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Oct. 13, 2024 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
29:28
Larry Johnson :
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Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
Today is Monday, October 14th, 2024.
Larry Johnson will be with us in a minute with the latest on Israel and can Ukraine make it to Election Day?
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Larry Johnson, welcome here, my dear friend.
Always a pleasure to be with you.
There you are.
Okay, welcome here.
Over the weekend, the IDF announced that four IDF soldiers were killed and upwards of 68 injured in a drone attack on an IDF base in Israel down What can you tell us about this?
Is there military significance to it?
Is there political significance to this kind of a loss of Israeli military blood?
Well, from a military standpoint, I mean, it's war.
People get killed in war, and there's not four or five irreplaceable people.
We've seen with Hezbollah and the death of Nasrallah.
He's not irreplaceable.
I've heard that there were at least five dead, and the number of wounded goes up over 70. There's an interesting report out there claiming that the head of the Israeli army was actually at that facility and may have been one of the casualties.
There's no confirmation of that.
But when you hit a dining facility, people think they're safe.
And this is Hezbollah sending them a very clear message that Hezbollah is not defeated.
Hezbollah is not going away.
And it wasn't just the deaths at that facility.
There was also...
A couple of Israeli soldiers were killed trying to enter there.
There were another couple of Israeli soldiers killed down in Gaza.
So from that standpoint, as those death tolls mount, Because think back during our time, during the invasions in Iraq, and then Afghanistan.
Afghanistan came first, but then our 2003 invasion in Iraq.
We were getting maybe two to three killed every two or three days, and man, Americans were horrified.
You know, that was really nothing, but it carried a political cost.
And I think that's exactly what's going to start fueling more opposition to Bibi Netanyahu and his policies.
Because it's not just the ones who are getting killed.
It's those 70-plus who were wounded.
Some of them are going to be suffering life-changing, life-altering wounds.
Losing a limb, losing an eye, traumatic brain injury.
You know, this starts to spread throughout the society that they'll start asking themselves, is this worth the price?
Aren't these drones capable of being shot down, or do they elude Israeli radar?
Yes.
Yes to both, okay.
Yeah, they're capable of being shot down.
I mean, you know, it's not like they're flying at hypersonic speeds, but apparently they came in for the med.
So, you know, if you think the attack's coming from your front and you're so focused on the front, you get what's called tunnel vision, and you don't see the sucker punch coming from the side.
And that looks like exactly what Hezbollah did.
They threw a sucker punch.
And it appears that Hezbollah, like Iran, continues to aim exclusively at military and intelligence targets, not at civilians.
Correct.
And that's been the history of what we label as Iranian terrorism and Hezbollah terrorism.
They have not been, sort of their hallmark or their method of operation has not been to go out and just target civilians and inflict civilian casualties.
There was a period during, I think, the second intifada where for a while there were a large number of suicide bombings.
But that was turning world opinion against, I don't remember if it was Hamas or Hezbollah doing it, but they stopped because they came to realize it was counterproductive.
Their goal is to achieve independence and freedom from Israel's control.
And so to that end, they are taking political calculations about what is and is not an appropriate target.
That's why, you know, we...
But those were government military targets.
They were not civilian targets, per se, with a bunch of school kids on a bus going to school.
Quite different.
Or people in a supermarket or a hospital emergency room holding a pager in their hands.
Right, exactly.
The IDF is reported to have fired at UN peacekeepers.
What is the military and political significance of that?
I mean, the Security Council, with the United States agreeing, has said that UNIFIL can shoot back if somebody shoots at them.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, it's like, you know, think of it as a deadly football game.
And the referees out there on the middle of the field trying to keep you from killing each other.
That's UNIFIL.
And Israel wants the UNIFIL to get out of the way so it can try to kill as many of Hezbollah as possible and Lebanese in the process.
I guess, you know, we talked about this a little bit last week.
I guess there's a large contention to this UNIFIL mission are filled with the Irish.
A plucky lot they are.
And, you know, they're not willing to back down.
So, and this really...
They're threatening the UN.
They've already declared the head of the UN persona non grata to come into Israel.
And now they're telling the UN, get your peacekeeping forces out of there.
Well, that's why they're there.
They're a peacekeeping force, trying to keep the two sides apart so that they don't bloody each other up.
And Israel is just, they're out of control.
Here's Prime Minister Netanyahu and a message to the Secretary General.
Most of it is in Hebrew with a translation, and then he switches to English at the end.
There are some comments in here that I will ask you, Larry, if they're credible.
Chris, cut number one.
I would like to appeal directly to the UN Secretary General.
It's time for you to remove UNIFIL from Hezbollah's strongholds, and from the fighting areas.
The IDF has repeatedly asked for this, and has been met with repeated refusals, all aimed at providing a human shield to Hezbollah terrorists.
Your refusal to evacuate the UNIFIL soldiers makes them hostages of Hezbollah.
This endangers both of them and the lives of our soldiers.
We regret the injury to the UNIFIL soldiers, and we are doing everything in our power to prevent this injury.
But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is simply to get them out of the danger zone.
Mr. Secretary-General, get the UNIFIL forces out of harm's way.
It should be done right now, immediately.
You think the Secretary General believes him when he says we're doing everything in our power to prevent injuries of UNIFIL troops?
Oh, heavens no.
That's a lie.
Because you know how you prevent injuries?
You don't fire at them.
It's real simple.
You don't, you know, it's like you don't point a gun at somebody you don't intend to shoot.
But the Israelis fully, this was intimidation.
You know, they're acting like the mobsters coming into some guy's candy store.
And they start breaking things and saying, hey, you know how to stop having all this breakage is you give us some money.
The Israelis are nothing more than shakedown criminals in this case.
How fanatical.
You recently did a piece on this, which was captivating, Larry, on your Sonar 21 website.
How fanatical are the Zionists in...
Yeah, it is the Zionist mentality.
It's not just that Israel, Israel as we know it, must be safe and secure and free from terrorism.
That's the line they push.
That's their narrative.
But the reality is revealed by the finance minister.
Bezalel Smotrich, who being interviewed said, hey, we're going to take Lebanon as ours, Syria is ours, Jordan is ours, Saudi Arabia is ours.
These animals, as he refers to them, these subhumans, they've got to go.
So what he revealed was this Zionist mentality is this isn't about trying to secure Israel's current borders.
So that his people can be safe and they can have a nice bagel in the morning.
No.
This is about conquering the entire region, including Egypt.
Israel, these Zionists believe that they are empowered by God to take all this land and that all of these people that oppose them are the Amalek.
They are to be killed.
They are to be destroyed.
Doesn't matter whether it's women or children.
And it's not that Smotrich You know, he's not some guy that's escaped an insane asylum.
He's the finance minister.
His views are held by other people like Ben-Gavir, the Homeland Security Director for Israel and others.
We're talking about at least two to three million Israelis that hold these kinds of views, that see themselves as destined to control all.
Well, how could they possibly control Saudi Arabia?
And why would they possibly want to control Egypt?
Well, it's irrational.
That's what I'm saying.
These are the rantings of people who ought to be locked up in a psychiatric institution.
But the problem is they really believe their own rhetoric.
And so they believe that there will be some miracle from God.
Some intervention from the other world that will make all this possible for them without understanding the needs of, you know, as you point out, how do you control that kind of territory with all of those kinds of people when you're only a nation of 7 million people, tops?
And there probably is decline from that with people heading for the exit, trying to get out of Israel.
So it's madness, but it's important that people understand this is what they believe.
Because the narrative we get here in the United States is that, oh, Israel's a civilized country, and these uncivilized terrorist nations are threatening Israel.
And yet, I haven't heard, you know, those other nations have talked about getting rid of Israel.
Yes, some of them.
Because they recognize what a threat Israel is.
Because Israel is talking about eliminating all of them.
So, maybe the old saying, two wrongs don't make a right.
You've got wrong on both sides.
But what's going on right now is Israel is trying to expand the war, get the United States involved, and pursue its dream of taking control of Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia.
Last subject matter before we transition over to Ukraine, and we have a hot-off-the-press, just-articulated clip from President Zelensky to play when we get there in a minute.
The United States is sending missile defense called THAAD, T-H-A-A-D, equipment to Israel and 100 U.S. troops to operate it.
Are they a tripwire?
How dangerous is it to have U.S. troops on the ground manning anti-aircraft equipment that is certainly likely to be attacked by hypersonic missiles?
Yeah, you learn quickly in DOD, you can't have a weapon system without an acronym, THAAD, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System.
Okay.
And it doesn't work like the Patriot missile, where the Patriot missile can actually home in.
On a rocket and explode, it has an explosion capability.
This is just like a hard bullet.
It's designed to impact an incoming ballistic missile and cause it to disintegrate.
So yeah, putting U.S. forces on the ground, if Iran decides to target them in the event that Israel proceeds with its vow to attack Iran, then yeah, they may get killed.
And then the United States is going to face a choice.
Okay, oh, we're going to be upset.
We're going to make threats.
But what exactly are we going to do?
Okay?
We're the ones that could not stop the Houthis from shutting down the Red Sea.
So we need to stop thinking of ourselves as this undefeated heavyweight champion that nobody can lay a glove on.
Okay?
We may have been that one point in our prime.
We're past the prime.
We're overweight.
We're out of shape.
We've got really expensive systems that are very undermanned and underwomened.
And then all of a sudden, we have to extend our communications and logistics lines to try to attack Iran.
Good luck with that because we didn't learn our lesson in Iraq.
It took us six months to build up the ability to invade Iraq.
In 2003, and even then, it wasn't a cakewalk for us.
And the reason we did have relative easy success, though, we had bought off a bunch of the generals, and we had subverted the government, and the Iraqis didn't fight back in a coordinated, organized fashion.
That's not Iran.
Iran's just the opposite.
And so what we're witnessing is both Israel and the United States making groups.
Is the THOD state-of-the-art, high-end, desirable, or something else?
Hail Mary pass.
It's a, you know, let's put it this way.
If it was such great shakes, we would have deployed it to Ukraine already to stop all those Russian missiles.
Okay?
It's basic proven abilities on what they call short-range.
Missiles, rockets.
The mid-range, iffy.
So, you know, frankly, anything that Iran would be firing would be in that mid- to long-range category, which means that that's likely to be very ineffective.
But, you know, the purpose I think you alluded to in your original question is to put U.S. soldiers there in the presence so that when they get killed, we can feel the outrage against Iran.
And many can try to pursue this long-held dream to destroy Iran and bring back the Shah.
Transitioning to Ukraine, what is the latest in Kursk, and what is the latest with the advance of Russian troops westward?
The Kursk is a boa constrictor tightening its coil, and the Ukrainians are caught in its grip.
They have nowhere to go.
They have no way to flee.
And with the change of weather that has come now, with the rain starting, with the cold, colder nights, the physical creature comforts are making the Ukrainians an even more desperate situation.
And then all along the front, from north to south, the Russians are moving.
They're moving forward.
And the Ukrainians can't stop them.
Did the Russians enter into some new agreement with the Germans?
The Russians and the Germans?
Excuse me.
Excuse me.
That'd be interesting.
The Ukrainians and the Germans.
President Zelensky was just with Chancellor Scholz over the weekend.
Yeah, he got butkus.
Walked out.
Nothing.
Basically, the Germans are standing there like...
No change.
Here's what President Zelensky, who obviously has a different view than you do, but here's what he said.
Chris, the new sound on tape of President Zelensky.
But our partners have all the necessary potential, and it is entirely realistic to strengthen our state's positions, Ukraine's positions, in the way necessary for a just peace.
And we need to act right now to prevent Russia and its accomplices from adapting to our capabilities.
We see an increasing alliance between Russia and regimes like North Korea.
This is no longer just about transferring weapons.
It is actually about transferring people from North Korea to the occupying military forces.
Obviously, in such circumstances, our relations with partners need to develop further.
The front line needs more support.
When we talk about giving Ukraine greater long-range capabilities and more decisive supplies for our forces, it is not just a list of military equipment.
It is about increasing the pressure on the aggressor, pressure that will be stronger than what Russia can handle.
Are there North Korean troops in Ukraine fighting Ukrainian troops with Russians?
No, no.
This is another fabrication by the Ukrainian PSYOPs Division.
I think they're sitting around saying, man, what troops, what outside enemy can we put in there that's going to get the West really, oh my God, we've got to go help Ukraine stop it.
Oh yeah, the North Koreans!
Now, listen, I think Russia would be more than happy to have some North Koreans come over and get exposed and learn some combat fighting techniques.
But, you know, finding enough North Koreans that speak Russian and enough Russians to speak North Korean, you've got right away some language issues that would make integration of those forces difficult.
So, no, I think this was just one of those PSYOP things that was tossed out there, and then the Western media ran with it.
How thin is the ice on which the Ukrainian military is standing?
You want to have the fire rescue department with the lifeboats on shore.
They don't have long.
There's not a single area you can point to where they're able to say, You know what?
The Russians aren't killing as many of us this month.
Or we have tripled our recruiting goals.
My goodness, we're having to beat away people with sticks at the door.
They can't wait to join up.
None of that's happening.
You don't see the West going, you know what?
We got a ton of extra 155 millimeter shells.
We don't know what to do with them.
Would this be helpful to you guys?
No.
So the West is unable to provide artillery shells, the barrels on these howitzers that have been shot out so that they need to be replaced and they don't have replacements.
Tanks?
No.
Armored personnel carriers?
No.
And so the list goes on.
And even if those elements are provided, it still doesn't change the fundamental weakness of Ukraine.
Manpower.
Lack of trained manpower.
Can Ukraine make it to Election Day, Larry?
It's only three weeks away.
Yeah, I think they'll struggle on.
It'd be nice to see them suddenly collapse and bring an end to all the slaughter.
But I don't know if they'll make it, though, to Inauguration Day.
not knowing, of course, at this point, who is going to be inaugurated.
Let me take you back to Israel today.
entering the fray?
Or is it just Israel just going to keep killing whoever it keeps killing with all the help the United States can give it?
Wanton killing.
It's not controlled, it's out of control.
It's serving to actually unite groups that in the past didn't necessarily work together.
Remember, Hezbollah and Hamas were not like best buddies.
They didn't hang out together.
They actually came at it, the Hezbollah, the Shia movement, was really opposed to the Muslim brotherhood roots that Hamas had.
But now they're apparently thick as thieves.
The same goes for the Shia guerrilla insurgent groups operating in Iraq that have been targeting U.S. bases there, and then the Houthis.
So the Israelis really are their own worst enemy through their brutality.
And you know it's getting bad when even the New York Times puts a front-page story.
About the Israelis murdering children, deliberately shooting children in the head and in the chest.
Not one, not an accident here or there.
Deliberate targeting.
So in the New York Times, the so-called paper of record in the United States, and at least among the Jewish community that are in the policy world, when they come out with that, it tells you that the worm's starting to turn even here in the United States that Israel has overstepped.
Jeremy Lafredo, a highly regarded investigative reporter, there he is, for our friends at the Gray Zone, was detained for four days by the IDF, severely beaten, and his lawyers made an application before the Israeli equivalent of a federal judge who said release him immediately, and he was released.
He's required to stay in Israel until Saturday in case they develop any more evidence against him.
He's been accused, like all journalists who report what they see in the IDF, doesn't like it of collaborating with the enemy.
What are your thoughts on this?
So this war in Gaza has been raging now.
We're going to the 13th month.
In those 13 months, Israel has killed More journalists in 13 months than all the journalists who died in World War II covering both the war in Europe and the war in the Pacific.
And that was over six years.
Think about that.
This is a level of excessive brutality that is, you know, I don't want to say it's unprecedented.
Because we saw this from the Nazis, for example.
And I'm not making an idle comparison of Israel to the Nazis.
They literally are possessed of the same kind of ideological fury that permits them to believe that they are physically, genetically superior to these other people and that those other people have no right or no They must be eliminated, whether worked to death, starved to death, or executed.
And until America wakes up out of its slumber and realizes we're just the great enablers here.
You know, the other day Lloyd Austin told Israel, "Hey, you better leave the UN alone." And then what did he do?
Turn around and set them fast with some additional soldiers.
Anybody that's raised kids knows that when you send those kinds of mixed messages, you're given the kids license to become criminals.
The other side of this Jeremy Lafredo case is that he's as American as apple pie.
Yeah.
And what has the State Department done to free him?
Nothing.
You know, the Citizens Emergency Services branch in the State Department falls under consular services.
They're the ones who are supposed to be out there in the lead, intervening.
And to ensure that at least, you know, if Jeremy had broken a law, if he'd actually violated, committed some criminal act, that's one thing.
But the United States is in a position with Israel where it needs to go, you know, intervene and say, stop it.
Judge, we saw this same thing happen to Gonzalo Lira in Ukraine.
I mean, this is in a way parallel cases in that the State Department has enormous leverage over both Ukraine and Israel and refuses to use it.
Right.
Larry, thank you very much.
These are unpleasant topics, but you really help us to understand them.
We'll look forward to seeing you and youngster McGovern at the end of the week.
I'll be there tottering along.
All right.
Thank you, Larry.
All the best.
Coming up later today at 4 o 'clock Eastern, Scott Ritter, and at 5.30, originally 5, but now 5.30 Eastern, Professor Jeffrey Sachs.
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