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Sept. 2, 2024 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
23:59
Matt Hoh : Israel In Crisis
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Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
Today is Tuesday, September 3rd, 2024.
Matt Ho is here on Israel in Crisis and a little bit on the latest news with the attack on the military school in Ukraine.
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Matt Ho, welcome here, my dear friend.
I do want to talk to you at some length on the Israel in crisis, a lot of which seems to have come to a head over the weekend and is still coming to a head.
But before we do, the latest news on the international front is the attack earlier today using apparently two ballistic missiles to destroy a military school in Pavlova.
Ukraine not far from Kiev at latest count 51 people are dead and more than 200 are injured among the dead apparently are Polish military instructors How do you view this?
Is this part of the slow, methodical, inexorable movement of President Putin's military?
Or is this a response to the Kiev incursion into Kursk?
I think it's the natural inertia of this war.
And thanks for having me on, Judge.
You know, this morning I read about this attack.
At the same time I was reading about Bloomberg was saying, reporting that the United States is going to provide what are called JASM.
Missiles, joint air-to-soft surface standoff missiles.
Depending on what type we give them, probably the older version, it's got a range of 250 miles.
Those are air-launched, so they'll go with the F-16s.
But this, of course, is the latest wonder weapon.
And so, you know, you see how these two things go hand in hand, how this, you know, continued escalation or the increase in targeting of facilities that previously had not been hit before.
We really haven't seen the Russians hit these soft military targets.
We've seen them hit marshalling areas, logistics points.
But to my knowledge, we haven't seen them hit things such as schoolhouses, which is essentially this is a military schoolhouse like we have.
And so the fact that this came the same day as this announcement from Bloomberg that the U.S. be providing these JASM missiles to Ukraine, you know, again, it goes it goes hand in glove.
I believe so.
I mean, in the sense that it is uniformed, it is military.
If you look at a lot of commentary in the Western press, they'll talk about the surrounding damage because this military school, which is a communications school, was in a civilian area.
Which is how these things generally are, unless you have them on a large secluded base like we have here in the U.S. You know, you have these schools oftentimes that are co-mingled with civilian infrastructure.
And so in this case, when these two ballistic missiles hit this military school, there was resulting damage to the surrounding neighborhood, which I believe included a hospital of some sort.
I mean, and this is the danger that we're in, in the sense of seeing this war as it continues on.
Where if you're in this type of status quo, where neither side can throw a punch to knock the other side out.
And to be clear, even if the Russians advance all the way to the Nipah River, and so they control the river from Kurson to south all the way to Kiev in the north, they still have not knocked Ukraine out.
So it's essentially a stalemate.
This goes right into the hands of those who want this war.
Those who's not just their profits.
But their souls depend on this type of war.
People like Boris Johnson, people like Lindsey Graham, right?
I mean, so this idea that you get to a point where even either what we're seeing right now or have been seeing for the last couple of years, small advances, short advances, you know, a continual type of war of attrition, but ultimately with no way to knock the other side out, unless, of course, for the Ukrainians, they lose their funding.
Which doesn't appear likely anytime soon.
You know, you have this fear that it develops into what essentially the Iran-Iraq war.
into, which was a war of cities where because neither side could knock the other side out militarily, they descended upon each other's cities in terms of launching missile attacks from one another, missile attacks at each other.
And as a warning to our neoconservative friends out there, that's where the root of the Iranian ballistic missile program come but also that has long lasting consequences that you then have to deal with decades from now.
One of the things also too, I read this morning was that the, So you have an Iranian ballistic missile program, as well as an Iranian defense industry, that even though it is under the threat of a war with Israel and the United States, has so much capacity.
It has so much surplus that they're able to give their missiles to Russia, just as they've been doing with the drones.
So, I mean, there's all types of stories involved in all this that should be taken as warnings as to where this could go in the future.
It could happen in the past.
Is there any significance to the fact that Polish military officers, active-duty Polish military officers, were killed?
Yeah, I mean, absolutely, Judge, in the sense that this is a complex war.
This is not just a blue versus red conflict where there are only two sides.
This is a war from the Ukrainian side that requires the full support up to the point of Kruger's being pulled by the official armed services of NATO and, you know, of NATO armies.
The cursed concursion, as we've known for the last two and a half years, you've had a lot of European and American mercenaries, contractors, whatever you want to call them, over there working on behalf of Ukraine in a contract and a mercenary status.
If this is true about Polish officers in uniform being killed, that shows that the NATO countries were not keeping their forces.
Far removed from the front.
where this attack occurred, it's roughly about a third of the way from Kharkiv to Kyiv.
So, you know, it's not...
So, you know, you're seeing that the western armies, the NATO armies, are willing to put their people forward.
I think also they thought maybe that since it was a communications school, since it was in a civilian area, that it would be safe from attack.
And certainly the Russians have told them that's not the case.
One thing to mention, too, is that we have seen a large number of strikes coming from Ukraine.
Towards Russia, particularly in the last week or two, over the weekend, the Ukrainians launched a strike on Russia that involved about 150 drones.
And there have been many civilian casualties within Russia, not just in the Kursk region, but say in the Belgorod region, where just, you know, over the weekend, a childcare center was hit.
So you have these effects of this Ukrainian determination to cause harm to the Russians and some, again, this whole master plan that we're going to make things so stressful for the Russians that they're going to rise up and overthrow Vladimir Putin and his government.
And the reality is, as we know, that's not what happens.
What it does is it sets people further in their determination to support their government and to defeat the enemy.
How much of a...
I don't know how they could stay in BRICS and NATO at the same time.
Yeah, I mean, I think the Turks, like many others in the region, many others around the world, understand that you need to begin making moves now for the post-American empire future.
And certainly anyone with any sense in their head.
This is a good deal for me and my country.
And I think that's the way the Turks are looking at it.
So not just taking a bet that this is the best way to go forward, but also, too, just in the plain economics of it, the size of BRICS, the number of nations that want to attract to it, the behavior of the American.
And Americans and their vassal states, you know, driving people away.
I don't know if you saw it, Judge, about the fact that the United States stole the Venezuelan president's plane.
I mean, this type of like right outlaw, bandit, gangster behavior.
Why would anyone willingly be involved within a within a.
Correct.
So, I mean, it just makes sense that the terrorists would do this.
The stated purpose of that theft was because President Maduro So for that, the federal government sends a team of FBI agents and U.S. marshals to steal a Venezuelan plane that happens to be parked in the Dominican Republic.
And I don't get how that could possibly be justified in an American court of law.
I mean, and the Turks are major trading partners with the Russians.
As the United States launches these sanctions that we're going to cripple Russia, what if President Biden, he said something like, we're going to reduce the ruble to rubble or something like that.
You know, as they launched this massive sanction campaign that utterly failed.
Not only failed, in many ways, was counterproductive.
You saw these nations just increase their trade with Russia, India, of course, China, of course, Iran, but also Turkey.
So a member state of NATO, I'm pretty certain since its formation, the Turks are understanding the changing world.
They're understanding the dynamics that are pushing other countries to join.
To unify in order to present some type of hedge, some type of alternative to the existing structure.
And it's just not the American military structure, but it's the American economic structure.
Because the Americans, what we have done, because we have controlled the world financial system since World War II, since we were able to set up basically the computer system, the SWIFT system, that runs all the world's banking networks, because those things pass through the United States, we claim we have jurisdiction over the entire world.
So, you know, why would you want to be a part of a system like that?
So, you know, I'm just surprised more nations haven't applied for BRICS, even though there have been at least, what, a dozen more?
It's increased to, I think, BRICS has eight or nine members now, I think.
It has, I think Jeff Sachs said this morning, about 10% more GDP than the G7 has.
Correct, absolutely.
The G7 are supposedly the hoi polloi of the economic world, switching gears.
Israel appears to be in crisis.
Massive demonstrations outside of Prime Minister Netanyahu's home, a general strike which only lasted a day until the courts shut it down.
Public criticism by Mossad, leadership of Mossad Shin Bet and the IDF.
The president, The president of Israel, Herzog, not Netanyahu, has criticized Prime Minister Netanyahu for reintroducing again this effort to take over the judiciary.
Great Britain has decided to reduce the amount of arms it sends.
Okay, this is a lot in one question.
Let's start with Great Britain.
Is this political?
Is it symbolic?
Or is it significant?
That Great Britain is going to reduce the arms and equipment it sends to Israel.
It certainly aggravated Netanyahu.
It did.
It's ultimately insignificant in terms of the effect it has on the Israeli military.
I mean, the Israelis get about 70% of their weapons from the U.S., about 28% from the Germans, and then the other 1% or 2% comes from nations around the world.
And the fact that the British only –
most especially components for the F-35, you know, the F-35, which is dropping the 2,000-pound bombs, which are massacring whole families.
In Gaza, the British have said, no, you can still get those parts for those things.
We're going to ban whatever these items are.
But it is significant.
again, it shows the pressure that the Stoner government is under and considers.
Certainly, the Tory government would never have even countenanced this.
So while this is really a gesture, it's meaningless.
Of course, it upset the Israelis, but everything upsets the Israelis unless you do exactly what they say.
Even if you did exactly what Netanyahu would say, he'd still be upset with you.
I mean, so the...
So there is some significance there.
It's a single step, perhaps, in the right direction.
How precarious is Prime Minister Netanyahu at the moment?
The demonstrations against him were massive.
The public is siding with the Very legitimate, very legitimate argument made in Haaretz this morning that he killed the hostages, not personally pulled the triggers, but was responsible for their being killed by his intransigence during the negotiations.
Yeah.
And if people who are listening rather than watching like I do that, somebody could put that up.
So the headline, there was, as Israel erupts in anger, Netanyahu spins lies and sentences the hostages to death.
You know, could you imagine an American paper reporting or criticizing in such a way?
You know, and this is one thing I think we should know.
People are fed up, Matt.
You know this better than I. Yeah, I mean, I think what we have to remember, though.
In some ways, Netanyahu is still the most popular politician in Israel.
If you have a poll of the available politicians, available choices for the Israelis, Netanyahu comes at top.
Now, he comes out of top with less than a third of the support, but it shows that his base is really unshakable, that his base is really committed to this.
And so when I was watching...
They were not out there supporting a two-state settlement.
They're not out there protesting the genocide that's occurring.
Just out there over angerness over him.
over him and getting the hostages back.
I think even this weekend, And it was eight to one.
Eight of the cabinet members voted with Netanyahu saying, we're not moving our troops out, which is what Netanyahu said last night in a televised address.
We're not removing the troops from the Philadelphia Corridor.
You know, in that eight to one vote, the one who voted against that was the defense minister, Yoav Gallant.
And, you know, I think General Halebi, the IDF chief of staff, so the uniformed head of the military, you know, he let the cat out of the bag.
When Halebi said, why don't we just get this ceasefire for six weeks, get the hostages back, I'm paraphrasing, allow ourselves to refit and rest and reorganize, and then we can go back in.
So even those who are arguing against keeping troops there in the Philadelphia corridor are saying, just for the time being, just use it so that we can use this ceasefire for our purposes, get our people back home, as well as reorganize and refit the army.
But when I was watching these videos of all the people who are out in the streets and, you know, uh, uh, I mean, you're talking about an Israeli population, Israeli-Jewish population of, what, 7 or 8 million, and they get one-seventh, one-eighth of them out on the streets.
I wish we could do that here in the U.S. But you also have to remember, say there are three-quarters of a million Israelis out on the streets, you know, last day or so.
There are three-quarters of a million armed Israeli settlers who view those people as traitors.
Right?
Who view those people as betraying the cause of Israel.
Who believe those people are betraying their God.
And you know how this works, Judge, right?
For those types of people, the internal enemy, the traitors, are much more dangerous and have to be handled much more ruthlessly than the external enemy, the other.
Even if you're going to consider the other, you know, the Palestinians non-human, they are not as dangerous as the Israelis who are betraying us.
So I see that, you know, matching up with this type of, we've talked about this before, this idea that is Israel heading towards some kind of civil war?
And certainly if the commentary we've heard from Israelis who are speaking out about this, whether it's Major General Brick, right, we've talked about him, whether it's Ronan Barr, the current head of the Shin Bet.
Major General Brick had another op-ed in Hararetz today saying essentially the same thing, that we are making our own path towards self-destruction.
This is what they're getting at, is that we are tearing ourselves apart internally.
Ronan Barr's concern as the head of, you know, the Israel's, roughly Israel's FBI, was that, look, these Jewish settlers, these armed settlers are terrorists and we can't control this.
And at what point then these armed settlers who believe that they are their righteousness comes from God, going to start turning their weapons on Israelis who aren't behaving the way they want them to behave?
Does anyone think that Netanyahu is going to give up power so easily?
There were supposed to have been elections in October, and I've not seen anything much about that.
But it would be interesting to see what occurs if those elections don't go Netanyahu's way.
But it's important to remember that among Netanyahu's base, he still has his Great degree of support.
We certainly understand where he's thrown in.
Remember Judge five months ago, six months ago, when Benny Gantz was threatening to leave the war cabinet?
And it was kind of this question of which way is Netanyahu going to go?
Is he going to go with the religious right, with the Ben Gavirs and the Smotrises?
Or is he going to go with Gantz and Lapid and the other, you know, national security, militarist, nationalist types?
Well, we've seen where he's decided to go.
He's going with the religious right.
And so, you know, this showdown may be coming and it may be something that, you know, is going to be really horrible to watch.
And on top of all of that.
And as we see what's occurring in the West Bank, we now have a pretty good indication that is Israel going to start carrying out genocide, ethnic cleansing within certain parts of the West Bank in a slow motion?
Matt Ho, thank you very much, my dear friend.
A lot to digest, but your analysis, of course, is deeply appreciated.
We'll see you again next week.
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