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June 22, 2025 - The Ben Shapiro Show
42:49
BREAKING: Trump DESTROYS Iranian Nuclear Program!
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Well, folks, here we are, special weekend edition of the Ben Shapiro Show, and for an astonishing reason, on Sunday night in Iran, Saturday night Eastern time, the United States military, authorized by President Donald J. Trump, flew six B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, the most sophisticated bomber ever assembled, 37 hours from Missouri to Iran's nuclear facilities at Fordow, dropping some 12 massive ordnance penetrators, GBU-57s, capable of penetrating some 200 feet of rock each.
On the nuclear site and obliterating it.
According to the Wall Street Journal, quote, So, how bad is the impact?
Destroying the ventilation shafts could be a way to do major damage underground.
Each of the dozen GBU-57 bunker busters that hit Fordow carried four tons of TNT, according to Mick Mulroy, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East.
Again, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Satellite images collected by Maxar Technologies after the weekend attack show several large holes punched in a ridge over the underground installation.
Maxar also said entrances to it were blocked with dirt and debris after the U.S. dropped 12 GBU-57 massive ordnance penetrators each weighing 30,000 pounds for the first time in the history of warfare.
The surface was coated with a layer of blue-gray ash.
Now, again, worth noting here that we just dropped 30,000 pound bombs, 12 of them, down a shaft that from the air was the size of a washer.
If you've seen Top Gun Maverick, essentially it's that, except from 30,000 feet with the B-2.
Meanwhile, according to Ynet, U.S. Navy submarines launched approximately 30 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles from about 480 kilometers, 280 miles away, targeting the Natanz and Isfahan sites.
They had been previously damaged, but not irreversibly destroyed by Israeli attacks, according to Ynet.
So President Trump first took to Truth Social to explain he had authorized the destruction of the Iranian nuclear program.
He posted, quote, We have completed our very successful attack on the three nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan.
All planes are now outside of Iran airspace.
A full payload of bombs was dropped on the primary site Fordow.
All planes are safely on their way home.
Congratulations to our great American warriors.
There is not another military in the world that could have done this.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Which is becoming one of my favorite Trumpisms.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Because he certainly has everybody's attention.
He then explained that Fordo was gone.
And he added that this was, of course, a historic moment.
He posted, I will be giving an address to the nation at 10 p.m. at the White House regarding our very successful military operation in Iran.
This is an historic moment for the United States of America, Israel, and the world.
Iran must now agree to end this war.
Thank you.
Correct.
So then He was flanked by the Vice President, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Here's what the President had to say in its entirety.
Thank you very much.
A short time ago, the U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime, Fordo, Natanz and Esfahan.
Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise.
Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror.
Tonight I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular Military success.
Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.
Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace.
If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.
For 40 years, Iran has been saying, death to America, death to Israel.
They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs.
That was their specialty.
We lost over a thousand people and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate.
In particular, so many were killed by their general, Qasem Soleimani.
I decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen.
It will not continue.
I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.
We worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before.
And we've gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel.
I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they've done.
And most importantly, I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades.
Hopefully we will no longer need their services in this capacity.
I hope that's so.
I also want to congratulate the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Raisin Cain, spectacular general, and all of the brilliant military minds involved in this attack.
With all of that being said, this cannot continue.
There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days.
Remember, there are many targets left.
Tonight's was the most difficult of them all, by far, and perhaps the most lethal.
But if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed, and skill.
Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes.
There's no military in the world that could have done what we did tonight.
Not even close.
There has never been a military that could do what took place just a little while ago.
Tomorrow, General Cain, Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, will have a press conference at 8 a.m. at the Pentagon.
And I want to just thank everybody, and in particular, God.
I want to just say we love you, God, and we love our great military.
Protect them.
God bless.
The Middle East, God bless Israel, and God bless America.
Thank you very much.
That was the president's full statement.
Astonishing, astonishing stuff there.
Typical Trump, but like peak Trump.
The best.
Meanwhile, General Dan Raisin Cain of the Defense Department did hold a presser with the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, in which he detailed more information on what was called Operation Midnight Hammer.
This was Sunday morning.
At midnight Friday into Saturday morning, a large B-2 strike package comprised of bombers launched from the continental United States.
As part of a plan to maintain tactical surprise, part of the package proceeded to the west and into the Pacific as a decoy, a deception effort known only to an extremely small number of planners and key leaders here in Washington and in Tampa.
The main strike package comprised of seven B-2 Spirit bombers, each with two crew members, proceeded quietly to the east with minimal communications.
Throughout the 18-hour flight into the target area, the aircraft completed multiple in-flight refuelings.
Once over land, the B-2s linked up with escort and support aircraft in a complex Tightly timed maneuver requiring exact synchronization across multiple platforms in a narrow piece of airspace, all done with minimal communications.
At approximately 6.40 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, 2.10 a.m.
Iran time, the lead B-2 dropped two GBU-57 massive ordnance penetrator weapons on the first of several aim points at Fordow.
As the President stated last night, the remaining bombers then hit their targets as well, with a total of 14 mops dropped against two nuclear target areas.
All three Iranian nuclear infrastructure targets were struck between 6.40 p.m. and 7.05 p.m. Eastern Time.
Again, that's about 2.10 in the morning local time in Iran, with the Tomahawk missiles being the last to strike at Esfahan to ensure we retain the element of surprise.
An astonishing operation by the United States.
Military also on Sunday morning.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sounded off as well.
Tehran is certainly calculating the reality that planes flew from the middle of America and Missouri overnight, completely undetected over three of their most highly sensitive sites, and we were able to destroy nuclear capabilities, and our boys in those bombers are on their way home right now.
We believe that'll have a clear psychological impact on how they view the future, and we certainly hope they take the path of negotiated peace.
But I could not be more proud.
Let me be 100% clear.
President Trump has more spine, more intestinal fortitude, more cojones than any president of my lifetime.
By far, it's not close.
This, of course, is a historically courageous man.
If that was not clear from the moment he stood up during the last campaign, shaking his fist and yelling fight, fight, fight after being shot in the ear, President Trump is a man who has courage.
He said for decades, Iran would not have a nuclear weapon.
And then he kept his word.
And keeping your word is unbelievably rare.
Bill Clinton, 1995.
We are determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
George W. Bush, 2006.
Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.
Period.
Barack Obama, 2015.
I have stated that Iran will never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.
Joe Biden, 2022.
We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.
Donald J. Trump.
Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.
2025.
This is a man of courage who keeps his word with spine.
With true, unbelievable, heroic spine.
President Trump was already a historic figure, but he is now a seminal figure in both American history and in world history.
First, American history.
President Trump faced down a lot of haters, both Democratic America haters and their Republican horseshoe theory isolationist friends.
President Trump was never going to start World War III.
That was not what was going to happen here.
Anyone who told you that was going to happen was lying to you.
Because President Trump lives in the world.
He lives in the world of reality.
And he played this absolutely perfectly.
It is not possible for a president to have played this better.
President Trump was not dragged into a war.
He managed this with absolutely stunning professionalism, cleverness, with common sense.
He gave the Israelis the ability to do what they needed to do.
And then Israel did with unbelievable courage and innovation.
Israel cleared the skies.
Israel killed Iran's top generals.
Israel devastated their nuclear scientists.
And President Trump waited.
He offered Iran an off-ramp, and then another off-ramp, and then another off-ramp.
Off-ramps and off-ramps.
And then, when they didn't take it, he acted brilliantly with our unparalleled American military, the greatest military in the history of planet Earth, bar none, no second competitors.
In the face of those who believe, both left and right, that American involvement in the world is somehow the prime evil, the great driver of world suffering, that the world is somehow better off in the hands of the Chinese and the Russians and Iran going nuclear, he stood up.
He stood up to the morons like AOC on the left who proclaim that Trump himself is a Hitlerian threat to the world by standing up to a true Hitlerian threat to the world.
And he stood up.
To the dolts on the right who thought that they could somehow claim the movement Donald Trump built, the Make America Great Again movement, for themselves, painting Howard Zinn America-hating turd with a coating of MAGA language and then trying to pass it off as filet mignon.
He stood up to all of them, and he proved that America is great again, which brings us to world history.
America must be strong in the world.
We are the indispensable power.
We always were.
We must be.
And President Trump always understood that to make America great again, America would actually have to be great, which meant reestablishing a central principle.
Do not fuck with the United States of America on our core interests.
Do not do it.
Joe Biden destroyed that credibility.
He did so in Afghanistan.
He said don't.
And then every single person who could did.
Not anymore.
President Trump has reestablished American deterrence.
He has reestablished American strength.
He always said peace through strength.
And he always meant it.
This is because President Trump understands the most important things.
American power matters.
American credibility matters.
American honor matters.
And then there's the future of the world, because everything just changed.
The Middle East is now a very different place.
Israel?
Our closest ally in the Middle East, maybe in the world, is a regional power with the support of the United States.
The Abraham Accords are in the offing for Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Sunni world.
The United States is working closely with the Saudis, with the UAE, with Bahrain, with powers in the northern African sphere to join the Abraham Accords and with Iran on its heels, rocked, their nuclear program destroyed.
That is a possibility that would not have been thinkable just a couple of years ago.
Even more importantly, is now thinking twice about Taiwan.
Remember, China has been looking across that Taiwan Strait, thinking maybe we'll take Taiwan, maybe we'll take Taiwan, and maybe President Trump will do nothing.
Well, maybe they're having a second think now that President Trump has used some mops to drop them, some massive ordnance penetrators, to drop them on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Russia, which may have been casting its eyes at Northern Europe, at Eastern Europe, has to be thinking a little bit about what future expansionism would mean.
Because of President Trump.
He is truly an all-time historic figure.
He proved it again over the course of the last few weeks.
There has never been anyone quite like him.
There probably won't be again.
He thinks differently.
He acts differently.
And that is a magnificent, magnificent thing.
Folks, we'll get to more on this in just a moment.
First, of course, in these uncertain days, Israel faces attacks as war with Iran continues.
Families across Israel are living in fear.
They're wondering if the next siren will sound in their neighborhood.
Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, targeting nuclear and military sites deep inside Iran to prevent an existential threat while bracing for retaliation that is endangering hundreds, thousands, perhaps millions of innocent lives.
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Alrighty, so, let's talk about how this happened.
Obviously, there were divisions inside the administration.
There were rumors up to the day before the actual strike.
That there were members of the administration, particularly the vice president, who was not supporting the strike.
There was some suggestion that the vice president was pushing, saying the United States shouldn't be involved, suggesting the Israelis were going to drag the country into war.
Now, that's been denied by the vice president, by others in the room.
We know that there was a big fight inside the administration over the course of the last few weeks over the proper path forward.
President Trump did not waver on this thing.
Apparently, according to Axios, behind the scenes, President Trump's request was made directly to Benjamin Netanyahu.
Last week, the Netanyahu essentially cleared the airspace of Iran, take out particular air defense units in order to clear a path for the B-2.
Netanyahu apparently said, how can we help?
And Trump told Netanyahu he wanted the IAF, the Israeli Air Force, to eliminate as many Iranian air defense systems as possible in southern Iran to clear a path for incoming U.S. B-2 stealth bombers.
The U.S. then provided Israel with a list of air defense systems it wanted eliminated ahead of the strike, according to an Israeli official.
Apparently, according to Axios, An Israeli official told Axios, we did not press the United States to join the war.
We were careful not to create the impression that we are dragging the U.S. into a war.
But luckily for us, God hardened Pharaoh's heart.
That would be Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei.
He acted like an idiot and refused any proposal from the United States.
That is absolutely true, obviously.
Apparently, the president gave his final go-ahead for the strike a few hours before the actual strike.
A senior administration official said the goal was to create a situation when everyone wasn't expecting it, which is why presumably on Friday, as I talked about on the show, he said he would make a decision within two weeks.
As I said, the most likely scenario was this.
This was the most likely scenario.
Not to say I called it, but of course I did because President Trump has been very consistent in his approach right here.
His order to the military to proceed unleashed an operation that has been the focus of top secret planning, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Within hours, B-2 bombers penetrated Iranian airspace and dropped at least half a dozen bunker bombs on Iran's underground nuclear facility at Fordo.
And, as we say, U.S. attacks on Marines launched Tomahawk cruise missiles against sites in Isfahan as well as Natanz.
Apparently, the special envoy Steve Vudkov has now been authorized to talk with the Iranians, mainly so that he can hear their proposals for getting everyone to stop slamming the living hell out of them.
And the president has made very clear.
If Iran reacts the wrong way, there is more coming.
If Iran decides that they want to react by attacking the United States, if they wish to respond by closing the Straits of Hormuz, Again, for all of those who are claiming that this was all about regime change, that the United States was going to launch hundreds of thousands of troops into Iran the same way that we did in Iraq, that was always sheer absolute crap.
But strategically speaking, the reason that Ayatollah Khamenei is alive, beyond the fact that the United States doesn't feel like rebuilding the place, and wouldn't even if Ayatollah Khamenei were killed, because it would be up to the Iranian people to actually do that.
The reason for that is because there are a lot of things the United States can do to escalate this should Iran decide to escalate this.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke quickly after the president issued the airstrike.
And here's what he had to say.
Congratulations, President Trump.
Your bold decision to target Iran's nuclear facilities with the awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history.
In Operation Rising Line, Israel has done truly amazing things.
But in tonight's action against Iran's nuclear facilities, America has been truly unsurpassed.
It has done what no other country on earth could do.
History will record that President Trump acted to deny the world's most dangerous regime the world's most dangerous weapons.
His leadership today has created a pivot of history.
That can help lead the Middle East and beyond to a future of prosperity and peace.
President Trump and I often say, "Peace through strength." First comes strength, then comes peace.
And tonight, President Trump and the United States acted with a lot of strength.
President Trump, I thank you.
The people of Israel thank you.
The forces of civilization thank you.
God bless America.
God bless Israel.
And may God bless our unshakable alliance, our unbreakable faith.
Now, meanwhile, the Iranians are doing what they always do.
They're threatening fire and fury.
Now, to be clear, the reason that I'm making fun of that a little bit is because literally every night of this war so far, they've issued some public statement about how this will be a historic night that will be remembered for the rest of time.
And then they shoot off like 10 missiles at Israel.
So this idea that they are going to take on the number one military power on planet Earth after having their air defenses completely destroyed, their top general staff killed, all of their nuclear scientists dead, and their main nuclear facilities reduced to ash, I don't know, man.
I don't think that that's what's in the cards here.
Now, that doesn't mean that Iran can't do anything.
Iran could theoretically launch some terror attacks.
They could try to kill Westerners in small numbers elsewhere as a sort of symbolic gesture of how much they hate.
But the idea that they are a widespread threat at this point in time, after the defenestration of so much of their military capacity, again, that is highly unlikely, shall we say.
So Iran has been issuing all sorts of empty threats.
The Iranians have said that the United States will somehow pay.
They aired a map of U.S. military bases in the Middle East, and they declared, Mr. Trump, you started, we will end it.
That was on Iranian state TV.
Uh-huh.
If by end it, you mean your own regime.
Then good luck to you, and I hope that you enjoy what comes next.
President Trump made that very clear as well on Truth Social.
Any retaliation by Iran against the United States of America will be met with force far greater than what was witnessed tonight.
Thank you, Donald J. Trump, President of the United States.
Again, I enjoy his sign-off so much.
They really are enjoyable.
Like, people don't know who he is at this point.
He has to sign off with President of the United States.
Meanwhile, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, he made clear as well.
He says, listen, if you retaliate, you just won't be in power anymore.
If they want to target Americans in the region or around the world, there are many more targets inside of Iran.
So I cannot stress enough what President Trump has said, that they should not retaliate against our troops or American citizens anywhere if they want to continue in power.
We'll get to more on this in a moment.
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Okay, so what is Iran going to do?
Well, they have now announced that they are going to order the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Okay, so according to the New York Post...
The move, which could block $1 billion in oil shipments per day, is likely to send oil prices soaring.
Now, number one, as far as the United States is concerned, that actually in the short term, not wonderful because you have higher prices to pump.
But in the mid to long term, it's actually not quite terrible because one of the problems of the very low oil prices we've been seeing recently is that new drilling.
New fracking of wells, new drilling in the United States has actually stopped.
So a slightly higher oil price is good.
It's conducive to the American oil industry right now.
But there is a bigger problem with what Iran is doing.
And for that, we turn to our sponsors over at Perplexity.
So, quick question for Perplexity.
How much of China's oil is supplied via the Straits of Hormuz?
How much of the United States' oil is supplied via the Straits of Hormuz?
Because here's the thing.
The United States, we're pretty self-sufficient in terms of oil.
And Iran shutting off the Straits of Hormuz, it's going to hurt China way worse than it hurts us.
According to Perplexity, approximately 20 million barrels of oil per day, about 20% of global consumption, pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
Of the oil that transits Hormuz, 70-82% of all of it is destined for Asian markets.
China is the single largest recipient.
China, along with India, Japan, and South Korea, accounted for 67% of all crude oil and condensate flows through the strait in 2022 and the first half of 2023.
So, China bleeds first.
Analysts say if this is what happens, then actually the people who hit hardest are, wait for it, the Chinese.
That seems like a really stupid strategic move.
How about the United States?
Well, the United States imports That accounts for 3% of total U.S. petroleum liquids consumption.
Not 70 to 82%, 3%.
So, again, could that be a long-term problem in the same way that it's kind of a problem, that the Houthis have shut down the Red Sea?
Sure, that could be a problem.
Also, it could give Israel an excuse to just sink the Iranian Navy.
The fact is, the United States did that under Ronald Reagan in 1988.
The Iranians were making trouble, so Reagan just sank all of it.
It sounds like the Iranian Navy is the British Navy circa 1870 or something.
So, again, if this is the best they can do, first of all, it hits exactly the wrong people.
There are also no allies coming to the rescue of Iran at this point.
Perhaps the most astonishing headline of the weekend, other than the actual attack itself authorized by President Trump, was Hezbollah.
So Hezbollah, of course, was the supposedly massively powerful terrorist group that existed in Syria and Lebanon, armed with supposedly hundreds of thousands of highly targeted rockets aimed at Israeli skyscrapers.
And then Israel completely wiped them out in October of 2024.
There was the beeper operation of 2024.
There was the killing of Hassan Nasrallah.
There was the destruction of all of their stockpiles of weaponry.
there was the driving of them completely out of southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah getting hit so hard that they couldn't even...
So, Hezbollah has been asked by Iran, can you guys help, like, a little?
And Hezbollah's like, have fun, guys!
I hope you do great, yeah!
According to the Times of Israel, Hezbollah will not attack either Israel or the United States, after a spokesperson for the Iran-backed terror group told Newsweek, quote, Iran is a strong country capable of defending itself.
Logic dictates it can confront America and Israel.
Have fun!
You guys are doing great.
You can handle this all by your lonesomes.
That is because Hezbollah understands that if it were to get involved at this point, Israel would just go in and clock the living hell out of them.
Israel would finish them.
That would be the end of Hezbollah.
And the Lebanese government has essentially said as much.
Meanwhile, how about the Russians?
Well, the Russians are talking a lot.
So, the Russians are suggesting that somebody might move a nuclear warhead into Iran, like from abroad.
Apparently, the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Arahi, And Dmitry Medvedev,
Ex-Russia president and deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council said, Trump, who came in as a peacemaker president, has started a new war for the U.S. Yeah, I want to hear about peacemaking from the country that invaded Ukraine, thousands of people and hundreds of thousands of its own citizens.
He then suggested the enrichment of nuclear material.
And now we can say it outright.
The future production of nuclear weapons will continue and quote, a number of countries are ready to directly supply Iran with their own nuclear warheads.
No, you're not.
Stop it.
If Russia wanted to supply Iran with a nuclear warhead, they would have done so long ago.
They don't want Iran to have a nuclear warhead.
In fact, Vladimir Putin was asked directly about the situation.
He said, well, actually, it turns out a lot of Israeli citizens are Russian in origin and speak Russian.
And so we actually don't want to endanger those people.
So again, lots of empty threats coming from a lot of quite terrible people.
What does all of it amount to?
We'll have to wait and see.
However, let us just say that Iran is in the weakest position it has been.
Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and were they to lash out in too dramatic a fashion at Israel, the United States, any of the U.S.'s allies, things would get a whole hell of a lot worse.
The president made that quite clear.
Joining us on the line is Amit Segal.
He's the chief political analyst for Israel's leading news outlet, Channel 12 News, and author of the daily newsletter, It's Noon in Israel.
Amit, thanks so much for taking the time.
Really appreciate it.
Thanks, Ben.
Good night from Israel.
So, let's talk about what this means to Israel, that President Trump authorized the strike on Iran's Fordow facility, the nuclear facility buried under 90 meters of rock, using some of the most sophisticated planes and weaponry known to man, stuff that was only available to the United States.
First of all, what does it mean to Israel?
What does it mean to the world?
What does it mean for the United States that President Trump took, what I think is one of the bravest actions I've ever seen a president take?
I think it's the first time the United States of America has adopted the Begin Doctrine.
Begin is the late Prime Minister of Israel who in 1981 set the rule that there won't be a nuclear weapon in the Middle East.
And when Iraq tried to obtain a nuclear weapon, so he bombed it.
Ronald Reagan, the then president, condemned begging and even declared a temporary arms embargo.
So it's very, very...
The extent to which this prevents Iran's nuclear ambitions moving forward.
What comes next?
Obviously, every time Iran is hit, they then sound off and talk about fire and fury and how they're going to destroy everything in sight.
I think every single night of the war so far, they've issued some sort of statement about how it will be a historic night remembered forever.
And what they actually mean is that they will fire 10 missiles at Israel, eight of which will be shot down and two of which will fall in civilian areas.
So what does it mean when Iran is threatening, shaking its fist at the United States, threatening the Straits of Hormuz, threatening Israel?
So, they are trying to cause Israel the most severe damage.
That's what they can do.
It's not that they can escalate against Israel.
The only question is the United States.
Will they shut down the Hormuz area?
I'm not sure.
Will they try to kill Americans?
I think that President Trump and Secretary Rubio...
So I think, in my opinion, that they will try to do something symbolic unless Ayatollah Khamenei decided to go nuts and to actually end this regime.
Now, here's the thing.
We have a case in our history in which a dictator in the Middle East didn't understand a Republican U.S. president threatening him.
It was Saddam Hussein.
But Saddam Hussein could explain himself because he really didn't have a weapon of mass destruction.
Now, Ayatollah Khamenei knows that there was a reason why President Trump came after him.
So it would be extremely stupid for him to try and engage a war against the United States of America because he has only one level to escalate against U.S. troops.
The U.S. has a lot to escalate.
For instance, 85% of the Iranian economy are concentrated in one island and one port.
For instance, killing Khamenei himself in a bunker in northern Tehran, etc., etc.
So it would be a very, very stupid thing for Ayatollah Khamenei to do, which is exactly the reason why there is a suspicion he might try to do it.
So, I mean, when we look at what Israel does next year, how much longer this war lasts?
So President Trump made very clear this was his mission.
His mission is now accomplished, barring some sort of further action from the Iranians.
Israel, of course, continues to fly sorties because they're ballistic missiles that are still flying into Israel every single night.
So from Israel's perspective, how much longer does this mission last?
What does this look like?
Does this look more like Okay, so as for Israel, in a week or so, Israel is about to end its pile of targets in Iran, which includes the Iranians' nuclear facilities.
Almost 100% done.
The ballistic missile program, 75% done.
Israel eliminated two-thirds of the launchers and give or take one quarter of the ballistic missiles.
So once Israel eliminates 30, 40, 50 more launchers, it necessarily means that we can actually back to, give or take, normal routine in Israel.
So Prime Minister Netanyahu tonight said, This is an infamous policy that Israel has taken over the last decades against Hamas and Hezbollah, which said you can actually build your arsenal and recruit new tourists and build tunnels, but as long as you don't attack us, we won't attack you.
Now, it's the same policy, but different.
Because it's the same policy applied.
After Israel will have already eliminated their launchers and ballistic missiles and their nuclear program.
So it emanates from the fact that Israel is under the impression that Iran would not be able to sign a deal.
They have been humiliated too much.
They are too proud.
They will not be able to sign a deal.
Only sort of an undeclared ceasefire.
So, I mean, when we look at how this shapes the future for Israel, obviously the answer is in enormous ways.
Israel has completely reshuffled the deck in the Middle East.
you had said to most people after october 7th and the devastation of october 7th 2023 that fast forward a year and a half and israel would have essentially wiped out hezbollah so the point where hezbollah can't even get involved in this conflict that they hit hezbollah so hard that assad fell in syria clearing the skies for israeli highway like an air highway from tel aviv essentially to tehran that israel would have devastated hamas that israel would be flying clear sorties over iranian skies in the middle of the day for
What does that mean for the Abraham Accords?
And also, what does that mean for the Gaza Strip, where Israel is still attempting to finish off Hamas, restore its hostages?
Israel obviously has been using the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to disintermediate the United Nations and anyone else who's working for Hamas.
What does this mean for the immediate and midterm future for the state of Israel?
So first of all, it's an opportunity to reframe this war.
The horrific events of October 7, 2023 were not the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, but the Pearl Harbor in the regional war of Israel against Iran.
And this gives an explanation.
The leader of Hamas is not a state leader, but a division commander that actually rebelled his leadership in Tehran, thus invading Israel without notifying Tehran and Beirut.
And that's why Israel could overcome Pearl Harbor exactly the way Roosevelt overcame Pearl Harbor.
Defeating Iran following the defeat of Hezbollah and Syria would lead to a sort of new solutions in Gaza.
I'll give you one example, for instance.
And I know that Hamas leaders are horrified by the event.
It's as if an Israeli prime minister would wake up in the morning only to find out that China occupied Washington.
Now, here's the thing.
It can open a window for a total collapse of Hamas or for a total surrender of parts of Hamas or for something of an interim agreement in which Israel can actually save the perimeter and Philadelphia corridor and to have free access to Gaza if terrorist activity is coming back and death.
We'll actually wrap up the war with a peace agreement with Saudi Arabia, because Saudi Arabia would get the end of the Gaza war, and in exchange, it would give peace agreement with Israel.
That's, in my opinion, one of the scenarios that are feasible.
So, I mean, obviously, this is not just a triumph for Prime Minister Netanyahu and for Israel.
It's also a triumph for President Trump, who managed this as well as any world leader has managed a conflict.
He gave Prime Minister Netanyahu the green light.
Either before or after the actual strikes went forward.
He obviously had provided material support.
He never wavered in his support for Israel along this entire line.
He said that Israel needed to do what it had to do.
And then he said, okay, when it appears clear that the Israelis need some help finishing off Fordow, at least to not take whatever the risky option be, he then went and he did the thing.
It's an extraordinary act of spine by the President of the United States.
He changed the world.
He changed the Middle East in one stroke.
And honestly, I can't give too much credit for the president of the United States for making this move for both America and for civilization more broadly.
What's the feeling in Israel about President Trump right now?
Well, I used to say that Israel could have been the reddest state in the United States as he joined the United States as the 51st state.
It's something between Montana and Alabama.
Now I think it's even redder than what is the reddest state?
The most Republican one?
Montana maybe?
I think Kamala Harris shouldn't have registered to run here tomorrow morning.
It's something like 95% to 5%.
And I think Israel is so lucky that President Trump won.
You know, if you read the statements by senators like Chuck Schumer, who pretended to be a true friend of Israel, that pay lip service.
To say that Iran is a terrorist state and yet opposes this attack without the approval of Congress, as if Iranians wouldn't have listened to Congress, it would have been kept a secret.
So, President Trump is very popular in Israel right now, and he didn't have the October 7th failure to actually compensate for Netanyahu.
But this combination of President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu turns to be, I think, one of the most powerful alliances between a president and a prime minister, and in this case, for the benefit of the whole region.
He's chief political analyst for Israel's leading news outlet, Channel 12 News, author of the daily newsletter, It's New to Israel, which you should absolutely check out as well, his Telegram channel.
His stuff is really great.
Amit, thanks so much for the time and the coverage.
Thanks so much, Ben.
Well, folks, an absolutely historic weekend.
The President of the United States, again, unparalleled spine.
Just, I've never seen anything remotely like it in my political lifetime.
Good for him, good for America, good for Israel, obviously, good for the region, and good for the world.
The President just changed the course of world history in a dramatically positive way.
And really, thank you, Mr. President.
There's a reason that we all supported you.
There's a reason we backed you.
There's a reason I campaigned for you, Mr. President.
Thank you for doing the right thing again.
Alrighty, folks.
We've reached the end of the show.
We'll be back here tomorrow with much more.
I'm Ben Shapiro.
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