WEBVTT - Montecristos with Bibi (and Peace in the Middle East) 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:03.040 There have been very few things harder to achieve in 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.360 foreign policy, maybe nothing harder to achieve in foreign policy 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:10.360 than peace in the Middle East. Nobody was able to 0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:14.440 see that coming, and yet just this past week we 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:18.040 have had an historic deal for peace in the Middle East, 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:20.560 and we happen to have a guy who was there 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:22.840 for all of it. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.599 Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz. I'm Michael Knowles, Senator. 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:36.000 I have to point out that this past week we've 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:40.000 seen not just one but two historic milestones, a pathway 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:42.720 to peace in the Middle East and episode fifty of 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:45.559 Verdicts with Ted Cruz. I don't know which one is 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.440 more historic. Look, it's been fifty episodes, and I got 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:52.040 to say, you know, when it was clear to me 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:54.480 you weren't paying attention, as when the fellow came up 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:57.440 with a little clicky thing and said episode fifty, Oh, 0:00:57.480 --> 0:00:59.120 what's that called, by the way, the clicky thing. That's 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:01.120 called the clicky thing. Actually that's the technical term for it, 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:04.280 and you apparently had no idea, so you weren't listening 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:06.080 to him when he said episode fifty times of my 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:10.039 eyes glazed over, absolutely because I was. I was focusing 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:13.560 on this other I suppose more minor historic milestone piece 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:16.120 in the middle of the world piece. Yet you know, 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:18.400 I just think you need to re examine your priority 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:22.120 in Michael, You're right, absolutely well. I wasn't there. I 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:25.360 wasn't there for the Abraham Accord. At the White House. 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.959 You've got President Trump, bb Net and Yahoo, leader of Bahrain, 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:34.240 leader of the United Arab Emirates. What makes this historic? 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:37.839 And what happened? So the Abraham Accords they were signed 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:40.760 this past week and the signing was on the south 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:42.880 lawn of the White House. So I was there, and 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:46.920 then they had chairs set up outside. It was beautiful 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:50.600 September day, probably seventy degrees outside. I mean, it was 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:52.760 as pretty a day as you ever see in Washington. 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:55.680 And their number of US gathered on these little white 0:01:55.720 --> 0:02:00.200 wooden folding chairs, and out out from the White House 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:03.280 comes the President comes Bbing Nat Yahoo, the Prime Minister 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:06.960 of Israel, and then the Foreign Minister of the UAE 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:10.519 and the Foreign Minister of Bahrain, and they each give 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:15.480 speeches and then they sit at a table down below 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:18.000 and each of them signs the agreement. And what has 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:24.840 happened is both the UAE and Bahrain have normalized relationships 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:27.520 with Israel. In other words, they're treating Israel just like 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:33.760 any other country, and that's a big damn deal. This 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:37.440 is the first time an Arab country has normalized relations 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:41.000 with Israel in twenty six years. The last time was 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:45.639 nineteen ninety four Jordan. What about before that? Before that 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:49.600 was Egypt nineteen seventy eight, Camp David. Wow. So this 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:58.000 doesn't happen very often, and I think it's an extraordinary 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:00.800 step forward in terms of bringing East to the region, 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:04.240 but also piece globally, because look, for a long time 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:06.480 the Middle East has been a powder keg yea and 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:10.720 diffusing the tensions, and it was really fitting the Bahrain 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:15.240 piece was announced on September eleventh, and I pointed out, 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:18.240 I said, you know, there are a few greater acts 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:21.120 of revenge we can have on the terrorists who committed 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:26.440 that horrific attack on September eleventh, then to bring about 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:30.720 peace in the Middle East and make help make Jews 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:34.960 and Arabs and Americans friends. Yeah, well, you mentioned nineteen 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.000 seventy eight. So we've been working on piece in the 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:40.720 Middle East since at least the Carter administration. I suppose 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:43.840 further back than that. And I know this is probably 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:46.960 a simple question, but I think sometimes when we think 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:49.400 about our own domestic problems, we do wonder this, which 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:52.760 is why is America always trying to broker peace in 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.840 the Middle East? Why do we care? Well, Israel's a 0:03:55.920 --> 0:04:00.360 unique country. It is the world's only Jewish nation. Was 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:02.840 founded in nineteen forty eight, so it's just over seventy 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:09.120 years old, um seventy two. And it you look at 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:11.280 nineteen forty eight, it was coming out of World War Two, 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:16.040 it was coming out of the Holocaust, six million Jews 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:21.240 being murdered by the Nazis and and the State of 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:25.760 Israel was formed for many reasons, one the historical connection 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:30.920 of the Jewish people to Judah and Samaria and to 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:35.560 the land of Israel, but also to ensure that that 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:38.560 never again, what's something like the Holocaust happened, that there 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:43.200 would always be a Jewish state where where Jews could 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:49.480 be be safe and avoid persecution. Now, when Israel was 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:53.680 formed in nineteen forty eight, the Arabs nations all declared war, 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:58.960 and there was war after war after warm It was 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:02.560 not something that happened happily. It's not that their neighbors 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:05.159 did not celebrate. To put it mild, and you know, 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:10.040 you think about it, you A, in Bahrain are nearby 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:16.280 neighbors who until this week didn't recognize Israel because because 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:18.480 some people have been saying, well, it's not a peace 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:21.400 deal because the UA in Bahrain they've never been in 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:24.039 open war with Israel. So oh, you know, guys, look, 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:26.120 it's not a big deal. Forget about it, okay, And 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:30.160 that's just a weird argument. Listen. Democrats are scrambling because 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:35.160 President Trump helping broker a peace deal in the Middle 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:38.680 East really counteracts their narrative as him as the embodiment 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:42.280 of everything that is terrible in the world, right, And 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:45.560 so there's a combination. Joe Biden, when the UAE deal broke, 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:48.520 he said, well, this is really the culmination of his work, 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:52.560 and so it's convenient. You know, it's a big deal 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:56.240 if Biden's trying to take credit for it, yea. And 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:59.440 then the other sort of democratic talking point is well, 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:03.000 it's not that important because they weren't actively in a 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:05.400 state of war firing missiles at each other. They didn't 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:09.680 recognize each other, they didn't acknowledge the Arab States, UAE 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:12.960 and Bahrain didn't acknowledge that Israel existed as a nation 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:15.919 as a Jewish state. And I think it's important to 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:18.919 pause and reflect how this came about, because part of 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:21.440 the reason that we're seeing the left, both the media 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:24.800 and the academic world and Democrats pushing back so hard 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:29.400 on this is these Abraham Accords are the culmination of 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:32.920 a very very different approach Trump took than Obama Biden, 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:37.080 and the Obama Biden approach doesn't work, and the approach 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:39.640 we've taken the last four years does well. This is 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:42.640 the issue. I remember when Barack Obama was running this 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:44.800 is two thousand and eight, people told me if I 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:46.919 voted for John McCain, we'd get more wars in the 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:49.359 Middle East, which was true. I voted for John McCain, 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:51.039 and we got more wars in the Middle East, even 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:54.479 though Barack Obama got elected. We haven't had one of 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:58.520 these peace deals in twenty six years, right, So what 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:01.240 did they do wrong? What did Trump do right? Because 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:02.880 we were told Trump was going to lead to World 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:07.599 War three? Yeah, and to some extent, those are different 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:11.680 issues of their parallel issues. I do think too many Democrats, 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:15.440 including the Clintons, including Hillary and too many Republicans, including 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:19.680 John McCain, had been too eager to get US into wars, 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:22.760 had been too eager to use US military force. And 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:26.000 I think that that has been an important, worthwhile shift 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:28.440 the last four years, is to be much more restrained 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:34.280 in terms of when we get into foreign entanglements, to 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:39.440 use a phrase from George Washington, with respect to Israel. 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:41.720 I think there were two decisions early on in the 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:45.360 first year of the Trump administration that really set the 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:47.520 stage for this, and they were intertwined. I think these 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:50.880 are the two most important foreign policy decisions President Trump 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:54.400 has made. The first was moving the embassy in Israel 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:58.000 to Jerusalem. Now, we had our embassy in Tel Aviv. Yeah, 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:01.000 Telvi's not the capital of Israel. Jerusalem the capital of Israel. 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:04.560 We had our embassy in Tel Aviv because the Palestinians 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:07.840 lay claim to Jerusalem as well, and so it was 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:11.480 viewed as if you have your embassy in Jerusalem, you 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:15.640 are somehow favoring Israel's choice of its capital city. Now, 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:18.200 mind you, we have our embassies in the capitals everywhere 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:21.480 else on Earth. Yeah, just this one exception that we didn't. 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:24.360 When the Trump administration began that there was a big 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:27.960 debate within the administration about whether or not to move 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:31.560 the embassy because presidents had been promising to do this 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:34.760 for decades. It had beneficial US policy, and just no 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.439 one actually did it. Obama promised to do it. George W. 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:40.080 Bush promised to do it. Bill Clinton promised to do it. 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:42.960 Both Democrats and Republicans had broken that promise over and 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:46.760 over and over again. In twenty seventeen, the Trump administration 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:49.600 both the State Department of the Defense Department opposed moving 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:53.000 the embassy. Yeah, you had Rex Teller Senna, Secretary of State, 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:55.640 had Jim Madness he was Secretary Defense, and they both 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:58.480 didn't want to move the embassy. And the reason they 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:00.280 said they didn't want to move the embassy as they 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:03.079 said it would enrage the enemies of Israel and the 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:07.040 enemies of America. This is a foreign policy battle I 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:10.720 engaged in very actively, and so I mean I spent 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:13.200 a lot of time talking to the President, leaning in 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:16.559 making the case. Look, the enemies of Israel and America 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:20.280 they hate us anyway. It's not like there's suddenly some 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:23.520 other day where they break out in hosannas and start 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:25.960 singing songs you're not going to appease them, and that 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:27.760 appeasement word. We're going to come back to that, because 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:30.880 that appeasement word is very, very important for understanding the 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:34.000 shift and path that led to this piece agreement. The 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:37.360 past week, there were voices in the White House who 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:42.079 were arguing against moving the embassy to Jerusalem because they said, 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:45.199 this will make peace harder to achieve in the Middle East. 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:47.679 We want to see peace in the Middle East. If 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:50.400 we move the embassy, it will tick off everyone who's 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:52.320 angry with Israel, and that makes it harder to achieve. 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:54.640 And you saw this throughout the mainstream media as well. 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:57.360 This was being echoed in the popular press, and the 0:09:57.440 --> 0:09:59.440 case I made to President Trump and the case I 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:01.440 made repeat it in the White House, as I said, look, 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:07.760 there is virtue to clarity and lack of ambiguity. If 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:11.560 we move the embassy, it will be seen by both 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:13.959 our friends and our enemies as a statement that the 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:18.640 United States stands unapologetically in four square with Israel, and 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:22.480 that there's a president who is not going to be 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:28.320 cowed by the New York Times or CNN. At the 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:31.080 end of the day, the President agreed with me. He 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:34.360 overruled his own state department, he overruled his own defense department, 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:37.880 and he moved the embassy. I was there when we 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:40.960 opened the embassy in Jerusalem. It was in May of 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:43.440 twenty eighteen. It was actually on the date of the 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:46.800 seventieth anniversary of the creation of the modern state of Israel. 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:51.000 And it was powerful, it was emotional. There's literally dancing 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:53.520 in the street in Jerusalem. It's I've been to Jerusalem 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:58.240 four times. I've never seen jubilasian like there was when 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:02.480 we opened the embassy. And what I argued to the 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:04.600 president when he was debating whether or not to move 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:10.400 the embassy, is I said, listen, are Arab allies, Jordan, Egypt, 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:14.680 the Saudi's UAE said, they will all publicly denounce the 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:18.320 decision because they feel they have to for domestic political reasons. 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:22.439 They'll feel obliged to denounce it. But what I argued 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:27.679 is I said, secretly, they will be overjoyed. And here's 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:33.320 why they will say. A president with the backbone to 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:37.360 move the embassy, maybe, just maybe, just maybe we'll have 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:40.840 the backbone to stand up to Iran and stop Iran 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:45.640 from getting nuclear weapons. And there are few things that 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:49.559 have clarified the minds of our Arab allies more than 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:53.640 the Obama Iran nuclear deal, which put Iran on an 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:58.360 barreling path towards getting nuclear weapons, and I sent them 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:02.120 palettes of cash for famously over one hundred billion dollars. 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:08.280 I do not believe it is a coincidence that the 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:12.000 very same week we opened our embassy in Jerusalem is 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:15.240 the week the President announced he was withdrawing from the 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:20.559 disastrous Obama Ran nuclear deal. Those two were connected, and 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:25.080 the same fight played out in the Trump administration on 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:28.359 pulling out of the Obama Ran deal. State was opposed, 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:31.880 Defense was opposed. It was clear when President Trump was 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:34.000 running he said I'm going to get out of this 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:37.680 Iran nuclear deal. The base hats so he actually didn't. 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:42.360 It is a little bit astonishing. The Iran nuclear deal 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:44.880 is one of the issues on which Donald Trump and 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:48.400 I sharply disagreed in the twenty sixteen primarily well, I 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:50.560 remember you were certainly opposed to it. So when I 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.160 was running in twenty sixteen, I pledged to do five 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:56.440 things on the first day in office January twentieth, twenty seventeen. 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:59.360 One was moving the embassy to Jerusalem. Yeah. Another was 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:01.440 ripped the deal to shreds. So those were two of 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:05.800 the five things I pledged to do. Trump as a 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:10.360 candidate in twenty sixteen explicitly disagreed with me, and he said, no, 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:11.880 I'm not going to rip the deal off. I'm going 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:13.800 to renegotiate. I'm gonna try to get a better deal. 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:17.200 And so we had we had, I mean, in several 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:20.960 presidential debates we disagreed on this policy issue. So you 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:23.560 fast forward to twenty seventeen, there's a debate within the 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:27.079 Trump administration. Tillerson and Madis are both saying stay in 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:30.200 the deal. Maddis kept saying a deal is a deal. 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:33.200 America has given our word. Yeah, And I kept pointing 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:38.720 out to Maddis, I said, no, America didn't give our word. 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:43.240 Obama signed that agreement with the explicit opposition of the 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:47.120 United States Congress. The America gives our word either when 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:50.640 we pass a statute or a treaty ratified by the Senate. 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:53.360 The Obama ran deal was neither. He made an end 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:56.959 run to the UN to try to get around Congress 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:03.120 and the opposition. Once again, Trump agreed with me and 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:06.439 overruled his own state and Defense Department. Now let's fast 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:10.040 forward and now those decisions. Part of the reasons those 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:13.800 decisions were so important is you look at the UAE 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:19.640 in Bahrain. You no longer had this moral ambiguity, this handwringing, 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:21.800 This is, oh, we don't want to take a stance 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:24.120 on Israel, we don't know what we believe, which I 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:28.080 think prolonged conflict. You talked about appeasement. The Obama Biden 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:30.840 path was appeasement over and over and over again. It 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:38.240 was undermining Israel, and undermining Israel ironically produces more terrorism, tension, warfare, 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:42.120 dissension in the Middle East. In the last couple of weeks, 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:45.160 I've spoken with the UAE ambassador, I've spoken with the 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:49.000 Saudia ambassador. So Saudi Arabia has not normalized relationships, but 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:51.560 we yet We've been told there could be other countries, 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:53.960 as many as nine countries that will join on to 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:56.280 this sort of a piece deal. And look, the Saudis 0:14:56.320 --> 0:15:00.520 are the whale. They're they're the biggest of the players. 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:05.080 That is outstanding, and Bahrain is very closely allied with 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.880 the Saudis. Most people think that Bahrain would not have 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:12.960 done this without the Saudis, at least giving implicit approval 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:16.120 to it. The Saudis also announced, and this is historic 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:20.880 as well, that they would allow Israel to have over flights, 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:24.520 to have their airplanes fly over Saudi Arabian territory. That's 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:26.240 a big deal. Used to be, Israel had to fly 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:29.960 around Saudi Arabia because Saudi Arabia would not allow Israeli 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:34.120 planes in their airspace. Both the UAE ambassador and the 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:37.320 Saudi ambassador in the past week, when I spoke to them, 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:41.520 they said, listen, we are doing this because we want 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:44.760 to be friends with America, because it is important for 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:49.600 us to be friends with America, and we know that 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:52.440 it is important to you for us to be friends 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:56.479 with Israel. We know where you stand. It's the clarity, 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:59.880 and they said, that's why we're doing this. There's something 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:03.840 called the Iran echo chamber. Okay, So that was when 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.000 Barack Obama was president, they were negotiating the Iran nuclear deal. 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:11.720 There was a so called echo chamber that it's locus 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:16.000 was the National Security Council under Obama, but it was reporters, 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:18.160 it was academics, it was think tanks, and it was 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:21.000 all these lefties who were pushing the Iran nuclear deal. 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:24.880 They viewed that as the single biggest foreign policy accomplishment 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:31.440 of the Obama presidency. And it's all predicated on a piecement. 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:35.280 It's predicated on if we give Iran one hundred billion dollars, 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:39.040 they'll make nice and won't make nuclear weapons. Even though 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:43.920 the Ayatola regularly chance death to America and death to issue, 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:46.440 it should be made clear this is not ambiguous here. 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:48.720 You've got a country that chants death to America. You've 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:50.880 got a country that is an open, explicit alli of 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:53.200 the United States, and yet or under the Obama administration, 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:55.120 it made us all scratch our heads. They thought the 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:58.240 path to peace was to make nice with the people 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:00.680 chanting death to America. This obviously they look Middle East 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:04.719 piece is perhaps the most complicated foreign policy issue. So 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:07.159 just to simplify here, because it seems like there's so 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:10.480 many layers. We were told for a very long time 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:15.240 that supporting Israel was the cause of this chaos and 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:18.920 violence in the Middle East. It would seem to be 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:21.960 that the opposite has been proved true. We were told 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:24.439 by the leaders of these countries that they hated our 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:28.479 support for Israel. Explicitly, and yet behind closed doors and 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:31.080 in their own interest, it would seem that they actually 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:35.720 have supported American clear support for Israel. Is that right? 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:38.880 Am I clarifying here a little? I think that's right. 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:41.920 On the latter point, they haven't as much explicitly supported 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:43.920 it as I think it is in their interest and 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:48.000 they are. You know, I've joked you. Remember Barack Obama 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:50.240 was given the Nobel Peace Prize in two thousand and 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:52.600 nine right after he was elected. He'd literally I don't 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:55.160 think he'd unpacked his boxes yet, he was still trying 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:58.159 to find a stapler. I believe it was nine days 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:01.359 after he was sworn in he was nominated for the 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:04.520 Peace Prize, and he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:07.639 for not being George W. Bush, but the fact that 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:09.119 he was. By the way, why didn't you win a 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:11.760 Nobel Piece prize? You're not waited, I know where's my 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:18.879 phone call? So they awarded him that prize, But you 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:23.679 look at I've joked that in retrospect, Obama may have 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:28.080 deserved it because he did something heretofore impossible, which is 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:31.280 he united the Arabs and the Israelis. All he had 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:33.160 to do was put in place a plan to give 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:35.920 one hundred billion dollars to the Ayatola Kamnee that he 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:38.240 could use to develop nuclear weapons to threaten all of 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:41.639 their lives, and suddenly the Jews and the Arabs are like, 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:44.480 holy crap, are you out of your money? Well, because 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:47.240 this introduces an aspect that I think is often overlooked 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:49.280 when people are trying to ravel with this, which is 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:52.040 they think of the issue as Jews versus Muslims, and 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:54.359 that's that's a simple. But of course we're talking about 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:56.200 nation states here, and there are a lot of these 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:59.919 Arab states that don't particularly like Iran. So you've instead 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:02.920 just two and there's a divide between Sunnies and Shiites. 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:06.359 And so Iran is a Shiite state and most of 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:09.920 the Arab states are are Sunni states, and so there's 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:14.080 a religious divide within Islam between the Sunnies and Shiites. 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:18.159 And and they're fully aware of what Iran is capable of. 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:20.640 I mean, Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:25.159 in the world. But yet both Obama and Joe Biden, 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.200 who was very active in foreign policy as Vice president, 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:33.080 they fully believed in appeasement. I've also joked there's a 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:37.080 reason we don't see the Neville Chamberlain school of foreign policy. 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:43.680 Neville Chamberlain was Prime Minister of Great Britain, championed appeasement 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:46.280 of Adolph Hitler and said, if we just give him 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:51.080 what he wants, everything will be fine. And history teaches 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:55.360 us that appeasement doesn't work, that it's provocative, that actually 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:59.600 weakness and appeasement to a dictator, to a tyrant makes 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:01.639 war were more likely. This is where a lot of 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:04.439 the media gets it backwards. Yeah, listen, I agree with 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:09.200 Ronald Reagan, who talked about and emphasized and built his 0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:11.840 foreign policy on peace through strength, that if you want 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:15.000 to avoid war, be strong enough that no one wants 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:17.600 to mess with you. Well, it's interesting on that point 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:21.239 of peace through strength. And we were told at that 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:24.040 time that Reagan's a cowboy, he's a warmonger, he's crazy. 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:25.600 I guess we were told the same thing when the 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:27.959 Trump administration came in as well. But there is an 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:32.040 irony here to both of those administrations. We really did 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:34.600 get that piece. I mean, it's not just an empty slogan. 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:38.560 When you have weakness, you're inviting this kind of aggression. 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:40.879 Look in eight years in the White House. The biggest 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:47.560 nation Reagan ever invaded was Grenada. He was reluctant to 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:50.320 use military force, as Trump has been as well, And 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:52.520 I think that is exactly right. I think there were 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:56.520 too many cowboys in the GOP and the Democratic Party 0:20:56.560 --> 0:21:01.800 that option A was always send the marine, yes and listen. 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:03.800 If there's a threat to the national security of the 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:06.399 United States, if Americans lives are being threatened, that's what 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:09.840 the armed forces is forced to keep us safe. But 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:12.480 being reluctant to pull that trigger, I think is the 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:14.399 right thing to do, not to put our sons and 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:18.399 daughters in harm's way, but also being clear and strong. 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:21.520 It's why the moving the embassy was such an important 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:25.240 pivot point. And you know, look, I'll give you an 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:30.399 example of Obama Biden and their policies. Back in I 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:34.480 think it was twenty fourteen. I was in Israel and 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:37.320 I had a meeting set up with net and Yahoo 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:42.760 and and I've gotten to know Bobe well. Yeah, And 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:45.879 the meeting was set up and the US ambassador to 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:51.359 the Obama ambassadors named Daniel Shapiro, and Shapiro told me 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:53.320 the meeting was the next day with Babe and he said, 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:55.159 he said, you are not meeting with Net and Yahoo 0:21:55.200 --> 0:21:58.479 without me? Did? He just said, flat out you were 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:01.480 not going to meet with him without me? And and 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:03.840 I said, well, listen, this this is a trip I 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:06.760 set up. I set up this meeting. I didn't go 0:22:06.800 --> 0:22:11.720 through you, and you're not invited to the meeting. Yeah, 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:14.600 you know, so I am a senator. You don't get 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:18.040 to tell me what to do. Well, and Shapiro comes 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:20.240 back and he threatens me, says, well, then i'll pull 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:23.400 your security. So when you're traveling in Israel, you get 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:26.120 a security detail from the embassy. Right. Um, he said, 0:22:26.119 --> 0:22:28.640 I'll pull your secure security. I said, fine, within within 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:30.920 an hour. I'll hire a private security if you want 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:34.440 to do that. And it was clearly a bluff. Yeah, 0:22:34.760 --> 0:22:37.360 they're not going to let the US senator go without security. 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:41.040 But what was obvious is John Kerry, who was Secretary 0:22:41.119 --> 0:22:45.000 of State, had told Shapiro, you keep an eye on 0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:48.360 cruise and don't you dare let him in a room 0:22:48.400 --> 0:22:51.560 together with baby. That we don't want this because they 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:54.920 they hated Net and Yahoo and they hated me, right, 0:22:55.080 --> 0:22:56.960 and the last thing they wanted was us talking to 0:22:57.000 --> 0:23:00.760 each other, right, And so but you had a picture it. 0:23:00.840 --> 0:23:05.200 So Ambassador Shapira is not a very big guy, and 0:23:05.240 --> 0:23:10.600 we were literally bumping chests standing in front of the Knesset, 0:23:10.600 --> 0:23:13.239 which is the Israeli parliament, and we're I mean, it 0:23:13.320 --> 0:23:17.280