protesting are
Speaker 1: they people who are just anti regime and they're pulling
Speaker 1: them off the streets and executing them. And now they're
Speaker 1: talking about public hangings there.
Speaker 2: That's right. Iran is set to hang a twenty six
Speaker 2: year old that they detained on Thursday night. They put
Speaker 2: him in a kangaroo court, convicted him of offenses against God.
Speaker 2: It sounds almost comical if it weren't so tragically true.
Speaker 2: And he did not have any lawyer, he could not
Speaker 2: appeal his decision, and he is set to be hung
Speaker 2: today publicly in Iran for protesting against the regime. The
Speaker 2: people that are being killed are coming from all kinds
Speaker 2: of different socioeconomic classes in Iran. It's students, it's the
Speaker 2: middle class, it's the older Iranians that have lost faith
Speaker 2: in the leadership of the Ayatola. It's intellectuals, it's artists
Speaker 2: who are often involved in this, and you know, and
Speaker 2: it's women. It's women who are among the most oppressed
Speaker 2: in Iran.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: There are all kinds of Sharia laws against you know,
Speaker 2: what they can Iranian laws against what they can wear
Speaker 2: and not wear, and covering their hair, not covering their hair,
Speaker 2: h So this is uh, you know, these are this
Speaker 2: is a you know, we should really give credit to
Speaker 2: the Iranians who are going into the streets and risking
Speaker 2: their lives, hoping, praying that their demonstrations can really bring
Speaker 2: a change to this regime. And I think it's only possible, really, uh,
Speaker 2: if there is some kind of help from the outside. Uh.
Speaker 2: And over time, the regime is not according to the Israelis,
Speaker 2: the regime is not in a moment today where it
Speaker 2: can be bombed out of existence, right. It needs to
Speaker 2: be weakened over time until it falls over, much like
Speaker 2: you know, much like the Syrian victator, right who unfortunately
Speaker 2: in that case it took years. But I think Iran
Speaker 2: is a different case, and getting rid of the Iranian
Speaker 2: regime would change the entire region in the Middle East
Speaker 2: for the better, right, I mean the entire world, right right, Right,
Speaker 2: So this is you know, this is a regime that
Speaker 2: you know, it's not it's not yet on its last legs.
Speaker 2: But this is another important moment that could be wisely
Speaker 2: used to continue to weaken the regime. And I think
Speaker 2: the president has obviously a lot of options on the table,
Speaker 2: right he can he can impose more economic sanctions. He
Speaker 2: can think about targeted assassinations that would weaken the regime.
Speaker 2: He can think about cyber attacks, right right, he can,
Speaker 2: and he can think about limited military strike or if
Speaker 2: if you know, if the assessment is that, you know,
Speaker 2: the regime would really fall in a couple of weeks,
Speaker 2: then you know, if that's the assessment, which it's not,
Speaker 2: that's not the assessment here in Israel, maybe he would
Speaker 2: carry out you know, much wider scale attacks. You know,
Speaker 2: there's still you know, iron still poses a threat to
Speaker 2: the United States according to Europe and to the region.
Speaker 1: Yep, yep, Jordana. I can't thank you enough for your
Speaker 1: time and your expertise, and godspeed over there in Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: We certainly appreciate you taking the time to join us
Speaker 1: here today in Cincinnati.
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll talk Sin