WEBVTT - Episode 856: Israel-Iran Ceasefire – Will It Last? 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:08.000 On this episode of Nuts World. President Trump's decision to 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:12.800 use B two bunker buster bombs on three key Iranian 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:15.840 nuclear facilities over the weekend brought a ceasefire of the 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:19.799 conflict between Israel and Aram. But will the cease fire 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:23.480 last and how has the conflict begun to reshape the 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:27.320 Middle East? Here to discuss Israel's reaction to the US 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:31.120 bombings and the ceasefire agreement, I'm really pleased to welcome 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:34.800 back my guest, yakovkats. He is the former editor in 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:37.800 chief of the Jerusalem Post, author of the upcoming book 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:42.479 While Israel Slept Alhamas Surprised, the most powerful military in 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:45.200 the Middle East, which is available for pre order now, 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:48.120 and he is I think one of the most insightful 0:00:48.600 --> 0:01:05.800 and remarkably informed analyst on the entire region. Yakoff, welcome 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:07.960 and thank you for joining me again on NEWTS World. 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:10.040 It's great to be with you, mister speaker. 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:14.840 So let's begin with from an American perspective, the biggest headline, 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:18.759 which is President Trump authorizing B two bombers to strike 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:22.440 the Iranian nuclear facilities. What was your reaction when you 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:23.120 heard the news? 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:27.880 Well, I thought that when the President made that decision, 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:31.520 and those B two bombers flew from Missouri all the 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:34.640 way to the Middle East into Iran and dropped those 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:40.400 GBU fifty seven bunker busters over Fordeaux, the secret Enrichmond 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.080 facility that Iran had built into a mountain near the 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:46.240 city of Coombe, as well as over Natans, the main 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.560 enrichment uranium and Richmond facility, and then some Tomahawk missiles 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:52.960 from submarines that were parked off the coast of Iran. 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:56.920 To me, it was a historic day because what it 0:01:57.080 --> 0:02:01.240 showed was, finally there's a president who, after so many 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:04.040 who have promised over the years not to allow Iran 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:08.800 to obtain a nuclear weapon, and had consistently and constantly 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:11.840 taken that red line. We won't let them in rich uranium. 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:13.840 And then when they enriched uranium, we said, we'll only 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:15.960 let them in rich uranium to low levels. And then 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:18.760 when it went to twenty percent, the world said, well, 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:20.520 not to sixty percent. And then when it went to 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:23.000 sixty percent, the world said, well not to ninety percent. 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:27.400 And finally someone understood that what was happening here and 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:29.680 this was what was obvious to everyone, and you know this, 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:32.960 Sir is that there is no uranium enrichment to sixty 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:36.799 percent unless it is for a nuclear bomb. And it 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:39.680 was time for the Uranians to be taught that they 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:43.840 cannot continue to recavoc in the world with their proxy 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:47.760 army and to illicitly try to obtain a nuclear weapon. 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:50.920 And I think that what the President did will go 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:53.839 down in history as a projection of power, but also 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:57.520 as an important lesson to rogue states that they can't 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:00.000 get away with trying to develop weapons of mass destructs. 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:04.080 It was fascinating to me that in the initial campaign, 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:08.240 and I thought there was a certain artistry to Trump 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:12.320 offering around sixty days to come to the table, and 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:16.440 on the sixty first day Israel struck. I'm presuming that 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.840 net Yahoo and Trump had some kind of understanding. I 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:25.040 thought the Israeli military and the Israeli intelligence service collaborated 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:29.760 with astonishing effectiveness. Well, weren't you a little surprised at 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:33.120 how thoroughly they came to dominate the region and how 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:38.840 decisively they were targeting specific key revolutionary guard and other 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:40.360 military leaders. 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:45.280 One hundred percent. We had been hearing about Israeli planning 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:49.680 for a potential strike against Iran for about the larger 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:52.120 part of the last twenty five years. And we know 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:55.920 that in that period Israel has attacked serious nuclear reactor. 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:57.800 You and I have spoken about this in the past, 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:01.840 and Israel back in nineteen eighty one famously destroyed the 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:05.520 oc Rak reactor outside of Baghdad that Sadam Hussein was building. 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:07.400 But for Iran it was really it was a long 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:12.280 time of planning and of Israel considering its options and 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:16.599 really preferring diplomacy. But over the years it perfected a 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:20.120 strike package, really the likes of something that I don't 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:22.240 think we ever could have imagined. I mean, if we 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:25.640 look at what happened on June thirteenth, when Israel launched 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:30.320 its attack, it split up its targets into three different categories. 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:34.200 Category number one was taking out all the air defense 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:38.720 systems in Iran, basically open up the skies, take control 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:43.240 of Iranian airspace. I call it not aeriel superiority. Aerial 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:46.599 sovereignty is what Israel created over Iran by taking out 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:50.360 all of the missile defense systems, all the radar installations. 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:52.960 Basically what it allowed for. I mean, think about this. 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:58.320 We had twelve days of operations over fifteen hundred Israeli 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:02.520 Air Force sorties over Iran, not a single plane shot down. 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:05.640 I mean, it's remarkable, right when you think about what 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:08.400 Israel was up against in the run up to all 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:11.800 of this, so that itself is a remarkable accomplishment. The 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:18.240 second category was the ballistic missile stockpiles and launchers. Iran 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:21.400 does not have an air force. Its air force is outdated, 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:24.680 it's antiqued. It's based on old planes that have bought 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.800 from the United States, like phantoms back in the nineteen seventies, 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:30.800 before the Islamic Revolution in seventy nine. It's got some 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:34.839 Russian aircraft, but nothing that really presents a challenge to 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:38.480 a formidable air force like the Israeli one. So what 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:42.560 they had invested all of their money and scientific research 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:46.400 in was ballistic missiles, and they've developed sophisticated ballistic missiles. 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:49.839 Before this operation they had about three thousand of them 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:55.360 and maybe another five six hundred launchers. And by the way, 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:59.320 they had planned to launch hundreds of ballistic missiles at 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:03.040 a time. It is in total, over twelve days, they 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:06.520 were able to fire five hundred missiles into Israel, ninety 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:11.000 percent of those intercepted by Israeli missile defense systems backed 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:14.159 by the American THAD that had been deployed here already 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:18.479 during the war that erupted after October seven, and Age's 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.840 ships that were also docked off the coast of Israel 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:24.520 and the Mediterranean, the East med that also helped in 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:28.880 the interceptions. So you saw also the degrading and the 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:33.560 weakening of their missile capability. Within that category was also 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:38.800 this remarkable operation called Operation Narnia, where the Israeli Air Forced, 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:41.960 together with its intelligence services, took out in the span 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:45.560 of just a few minutes, fifteen of the top nuclear 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:48.800 scientists in Iran, the ones who were working on the 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:53.279 most sophisticated and complicated components of a nuclear weapon, as 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:57.159 well as commander of the Iranian Military, commander of the 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:00.520 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IERGC, command of the Air 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:03.479 Defense Systems, commander of the Air Force, and a bunch 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:07.920 of slew of other top military commanders. Over twenty top 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:12.040 military commanders in Iran knocked off. What that does is 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:15.080 it disrupts. It creates chaos in the whole chain of 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:19.000 command and in the command and control system. So who 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:21.280 gives the orders? What do we do who attacks, how 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:23.880 do we attack? And then, of course was the third category. 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:29.520 Once you created aerial sovereignty, once you've disrupted their offensive 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:33.720 capabilities and their ability to command and control themselves, then 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:36.800 the Israel started to go after the nuclear sites. And 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:40.080 again it's focus, and this is important for people to understand, 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:44.760 its focus was not on removing Iran's nuclear program. There's 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:48.240 a reactor, for example, called Boucher, which is a nuclear 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:50.520 reactor that the Uranians still have. Israel to not attack 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:53.840 that reactor, that's a civilian energy reactor, let them have it. 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:59.000 Israel's focus was on the uranium enrichment program because that 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:02.200 has only one perpose, and that is for the purpose 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:05.920 of nuclear weapons. So it went after three key facilities, 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:08.720 the same ones that Donald Trump ordered the B twos 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:13.160 to bomb Natans. The main enrichment facility where thousands of 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:17.880 centrifuges are located in multiple chambers on multiple levels underground, 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:23.840 the four doaux facility, which Israel had difficulty penetrating on 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:25.840 its own, it was unclear how it was going to 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:29.800 do that. And the third facility is Isfahan where they 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.760 did the uranium conversion. So they took the raw uranium 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:35.679 turned it into the gas that was fed to the centrifuges, 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:39.240 got it back from the centrifuges, and eventually would have 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:41.720 turned it into the metal, which is what would make 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:44.520 a nuclear bomb. So those three categories and you look 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:46.880 at what Israel was able to do. It's a pretty 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:48.280 remarkable operation. 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:53.200 Given the Israeli air dominance. To what extent did you 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:56.920 actually need the US to come in with his very 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:57.640 heavy bombs. 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:07.400 Look, Israel has very impressive capabilities, but Israel's aircraft and 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:13.120 its bombs, its bunker busters, are not the most advanced 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:15.679 in the world. The most advanced in the world are 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:18.880 the B two bombers and the GBU fifty sevens, what 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:22.480 are also known as the MOPS. The massive ordinance penetrator. 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:25.840 It's about a thirteen ton bomb that has the ability 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:29.040 to penetrate as deep as about one hundred feet if 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:33.199 not more. The four Daux facility, which is built into 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:36.200 a mountain, and it's unclear exactly how deep down it is. 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:39.680 The Ranians don't exactly publish their blueprints online, but we 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:42.600 have heard from Raphael Grossi, who is the Director General 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:45.160 of the IEA, the UNS nuclear watchdog. He has said 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:49.400 that it's about half a mile underground. Other intelligence estimates 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.880 talk about it being anywhere from about you know, eighty 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:56.240 ninety to one hundred and fifty meters, so about let's say, 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:59.600 you know, two hundred yards or so underground. Whatever it is, 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:03.240 it's very deep into a mountain top. What we've seen 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:05.520 if we look at satellite images, we see that there 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:08.800 are access roads, two access roads that go into a mountain, 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:14.080 but then the facilities deeper inside the mountain. So how 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:17.720 to penetrate a mountain is not something that's so easy 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:21.360 to do. That's number one. Number two is Natans Well. 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:25.280 Israel's bunker busters were able to penetrate definitely the first 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:29.559 levels of the underground chambers. There was the lowest level 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:32.719 that there were some questions of whether Israeli bombs were 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:35.600 able to get in there. One thing that Israel did do, 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:38.800 and the IAEA even said this, was that Israel bombed 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:42.520 the power plant that was feeding the electrical current to 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:47.120 the centrifuges in Natans, and that likely caused damage to 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:51.000 the centrifuges themselves. Just so people understand, centrifuges these kind 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:56.319 of steel, round, circular looking machines where the uranium spins around. 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:59.560 They're very delicate, so any little change to their motor 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:02.920 or their rodder, or even the electrical current could knock 0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:07.400 them out. But it's all better to have complete destruction. 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:11.360 And as the President himself has said, the B two bombers, 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.679 together with the Israelis, succeeded in obliterating. So after all 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:17.760 the damage that Israel did came the B two bombers. 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:20.839 They dropped a dozen there were seven in total, six 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:25.000 of them each carrying two bombs. Two GBU fifty seven 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:30.360 six dropped their twelve payload of bombs into the mountain 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:34.000 where four dose located. One of the aircraft dropped two 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:37.960 bombs into Natans, and then the Tomahawks were fired, also 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:41.240 at Natans, but also at Isfahan. Again, we don't have 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:44.800 images of what's happening inside, and the Ranis of course 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:47.280 wanted downplay it and pretend as if the damage was 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:50.240 not extensive. But when you look at the satellite imagery 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:53.360 and you see literally like someone punctured a hole in 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:56.320 a mountain, you can just imagine what's going on beneath 0:11:56.360 --> 0:12:01.079 that and underground and Israeli intelligence assessment for what they're worth, 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:03.720 and I think they're worth something after what we've seen, 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:08.080 claimed that the destruction is extensive, that Iran's nuclear program 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:09.800 has been set back by a number of years. 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:32.920 Unlike the President, I frankly favor regime change because I 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:36.120 think as long as you have a theocratic dictatorship, the 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:38.959 chance death to America and death Israel, they're going to 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:40.200 come back and try to rebuild. 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:44.760 I totally agree with you, and I think that what 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:49.079 we have to keep in mind here is that while 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:56.439 Israel and America have destroyed infrastructure, buildings, underground facilities, they 0:12:56.480 --> 0:13:00.400 have not destroyed the ambition, the desire, the motive, evation, 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:03.360 and the ideology to obtain a nuclear weapon. And I'll 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:05.800 say even more than that, if I was the supreme 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:09.400 leader now of Iran, the Ayatola Ali Kramanai, and I 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.280 would say to myself, what is my lesson from this 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:16.040 whole experience. I need nuclear weapons because nuclear weapons would 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:19.880 give me immunity. Why has no one ever attacked Pyongyang, 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:23.960 North Korea because they have nuclear weapons so they have immunity. 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:27.680 Why has the world not been able to enforce a 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:30.600 no fly zone over Ukraine in the war with Russia 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:34.360 because Russia has nuclear weapons? So if I'm Kramenai, my 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:37.839 conclusion is I actually need to move faster to get 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:41.319 the nuclear weapons. And I'll say one other thing, mister speaker, 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:43.960 is that if we look at the two previous models 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:47.240 or examples when Israel took out nuclear reactors, one of 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:50.400 them was an eighty one, the Osirak reactor I mentioned 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:54.000 that was built for Iraq by the French in two 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:56.839 thousand and seven. The Al ki Bar reactor that Pashar 0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:59.760 al Assad was building in northeastern Syria was being built 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:03.600 for or Syria by North Korea. Once each of those 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:08.120 reactors was destroyed, for the Iraqis or the Syrians to rebuild, 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:11.200 they would have required the French again or the North 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:16.120 Koreans again. They did not have a domestic, indigenous scientific 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:21.600 or academic nuclear physicist infrastructure. They didn't have people of 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:23.080 their own who could do it, so they would need 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:25.280 to call up their friends and say, hey, can you come. 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:30.080 That's another level and layer of complexity and challenge Iran. 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:34.880 It's all local, domestic, indigenous. They have the knowledge now. Yes, 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:38.120 part of the delay is the fact that Israel handpicked 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:41.040 key nuclear scientists and took them out, and they have 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:44.280 been eliminated, and those people, let's say, were the centers 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:48.480 of excellence and the knowledge of certain components. That will 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:52.520 delay them. But knowledge also can be replaced because they 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:55.840 have the academic infrastructure, they have others who have some 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:58.960 of that knowledge, they'll be able to rebuild. So everything 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:02.240 can be rebuilt and everything can be replaced. So therefore, 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:07.239 we really have only two ways to get the Iranians 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:10.600 not to rebuild. One of them is exactly what you said. 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:14.560 It's regime change. It's for the Iranian people to rise 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:18.720 up and topple this violent, oppressive regime. By the way 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:21.920 we've seen over the years, how they have tried right. 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:23.960 This isn't They're not doing a favor to Israel or 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:27.120 the United States. They want freedom because this regime is 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:31.480 violent and oppressive to them. Hangs people from cranes in 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:35.360 downtown Tehran because of a sexual preference, beats women on 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:37.880 the streets of Iran because they don't cover their hair 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:42.480 the right way with a head scarf, throws political dissonance journalists, 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:45.440 and the infamous ev In prison that is rolled by 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:47.640 the way bomb the gates of it during this operation, 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:51.440 just as a symbolic message to the Iranian people. But 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:56.480 hopefully the Iranian people will be able to take advantage 0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:58.760 of this opportunity, will gain some confidence to do that. 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:02.400 But there's also one other all alternative, another option per 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:06.040 se to try to prevent this rebuilding, and that is 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:08.520 a new nuclear deal. And we're starting to see and 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:12.680 hear that the President has dispatched his envoy to the 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:17.200 Middle East, Steve Whitcoff, to try and get those talks again, 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:20.360 going with the Iranian foreign minister. They had held five 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:24.040 rounds of negotiations prior to June thirteenth Winters who launched 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:27.720 its attack, and a new deal which Iran comes too weaker, 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:31.640 could potentially get Iran to agree to a deal that 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:33.840 they won't have enrichment in Iran. And if that happens, 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:35.880 that they don't have enrichment in Iran, we will have 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:39.760 bought a longer period and have created a safer and 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:40.880 more stable Middle East. 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:43.880 Do you think there's any possibility as part of this 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:48.280 conversation that they can be convinced to cut off their 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:50.760 support for their various puppets. 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:55.600 I hope, because the people tend to and this is 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:57.880 an important point you're making. People tend to think about 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:02.360 Iran just through the prism of their nuclear program. But 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:05.280 the fact is that Iran is also the greatest state 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:08.760 sponsor of terrorism. I mean what Israel came under attack 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:12.520 on October seventh when the Hamas invaded this country. Of course, 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:16.880 it was a great failure by Israel's intelligence services, by 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:21.159 the military, by the government for enacting policies that were wrong, 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:24.200 and we now know they were wrong. But this was 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:28.679 orchestrated by Iran when his BLAT's most important proxy, the 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:32.919 one that had invested billions every year into started firing 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:35.760 missiles the next day, on October eighth. This was also 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:39.200 per the instructions of the Iranian patrons and the Huthis. 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:43.120 As we're recording this, mister speaker, just a few hours ago, 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:46.800 there was a boothy missile and UAV that was intercepted 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:49.080 on its way to Israel. So we're after a ceasefire 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:54.000 and its proxy in Yemen is still launching projectiles and 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:57.600 explosive drones at this country. I would hope that that 0:17:57.640 --> 0:17:59.920 will be part of any negotiation. I would hope that 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:03.080 to be part of any talk that will happen. But 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:06.760 I also think that word today in a new Middle 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:10.560 East October seventh was a great failure. But that's only 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:14.160 one side of the coin. In the post October seventh reality, 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:17.320 Israel has re engineered the Middle East. Let's look at 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:22.639 what's happened. His Billah is beaten back. It's leader hasan astrala. 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:26.359 He was like the Bin Laden of this region, the 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:31.040 most infamous, deadliest, ruthless terrorist leader. He was killed, His 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:34.439 successor was killed. His successor's successor was killed by Israel. 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:37.800 They lost their long range missile capability, and everyone by 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:40.479 now knows about the famous beeper attack that the Israeli 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:44.919 Mossad launched against his Blah Camas, which unfortunately still holds 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:48.240 our hostages. But Camas has been beaten. It has no 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:52.920 real capability to launch an attack inside Israel. And even 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:56.119 during a war with Iran over twelve days, his block 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:58.240 comes out in public. He says, you know what, we're 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:00.639 not getting involved. Who would have imagined that was possible. 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:02.359 I mean, I've been writing about this stuff for twenty 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:05.439 five years. Okay, every briefing I would go to in 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:08.320 the Israeli military and the Israeli intelligence offices, they would 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:11.000 always say, look, when we attack Iran, it's a fate 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:13.280 complained that his blow is going to attack us too. Well, 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:15.639 that didn't happen, and not to mention by that, I 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:20.840 forgot to say, Asad's gone, his military's gone. Now you're right, 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:22.560 we have a new guy there. We don't know who 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:25.480 he is, Ahmed Shahra al Julani. Is he good? Is 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:28.359 he bad? He was a former al Kaeda jihadist. Time 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:32.359 will tell, but there's amazing opportunity to say so. Iran 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:35.800 is beat in badly, its proxies are weak, it's nuclear 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:40.320 program degraded. Hopefully this new deal would include all of 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:40.919 that together. 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:46.800 Don't you think the Sunni Arab states collectively we're all 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:48.920 delighted by this outcome. 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:53.199 Without a doubt. Publicly, we have to understand they have 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:56.560 public opinion, they have people on their streets. They're not 0:19:56.640 --> 0:20:00.320 always going to be the most pro Israel, so they 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:02.960 have to condemn and I think Israel understands that. But 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:06.200 privately speaking, I mean I can tell you just anecdotally, 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:09.879 I have spoken over the last two weeks since this 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:13.240 has been going on with people from states in the 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:15.640 golf that Israel has relations with, and with people from 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:17.840 states in the Golf that Israel does not have relations 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:25.320 with senior people who we're sending messages of support. We're 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:29.520 talking about enhancing and strengthening the relations with Israel at 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:33.359 a time that we're bombing in Iran because they understand 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:38.360 something very simple. Israel is doing work that they need 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:40.440 done because Iran is a threat to them, no less 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:43.040 than it is a threat to Israel. Iran tries to 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:48.000 undermine those Sunni states, the UAE, the Saudi's Bahrain Cutter, 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:53.560 all these other countries, Egypt and Jordan as well. Right, people, 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:56.439 this kind of flew under the radar. But Israel had 0:20:56.480 --> 0:20:59.720 to close its airspace during the twelve days of this operation, 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:02.879 couldn't really let planes take off, couldn't let planes land, 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:06.800 mostly because it knew that if the Iranians know that 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:10.040 Benurian Airport, our international airport near Tel Aviv is going 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:11.960 to be getting planes in and out, they'll hit it 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:15.000 with missiles, and God forbid one of those missiles hits 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:18.080 a plane, right, that would be very bad. So you 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:22.600 had about fifty sixty thousand Israelis going through the land 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:28.919 borders with Egypt and with Jordan quietly, peacefully, no problems. 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:31.240 I mean, these are Arab countries. Why aren't they closing 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:33.600 their borders with Israel during a time like this, right, 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:37.160 they should be standing with their Iranian allies. But that's 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:40.760 the truth. The Iranians are not their allies. The Iranians 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:45.040 are the dangerous actor in this region, and they understand it. 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:47.960 And I think that this is why this really has 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:52.240 so much immense opportunity. What has happened here, what it 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:54.920 presents us in this region, and where we can go 0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:57.200 from here. And this is really it's to the credit 0:21:57.200 --> 0:21:59.840 of Prime Minister Nitanio for taking this courageous decision, and 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:03.640 I think greatly to the credit of the President for 0:22:03.960 --> 0:22:07.080 deciding to join this and really send this collective message 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:11.439 to the world and especially to this region that we 0:22:11.520 --> 0:22:15.400 can build up so much amazing opportunities from here. 0:22:16.160 --> 0:22:18.479 I was doing Sean Hannity's radio show the other day 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:21.000 and he said that he had a whole number of 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:26.399 sources that said we had somehow managed to put non 0:22:26.440 --> 0:22:30.520 existent aircraft on the Iranian system, which I assumed was 0:22:30.520 --> 0:22:33.639 a cyber capability, so that they were actually looking at 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:36.480 airplanes that didn't exist when they couldn't see the airplanes 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:38.639 that did exist. And I thought all of that was 0:22:38.640 --> 0:22:40.719 just sort of the world that we're entering. 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:46.119 The technology that we've seen or we've heard of being 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:51.000 used and employed during the last twelve days, many stories 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:53.879 will still be written about it. The spoofing, that's what 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:57.240 Sean Hannity is talking about, of presenting on a radar 0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:02.080 machine something that doesn't really exist, is a capability that 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:04.800 Israel has developed over the years and is a way 0:23:04.840 --> 0:23:08.520 to blind your enemy so it does not know exactly 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:10.920 what's really happening, which aircraft are really coming, and then 0:23:11.080 --> 0:23:15.480 destroys your radar installations. But what we've seen also with 0:23:15.760 --> 0:23:19.240 the Mosad operation on the ground, in addition to the 0:23:19.280 --> 0:23:21.840 Israeli Air Force, which did a remarkable job, the Mossad 0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:27.280 had built up a network of agents in Iran who 0:23:27.480 --> 0:23:32.920 deployed drones. It had basically created a drone explosive factory 0:23:33.000 --> 0:23:35.960 in Iran, and these drones were deployed on that June 0:23:36.040 --> 0:23:40.320 thirteenth day and took out missile defense systems, took out 0:23:40.400 --> 0:23:44.439 radar systems, and took out other capabilities. And then also 0:23:45.200 --> 0:23:48.800 there were reports that the radians were spreading of white 0:23:48.800 --> 0:23:52.120 pickup trucks that were traveling throughout the streets of Tehran 0:23:52.840 --> 0:23:57.000 and were apparently dropping off explosive devices at the homes 0:23:57.040 --> 0:23:59.199 of different people. Now, even whether that's true or not 0:23:59.320 --> 0:24:03.040 about the truck, the fact that it sowed such fear 0:24:03.920 --> 0:24:07.520 within Iran tells you everything. And I've been asked a 0:24:07.560 --> 0:24:09.680 few times and I don't know the answer to this. 0:24:10.359 --> 0:24:14.760 Were these Israeli agents? Were the Iranians or were they 0:24:14.760 --> 0:24:18.159 someone else? I think what we have to assume, and 0:24:18.200 --> 0:24:20.879 you know this, Sir, is that with intelligence agencies like 0:24:20.920 --> 0:24:23.240 the CIA, like the MOSAD, like the really good ones, 0:24:23.720 --> 0:24:26.800